Deep eutectic solvents for separation and purification applications in critical metal metallurgy:Recent advances and perspectives

Solvent extraction,a separation and purification technology,is crucial in critical metal metallurgy.Organic solvents commonly used in solvent extraction exhibit disadvantages,such as high volatility,high toxicity,and flammability,causing a spectrum of hazards to human health and environmental safety.Neoteric solvents have been recognized as potential alternatives to these harmful organic solvents.In the past two decades,several neoteric solvents have been proposed,including ionic liquids(ILs)and deep eutectic solvents(DESs).DESs have gradually become the focus of green solvents owing to several advantages,namely,low toxicity,degradability,and low cost.In this critical review,their classification,formation mechanisms,preparation methods,characterization technologies,and special physicochemical properties based on the most recent advancements in research have been systematically described.Subsequently,the major separation and purification applications of DESs in critical metal metallurgy were comprehensively summarized.Finally,future opportunities and challenges of DESs were explored in the current research area.In conclusion,this review provides valuable insights for improving our overall understanding of DESs,and it holds important potential for expanding separation and purification applications in critical metal metallurgy.

Engineering of multiferroic BiFeO grain boundaries with head-to-head polarization configurations

Confined low dimensional charges with high density such as two-dimensional electron gas(2 DEG)at interfaces and charged domain walls in ferroelectrics show great potential to serve as functional elements in future nanoelectronics.However,stabilization and control of low dimensional charges is challenging,as they are usually subject to enormous depolarization fields.Here,we demonstrate a method to fabricate tunable charged interfaces with~77°,86°and 94°head-to-head polarization configurations in multiferroic Bi Fe O_(3) thin films by grain boundary engineering.The adjacent grains are cohesively bonded and the boundary is about 1 nm in width and devoid of any amorphous region.Remarkably,the polarization remains almost unchanged near the grain boundaries,indicating the polarization charges are well compensated,i.e.,there should be two-dimensional charge gas confined at grain boundaries.Adjusting the tilt angle of the grain boundaries enables tuning the angle of polarization configurations from 71°to 109°,which in turn allows the control of charge density at the grain boundaries.This general and feasible method opens new doors for the application of charged interfaces in next generation nanoelectronics.

Linear regression under model uncertainty

We reexamine the classical linear regression model when it is subject to two types of uncertainty:(i)some covariates are either missing or completely inaccessible,and(ii)the variance of the measurement error is undetermined and changing according to a mechanism unknown to the statistician.By following the recent theory of sublinear expectation,we propose to characterize such mean and variance uncertainty in the response variable by two specific nonlinear random variables,which encompass an infinite family of probability distributions for the response variable in the sense of(linear)classical probability theory.The approach enables a family of estimators under various loss functions for the regression parameter and the parameters related to model uncertainty.The consistency of the estimators is established under mild conditions in the data generation process.Three applications are introduced to assess the quality of the approach including a forecasting model for the S&P Index.