Comparative Analysis of Statistical Thickness Models for the Determination of the External Specific Surface and the Surface of the Micropores of Materials: The Case of a Clay Concrete Stabilized Using Sugar Cane Molasses

In this work, four empirical models of statistical thickness, namely the models of Harkins and Jura, Hasley, Carbon Black and Jaroniec, were compared in order to determine the textural properties (external surface and surface of micropores) of a clay concrete without molasses and clay concretes stabilized with 8%, 12% and 16% molasses. The results obtained show that Hasley’s model can be used to obtain the external surfaces. However, it does not allow the surface of the micropores to be obtained, and is not suitable for the case of simple clay concrete (without molasses) and for clay concretes stabilized with molasses. The Carbon Black, Jaroniec and Harkins and Jura models can be used for clay concrete and stabilized clay concrete. However, the Carbon Black model is the most relevant for clay concrete and the Harkins and Jura model is for molasses-stabilized clay concrete. These last two models augur well for future research.

Micropores regulating enables advanced carbon sphere catalyst for Zn-air batteries

Energy conversion technologies like fuel cells and metal-air batteries require oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)electrocatalysts with low cost and high catalytic activity.Herein,N-doped carbon spheres(N-CS)with rich micropore structure have been synthesized by a facile two-step method,which includes the polymerization of pyrrole and formaldehyde and followed by a facile pyrolysis process.During the preparation,zinc chloride(ZnCl2)was utilized as a catalyst to promote polymerization and provide a hypersaline environment.In addition,the morphology,defect content and activity area of the resultant N-CS catalysts could be regulated by controlling the content of ZnCl2.The optimum N-CS-1 catalyst demonstrated much better catalytic activity and durability towards ORR in alkaline conditions than commercial 20 wt%Pt/C catalysts,of which the half-wave potential reached 0.844 V vs.RHE.When applied in the Zn-air batteries as cathode catalysts,N-CS-1 showed a maximum power density of 175 mW cm^(-2) and long-term discharging stability of over 150 h at 10 mA cm^(-2),which outperformed 20 wt%Pt/C.The excellent performance could be due to its ultrahigh specific surface area of 1757 m2 g
1 and rich micropore channels structure.Meanwhile,this work provides an efficient method to synthesize an ultrahigh surface porous carbon material,especially for catalyst application.

Characterizing the Micropores in Lacustrine Shales of the Late Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation of Southern Songliao Basin, NE China

Micropores of shale are significant to the gas content and production potential of shale, which has been verified in the research of marine shale gas; while, few studies have been conducted on lacustrine shales. This study collected 42 samples from three wells in the Late Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation of the southern Songliao Basin, NE China, and investigated these samples by the focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope(FIB–SEM) and nitrogen adsorption analysis techniques. Four types of micropores were identified in the samples, i.e., intergranular pore, intracellular pore, organic matter pore and microfracture. The pore structure type is characterized by open slit pores and "ink type" pores which are mainly 1.5–5 nm in diameter with mesopores as the main pores. The mesopores account for 74.01% of the pore volume and 54.68% of the pore surface area. Compared with the lacustrine shales from the Triassic Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin and Xujiahe Formation in the Sichuan Basin, the intergranular clay mineral interlayer pores are considered to be the main reservoir space for shale gas storage in the study area, followed by intraparticle pores, organic matter pores and microfractures. Maturity and micropore are the key controlling factors which affect the shale gas content of the Qingshankou Formation in southern Songliao Basin.

The nonlinear propagation of acoustic waves in a viscoelastic medium containing cylindrical micropores

Based on an equivalent medium approach, this paper presents a model describing the nonlinear propagation of acoustic waves in a viscoelastic medium containing cylindrical micropores. The influences of pores＇ nonlinear oscillations on sound attenuation, sound dispersion and an equivalent acoustic nonlinearity parameter are discussed. The calculated results show that the attenuation increases with an increasing volume fraction of micropores. The peak of sound velocity and attenuation occurs at the resonant frequency of the micropores while the peak of the equivalent acoustic nonlinearity parameter occurs at the half of the resonant frequency of the micropores. Furthermore, multiple scattering has been taken into account, which leads to a modification to the effective wave number in the equivalent medium approach. We find that these linear and nonlinear acoustic parameters need to be corrected when the volume fraction of micropores is larger than 0.1%.

Hyper-crosslinked Conjugated Microporous Polymers with Increased Micropores Promotes Confining Polymerization for Electromagnetic Absorption Application

Conjugated microporous polymers have excellent skeleton structures but poor electrical conductivity limits their applications in microwave absorption.To solve this problem,a strategy of molecular expansion and confining polymerization is proposed in this work to synthesize conductive hyper-crosslinked conjugated microporous polymer.The topology of the conjugated microporous polymer is changed into a three-dimensional skeleton structure with high specific surface area by using molecular expansion technique,and the controlled growth of polypyrrole in the channel constructs a unique network structure.The balance of excellent composite backbone structure,proper conductivity,attenuation capability and impedance matching enable the material to exhibit electromagnetic wave absorption performance.As a result,with low filler loading of 10 wt%,a strongest reflection loss of-52.68 d B and a maximum effective bandwidth of 5.76 GHz.Additionally,CST simulations of the radar scattering cross section have been carried out to verify the excellent material properties.This study provides new concepts for new conductive polymers and broadens the application of hyper-crosslinked conjugated microporous polymer in the field of electromagnetic wave absorption.

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)on the SMILE Mission

The Soft X-ray Imager(SXI)is part of the scientific payload of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer(SMILE)mission.SMILE is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency(ESA)and the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and is due for launch in 2025.SXI is a compact X-ray telescope with a wide field-of-view(FOV)capable of encompassing large portions of Earth’s magnetosphere from the vantage point of the SMILE orbit.SXI is sensitive to the soft X-rays produced by the Solar Wind Charge eXchange(SWCX)process produced when heavy ions of solar wind origin interact with neutral particles in Earth’s exosphere.SWCX provides a mechanism for boundary detection within the magnetosphere,such as the position of Earth’s magnetopause,because the solar wind heavy ions have a very low density in regions of closed magnetic field lines.The sensitivity of the SXI is such that it can potentially track movements of the magnetopause on timescales of a few minutes and the orbit of SMILE will enable such movements to be tracked for segments lasting many hours.SXI is led by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom(UK)with collaborating organisations on hardware,software and science support within the UK,Europe,China and the United States.

Effect of carbon material and surfactant on ink property and resulting surface cracks of fuel-cell microporous layers

Ensuring the consistency of electrode structure in proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells is highly desired yet challenging because of wide-existing and unguided cracks in the microporous layer(MPL). The first thing is to evaluate the homogeneity of MPL with cracks quantitatively. This paper proposes the homogeneity index of a full-scale MPL with an area of 50 cm~2, which is yet to be reported in the literature to our knowledge. Besides, the effects of the carbon material and surfactant on the ink and resulting MPL structure have been studied. The ink with a high network development degree produces an MPL with low crack density, but the ink with high PDI produces an MPL with low crack homogeneity. The polarity of the surfactant and the non-polarity of polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) are not mutually soluble,resulting in the heterogeneous PTFE distribution. The findings of this study provide guidelines for MPL fabrication.

Transport Properties of Fluids in Micropores by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

The transport properties of fluid argon in micropores, i.e. diffusivity and viscosity, were studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of pore width, temperature and density on diffusivity and viscosity were analyzed in micropores with pore widths from 0.8 to 4.0 nm. The results show that the diffusivity in micropores is much lower than the bulk diffusivity, and it decreases as the pore width decreases; but the viscosity in micropores is significantly larger than the bulk one, and it increases sharply in narrow micropores. The diffusivity in channel parallel direction is obviously larger than that in channel perpendicular direction. The temperature and density are important factors that obviously affect diffusivity and viscosity in micropores.

Influence of Thermal Temperature on the Structure and Sealed Micropores of Stabilized Polyacrylonitrile Fibers

Thermal stabilization is an important process in carbon fibers＇ production, during which the polyacryloni-trile fibers are heated from 180℃ to 280 ℃ in air. In this study, the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction,Fourier infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, small angle X-ray Scattering（SAXS） and mechanicaltensile tests. A new rule was suggested by the results of structural characterization for the cyclization, dehydrogena-tion and oxidation reactions that were observed to be drastic from 200 ℃ to 220 ℃, from 220 ℃ to 250 ℃, and inthe later period of the thermal stabilization reactions, respectively. The sizes, shapes and distributions of the sealedmicropores were obtained from the SAXS data. The breaking elongation was significantly affected by the drasticcyclization and dehydrogenation reactions. The breaking force was affected considerably by the bigger micropores,especially from 220 ℃ to 250 ℃, owing to the drastic dehydrogenation reactions.

Fabrication and Adsorption Properties of Hybrid Material with Micropores from SBA-15

A novel hybrid material with microporous structure was fabricated from SBA-15 with mesopores via silane modification and hydrolysis. Two kinds of pores with diameters of 6.5 and 1.9 nm were found in the hybrid material. Compared to that of SBA-15, the surface area of the hybrid material increased from 395.9 m2/g to 667.4 m2/g while its porous volume decreased. The new hybrid material was found to have high efficiency in removing NaCl from solution, and the maximum adsorption capacity of it was ca. 517.5 mg/g.

Healing Behavior of Micropores in Powder Metallurgy 316L Stainless Steel during Hot Forging and Heat Treatment

The healing behavior of micropores in powder metallurgy （P/M） 316L stainless steel during hot forging and subsequent heat treatment was studied. The results showed that hot forging can improve the homogeneity of the pore size and enhance the relative density of material in varying degree due to different forging temperatures. As a re- sult of deformation and diffusion bonding at high temperature, the irregular pores were spheroidized and finally turned into stable inner grain pores. The comparison of compression behavior between P/M and wrought dense mate rials has shown that the pores can either be the obstacles of dislocation movement or be the nucleation sites accelera- ting the reerystallization according to the difference of deformation temperatures.

Salt-Lake Basin Bedrock Weathered Crust Gas Reservoir in the Altun Mountains Front of the Qaidam Basin,Western China

The bedrock weathered crust in front of the Altun Mountains in the Qaidam Basin,western China,is different from others because this is a salt-lake basin,where saline water fluid infiltrates and is deposited in the overlying strata.A large amount of gypsum infills the bedrock weathered crust,and this has changed the pore structure.Using core observation,polarized light microscopy,electron probe,physical property analysis and field emission scanning electron microscopy experiments,the characteristics of the weathered bedrock have been studied.There are cracks and a small number of dissolved pores in the interior of the weathered crust.Matrix micropores are widely developed,especially the various matrix cracks formed by tectonics and weathering,as well as the stress characteristics of small dissolved pores,and physical properties such as porosity and permeability.This‘dual structure’developed in the bedrock is important for guiding the exploration of the lake basin bedrock for natural gas.

Porous Carbon Derived from Poplar Catkins and Its High-performance CO_(2)Capture

In order to deal with the increasingly serious environmental problems,it is important and necessary to lower the concentration of greenhouse gases,especially the CO_(2)gas.CO_(2)capture and storage are the relative suitable options for the reduction of these harmful gas concentration.Through the variation of mass ratio of KOH to bio-char,the as prepared active carbon PC-4 exhibits a higher specific surface area of 2491.57 cm^(3)·g^(−1),with the ultra-micropores of 0.5 and 1.2 nm.At 298 K/1 bar,the CO_(2)adsorption capacity of PC-4 also represents the highest value of 5.81 mmol/g.This work demonstrates that the both the pore size and the specific surface area are equally important to enhance the CO_(2)adsorption.This work provides a sustainable method to develop high efficiency waste-based adsorbents to deal with environmental issues of CO_(2)gas.

Gas‐phase fluorination of conjugated microporous polymer microspheres for effective interfacial stabilization in lithium metal anodes

Lithium(Li)metal anodes have attracted extensive attention due to their ultrahigh theoretical capacity and low potential.However,the uneven deposition of Li near the unstable electrode/electrolyte interfaces leads to the growth of Li dendrites and the degradation of active electrodes.Herein,we directly fluorinate alkyne-containing conjugated microporous polymers(ACMPs)microspheres with fluorine gas(F_(2))to introduce a novel fluorinated interlayer as an interfacial stabilizer in lithium metal batteries.Using density functional theory methods,it is found that as-prepared fluorinated ACMP(FACMP)has abundant partially ionic C–F bonds.The C–F bonds with electrochemical lability yield remarkable lithiophilicity during cycling.The in situ reactions between the active C–F bonds and Li ions enable transfer of lithium fluoride microcrystals to the solid electrolyte interphase(SEI)layers,guaranteeing effective ionic distribution and smooth Li deposition.Consequently,Li metal electrodes with the fluorinated interlayers demonstrate excellent cycling performances in both half-batteries and full cells with a lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide electrolyte as well as a nonfluorinated lithium bis(oxalate)borate electrolyte system.This strategy is highly significant in customizable SEI layers to stabilize electrode interfaces and ensure high utilization of Li metal anodes,especially in a nonfluorinated electrolyte.

Effect of Porogenic Agents on Properties of Microporous Mullite Aggregates

Microporous mullite aggregates were prepared from bauxite by dry pressing and firing at 1700℃for 3 h with corn starch,PMMA microspheres or rice husk powder as the porogenic agent.The effects of some porogenic agents and their additions(mass fraction of 0,5%,10%,15%and 20%,respectively)on the properties of the microporous mullite aggregates were analyzed by XRD,SEM and Image-Pro Plus software.The results show that the comprehensive performance of the sample with 10%rice husk powder is the best:the closed porosity is 7.1%;the bulk density is 2.63 g·cm^(-3);the compressive strength is 122 MPa;the median pore size is 15.16μm;and the thermal conductivity at 500℃is 2.30 W·m^(-1)·K^(-1).

Fabrication and Improving Properties of Lightweight Al_(2)O_(3)-MgO Castables for L adle Working Lining

Three lightweight Al_(2)O_(3)-MgO castables were fabricated with tabular alumina or microporous corundum as the aggregates,reactiveα-Al_(2)O_(3)micropowder,tabular alumina powder,and fused magnesia powder as the matrix,calcium aluminate cement as the binder,and MgO ultrafine powder(d50=5.4μm)and Al(OH)3 ultrafine powder(d50=8.2μm)as additives.The influence of aggregates and ultrafine powders on the properties,including pore size distribution,heat conductivity,thermal shock resistance,and slag resistance of lightweight refractory castables was investigated.The results show that the incorporation of microporous corundum reduces the bulk density of Al_(2)O_(3)-MgO castables,and MgO and Al(OH)3 ultrafine powders further increases the proportion of micropores in castables,which is beneficial to reducing the heat conductivity,and improving the thermal shock resistance and slag resistance of castables.Additionally,MgO ultrafine powder and Al(OH)3 ultrafine powder increase the fluidity and the strength of castables.

Three-dimensional characteristics of Fe-rich intermetal ics in gravity-cast Al-6Si alloys

Fe-rich intermetallics, especially β-Fe phase, usually forming in the microstructure of cast aluminum alloys, are very detrimental to mechanical properties. In the present work, the effects of Fe content on phase transformation and microstructures were analyzed using a 3D X-ray microscope. Based on the highresolution 3D X-ray computed tomography, the 3D characteristics of Fe-rich intermetallics and micropores in the gravity-cast Al-6 Si alloys with different Fe contents were investigated. In addition, the effect of intermetallics on the microporosity was discussed. The results show that with increasing the Fe content from 0.10 wt.% to 0.60 wt.%, the volume fraction of Fe-rich intermetallics and the volume of the largest size Fe-rich intermetallic increased, and the 3D morphology of intermetallics changed from fine flake to network aggregation. As the Fe contents increased, the shrinkage pores were characterized, which were rather complex due to the micropores promoted by the intermetallics interactions.

Preparation of Activated Carbons from Mongolian Lignite and Sub-Bituminous Coal by a Physical Method

Preparation of activated carbons by a physical activation technique is performed using the methods of coal pyrolysis and gasification at different temperatures. As increasing pyrolysis temperature from 520°C to 700°C, the yield of activated carbons from the Khuut (KH) sub-bituminous coal is lowered, and amount of micropores increases gradually;however there is no development of mesopores by the KH coal pyrolysis. When the KH coal has a small loss during its physical activation due to difficulty and inactivity of its macrostructure decomposition, the smaller porosity is developed in the resulting carbons. The Aduunchuluun (AD) lignite is activated by pyrolysis and gasification at the highest temperature of 700°C in the present study. It is identified that the gasification of AD lignite develops well a porous structure with the highest surface area of 522 m2/g which is three times larger than that (155 m2/g) of the activated carbon produced by pyrolysis of the same lignite. The IR and SEM analysis confirm a significant difference in chemical and structural changes between the AD, KH raw coals and corresponding carbon samples in the physical activation processes.

Acoustic Absorption Characteristics of Perforated Thin Plate with Air Jets and Cavity

The present paper focuses on the effect of air jets through a perforated thin plate on the characteristics of an acoustic absorption coefficient. We measured the flow rate, internal pressure, acoustic pressure, and transfer function by using an improved acoustic impedance tube. The normal incidence absorption coefficient was calculated from the measured transfer function using transfer function methods. As a result, the frequency characteristics of the acoustic absorption coefficient against the frequency showed a maximum value at the local frequency. The peak frequency of the acoustic absorption coefficient depended on the thickness of the background air space and the thickness of the perforated plate. As the flow rate increased through the micropores, the peak level of the acoustic absorption coefficient also increased until a flow rate of 80?l /min. As the flow rate further increased, the peak level of the acoustic absorption coefficient decreased and that of the high frequency band increased.

Fractal Characteristics of Microporous Adsorbents

The traditional version of the theory of volume filling of micropores was used for the estimation of the fractal dimension of microporous solids. For this purpose, the Dubinin’s integral equation was solved for infinite and limited integration limits. The results were applied to the adsorption of nitrogen (T = 78 K) on coal samples and Davisil F silica and to the adsorption of water (Т = 293 К) on lunar soil sample and on rice starch.