In-situ hydrocarbon formation and accumulation mechanisms of micro- and nano-scale pore-fracture in Gulong shale, Songliao Basin, NE China

By conducting experimental analyses, including thermal pyrolysis, micro-/nano-CT, argon-ion polishing field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D NMR), the Gulong shale oil in the Songliao Basin was investigated with respect to formation model, pore structure and accumulation mechanism. First, in the Gulong shale, there are a large number of pico-algae, nano-algae and dinoflagellates, which were formed in brackish water environment and constituted the hydrogen-rich oil source materials of shale. Second, most of the oil-generating materials of the Qingshankou Formation shale exist in the form of organo-clay complex. During organic matter thermal evolution, clay minerals had double effects of suppression and catalytic hydrogenation, which expanded shale oil window and increased light hydrocarbon yield. Third, the formation of storage space in the Gulong Shale was related to dissolution and hydrocarbon generation. With the diagenesis, micro-/nano-pores increased, pore diameter decreased and more bedding fractures appeared, which jointly gave rise to the unique reservoir with dual media (i.e. nano-scale pores and micro-scale bedding fractures) in the Gulong shale. Fourth, the micro-/nano-scale oil storage unit in the Gulong shale exhibits independent oil/gas occurrence phase, and shows that all-size pores contain oils, which occur in condensate state in micropores or in oil-gas two phase (or liquid) state in macropores/mesopores. The understanding about Gulong shale oil formation and accumulation mechanism has theoretical and practical significance for advancing continental shale oil exploration in China.

Visual Object Tracking and Servoing Control of a Nano-Scale Quadrotor:System,Algorithms,and Experiments

There are two main trends in the development of unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)technologies:miniaturization and intellectualization,in which realizing object tracking capabilities for a nano-scale UAV is one of the most challenging problems.In this paper,we present a visual object tracking and servoing control system utilizing a tailor-made 38 g nano-scale quadrotor.A lightweight visual module is integrated to enable object tracking capabilities,and a micro positioning deck is mounted to provide accurate pose estimation.In order to be robust against object appearance variations,a novel object tracking algorithm,denoted by RMCTer,is proposed,which integrates a powerful short-term tracking module and an efficient long-term processing module.In particular,the long-term processing module can provide additional object information and modify the short-term tracking model in a timely manner.Furthermore,a positionbased visual servoing control method is proposed for the quadrotor,where an adaptive tracking controller is designed by leveraging backstepping and adaptive techniques.Stable and accurate object tracking is achieved even under disturbances.Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the high accuracy and stability of the whole tracking system.

Nano-scaled metal powder improving tribological properties of lubricant

Cu nanoparticles were fabricated by ball milling with the anhydrous alcohol as dispersant. The size and figure of Cu nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy. The tribological properties of adding Cu and MoS2 nanoparticles to the pure grease were measured on MM-200 tester, compared with the single additive and pure grease. The results show the size of Cu nanoparticles is about 50 nm. The surface with lubricant added nanopowder as additive possesses a remarkable decrease in wear volume. The friction coefficient and wear volume of lubricant mixed with 5% copper and 30% disulfide molybdenum nanoparticles are 0.09 and 1.80mm3, respectively. This mixed additive can not only increase the ability of supporting heavy load but repair the microscopic channels and cracks on the wear surface. Under higher load and long period of time, this lubricant has the characteristics of self-repairing, occluding resistance and ability of enduring higher temperature.

Potential Applications of Nano-Scale Science and Technology in Geosciences and Experimental Studies of Nanometer-Sized Gold Adsorption on Minerals and Rocks

Potential applications of Nano-scale science and technology are discussed in mineralogy, ore deposits, cosmochemistry and environmental sciences. Adsorption of nanometersized gold was experimentally studied on a variety of minerals and rocks.

Numerical Analysis of the Adhesive Forces in Nano-Scale Structure

Nanohairs, which can be found on the epidermis of Tokay gecko’s toes, contribute to the adhesion by means of van der Waals force, capillary force, etc. This structure has inspired many researchers to fabricate the attachable nano-scale structures. However, the efficiency of artificial nano-scale structures is not reliable sufficiently. Moreover, the mechanical parameters related to the nano-hair attachment are not yet revealed qualitatively. The mechanical parameters which have influence on the ability of adhesive nano-hairs were investigated through numerical simulation in which only van der Waals force was considered. For the numerical analysis, finite element method was utilized and van der Waals force, assumed as 12-6 Lennard-Jones potential, was implemented as the body force term in the finite element formulation.

Aspects of Characterisation of Thin Coating Adhesion at the Nano-Scale

In response to current development of materials in nano-science.characterisation of thin coating adhesion ona nano-scale becomes one of the most important research areas,as new coatings get ever thinner and more technologically advanced.With a review of technology and mechanisms of evaluating the adhesion failure of coatings.three techniques,nano-im-pact,nano-scratch and nano-indentation techniques,for charactering the adhesion of thin coatings on a nano scale are described.Results of charactering the adhesion faliure of thin coatings using three different techniques indicate that the nano scratch and nano-indentation techniques are very useful tools particularly in charactering the performance of thin coatings under nano-abra sive wear conditions.However,results from these types of tests cannot be easily applied to predict the performance of coatings whose are subject to nano-erosive wear,cyclic nano-fatigue or multiple nano-impacts during service.Instead,results of the new dynamic testing technique。

Nano-scale Interfacial Friction Behavior between Two Kinds of Materials in MEMS Based on Molecular Dynamics Simulations

The aim of this article was to provide a systematic method to perform molecular dynamics simulation or evaluation for nano-scale interfacial friction behavior between two kinds of materials in MEMS design. Friction is an important factor affecting the performance and reliability of MEMS. The model of the nano-scale interfacial friction behavior between two kinds of materials was presented based on the Newton’s equations of motion. The Morse potential function was selected for the model. The improved Verlet algorithm was employed to resolve the model, the atom trajectories and the law of the interfacial friction behavior. Comparisons with experimental data in other paper confirm the validity of the model. Using the model it is possible to simulate or evaluate the importance of different factors for designing of the nano-scale interfacial friction behavior between two kinds of materials in MEMS.

Novel Nano-scale Overlay Alignment Method for Room-temperature Imprint Lithography

A novel nano-scale alignment technique based on Moiré signal for room-temperature imprint lithography in the submicron realm is proposed. The Moiré signals generated by a pair of quadruple gratings on two templates respectively are optically projected onto a photodetector array, then the detected Moiré signals are used to estimate the alignment errors in x and y directions. The experiment result indicates that complex differential Moiré signal is sensitive to relative displacement of the pair of marks than each single Moiré signal, and the alignment resolutions obtained in x and y directions are ±20nm(3σ) and ±24nm(3σ). They can meet the requirement of alignment accuracy for submicron imprint lithography.

Biased transportations in a spatially asymmetric system at the nano-scale under thermal noise

Under the theory of ratchet effect for mesoand macro-scale systems, the additional perturbation with a long time correlation and the breaking of spatial inversion symmetry are two main ingredients to bring unidirected transportations. With the help of a simple model system, we show that a spatially asymmetric system of the nano-scale length may induce biased transportations under thermal noise.

Optically controlled magnetic-field etching on the nano-scale

Electric and magnetic fields play an important role in both chemical and physical reactions.However,since the coupling efficiency between magnetic fields and electrons is low in comparison with that between electric fields and electrons in the visible wavelength region,the magnetic field is negligible in photo-induced reactions.Here,we performed photo-etching of ZrO_(2) nano-stripe structures,and identified an etching-property polarisation dependence.Specifically,the etching rate and etched profiles depend on the structure width.To evaluate this polarisation-dependent etching,we performed numerical calculations using a finite-difference time-domain method.Remarkably,the numerical results revealed that the polarisation-dependent etching properties were determined by the magnetic field distributions,rather than the electric field distributions.As nano-scale structures induce a localised magnetic field,the discovery of this etching dependence on the magnetic field is expected to introduce a new perspective on advanced nano-scale structure fabrication.

Design of a long range nano-scale resolution mechanism

This paper presents the development of a coarse-fine dual precision positioning stage to achieve long travel range and high accuracy.The fine stage is arranged in series with a coarse stage.The key in the fine stage design is the choice of a toggle mechanism for a tight mechanical loop with high stiffness and compactness.We designed the toggle mechanism for reduction of the displacement to suppress signal noises.The performance of the coarse and fine stages was verified with an optical encoder and capacitive sensor,respectively.The measurement results show that the dual mechanism has a travel range of 1 mm and resolution of 30 nm.

Precipitation strengthening of nano-scale TiC in a duplex low-density steel under near-rapid solidification

Precipitation strengthening of nano-scale TiC is a promising method to improve mechanical properties of Fe–16Mn–9Al–0.8C (wt.%) low-density steel. This work attempted to introduce nano-scale TiC precipitates by adding 1 wt.% Ti element. The experimental results show that these precipitates with the total fraction of about 2 vol.% were formed and no coarse precipitates were observed despite the high Ti addition. It was interesting that the polygonal and needle-shaped TiC precipitates were observed in γ-austenite and δ-ferrite, respectively. Ti addition also decreased the volume fraction of γ-austenite significantly. Correspondingly, the yield strength was increased, but the elongation was significantly decreased due to the significant decrease of γ-austenite. Comparing with the Ti-free steel, the formation of TiC precipitates was the main reason for the increase in yield strength of Ti-bearing steel, and TiC precipitates also led to a higher strain hardening index at the first deformation stage. TiC precipitates promoted the Orowan strengthening, resulting in a higher strain hardening capability than Ti-free steel reinforced by shearable κ-carbide.

Micro-/Nano-Scale Materials for Biochemical Analysis

Nanomaterials fabricated via soft lithography has provided many useful tools for biology. The most commonly used material in soft lithography is poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS).

Experimental observation of the nano-scale particles in geogas matters and its geological significance

The geogas collectors showing a geogas anomaly in field geogas prospecting and in simulation tests were selected for the observation under high resolution microscopy. The result demonstrates that the geogas matter is transported in the form of nano scale particles with a size of about \%N\% nm to \%N\%·10 nm, and accumulated into aggregations of 1\2 μm to \%N\%·10 μm, with globular and film shape, and the component of Cu, Zn, Cr, Au, Al, V, Si, Br, Cl, S, Ca, etc. Based on the knowledge of nano science and technique, the mechanism of the geogas prospecting and its significance in geology and mineral prospecting are discussed.

Relationship between nano-scale deformation of coal structure and metamorphic-deformed environments

There is a more consanguineous relation be-tween nano-scale deformation of coal structure and meta-morphic-deformed environment. In different metamor-phic-deformed environments, deformation in the coal struc-ture can occur not only at micro-scale, but also at nano-scale, and even leads to the change of molecular structure and nano-scale pore (<100 nm) structure. The latter is the main space absorbing coalbed methane. Through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and liquid–nitrogen absorption methods, the charac-teristics of macromolecular and nano-scale pore structures of coals in different metamorphic-deformed environments and deformational series of coals have been studied. By combin-ing with high-resolution transmission electron microcopy (HRTEM), the macromolecular and nano-scale pore struc-tures are also directly observed. These results demonstrate that the stacking Lc of the macromolecular BSU in tectonic coals increases quickly from the metamorphic-deformed environment of low rank coals to that of high rank coals. For different deformed tectonic coals, in the same metamor-phic-deformed environment, the difference of Lc is obvious. These changes reflect chiefly the difference of different tem-perature and stress effect of nano-scale deformation in tec-tonic coals. The factor of temperature plays a greater role in the increase of macromolecular structure parameters Lc, the influence of stress factor is also important. With the stress strengthening, Lc shows an increasing trend, and La /Lc shows a decreasing trend. Therefore, Lc and La /Lc can be used as the indicator of nano-scale deformation degree of tectonic coals. With increasing temperature and pressure, especially oriented stress, the orientation of molecular structure be-comes stronger, and ordering degree of C-nets and the ar-rangement of BSU are obviously enhanced. For the deforma-tion of nano-scale pore structure, in the same metamor-phic-deformed environment, along with the strengthening of stress, the ratio of mesopores to its total pores volume of tec-tonic coals reduces to a large extent, the ratio of volume of micropores and the pores whose diameters are lower than micropores increases, and sub-micropores and ultra- micro-pores can be found. Moreover, the ratio of specific surface area of mesopores to its total pores reduces rapidly while theamount of sub-micropores increases more quickly. The duc-tile structure coal has a change in pore parameters similar to that of weak brittle deformation. There are differences in the deformation and evolution of nano-scale pore structure of different kinds of tectonic coals formed in different meta-morphic-deformational environments. In short, temperature and confining pressure play some role in the change of nano-scale pore structure parameters, whereas stress has important influence on the evolution of characteristic parameters in nano-scale pore structure of tectonic coals.

316L Austenite Stainless Steels Strengthened by Means of Nano-scale Twins

By means of dynamic plastic deformation (DPD) followed by thermal annealing, a mixed structure of micro-sized austenite grains embedded with nano-scale twin bundles (of about 20% in volume) has been synthesized in a 316L stainless steel (SS). Such a 316L SS sample exhibits a tensile strength as high as 1001 MPa and an elongation-to-failure of about 23%. The much elevated strength originates from the presence of a considerable number of strengthening nano-twin bundles, while the ductility from the recrystallized grains. The superior strength-ductility combination achieved in the nano-twins-strengthened austenite steel demonstrates a novel approach for optimizing the mechanical properties in engineering materials.

High-strength wrought magnesium alloy with dense nano-scale spherical precipitate

This paper reported the influences of Yb addition on the precipitate and mechanical properties of wrought magnesium alloy ZK60. The ingots of ZK60-1.78Yb (wt%, 0.26 at%) alloys were cast using permanent mould and extruded at 370℃ . By means of TEM and HRTEM, it was observed that Yb affected the precipitate and precipitation of ZK60-1.78Yb alloys significantly. Dynamic precipitation occurred in the as-extruded alloy and spherical nano-scale precipitate with high density and homoge-neity exhibited in the aged alloys. The precipitate particles were about 5-20 nm in diameter, 10-30 nm in average space length. The tensile test results showed that the ZK60-1.78Yb alloy had excellent pre-cipitation strengthening response with the maximum tensile strength 417.5 MPa at ambient tempera-ture.

Fabrication technique of micro/nano-scale speckle patterns with focused ion beam

The fabrication technique of micro/nano-scale speckle patterns with focused ion beam (FIB) system is studied for digital image correlation (DIC) measurement under a scanning electron microscope (SEM).The speckle patterns are fabricated by directly etching the counterpart of the specimen to the black part of a template.Mean intensity gradient is used to evaluate the quality of these SEM images of speckle patterns fabricated based on different templates to select an optimum template.The pattern size depending on the displacement measurement sensitivity is adjusted by altering the magnification of FIB according to the relation curve of the etching size versus magnification.The influencing factors including etching time and ion beam current are discussed.Rigid body translation tests and rotation tests are carried out under SEM to verify the reliability of the fabricated speckle patterns.The calculated values are in good agreement with the imposed ones.

CATALYST TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT FROM MACRO-,MICRO- DOWN TO NANO-SCALE

Catalyst and catalytic process technology has been an ever-growing field that involves chemical engineering, chemistry, and material science. A number of excellent review articles and books have been published on the subject. In this work, the author reviews the evolution and development of catalyst products with multi-scale methodology.The catalyst technologies are classified into three levels, macro-scale (reactor size), mini- and micro-scale (catalyst unit),and nano-scale (catalyst intrinsic structures). Innovation at different scales requires different sets of expertise, method,and knowledge. Specific examples of significant impact to practical application are used to illustrate technology development at each scale. The multi-scale analysis enables clear delineation of technology components and their relationship for a catalyst product and catalytic process. Manipulation of catalyst structures at nano-scale to increase intrinsic activity and/or selectivity is considered of large potential for future catalyst product development. Recent research results on Cu-CeO2 and Au-CeO2 composite catalysts for air pollution control and hydrogen production are used to show how novel catalytic properties can be discovered by unique combination of different but common materials at the nano-scale.

Influences of Reaction Parameters and Ce Contents on Structure and Properties of Nano-scale Ce-HA Powders

Ce-incorporated apatite(Ce-HA) nano-scale particles with different Ce percentage contents(atomic ratio of Ce to Ce + Ca is 5%,10%and 20%,respectively) were synthesized via a simple wet chemical method in this study.The crystal structure,chemical groups,thermal stability,crystal morphologies and crystal sizes of the Ce-HA nano-particles were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),and transmission electron microscopy(TEM).The influences of reaction temperature,reaction time,pH value,and the atomic ratio of Ce to Ce + Ca on the structure and performance of Ce-HA particles were studied.The results show that the lattice constants,particle sizes,crystallinity and thermal stability of Ce-HA vary with the doped Ce contents.With the increase of Ce content,the lattice constants of the Ce-HA nano-particles remarkably increase but the particle size,crystallinity and thermal stability gradually decrease.The reaction temperature as well as the reaction time has no significant effect on the properties of the final products,while the pH value has a direct relationship with their final chemical composition.The obtained Ce-HA nanosize particles possess potential application in preparing artificial bone implants,bone tissue engineering scaffold and other bioactive coatings.