Abrasive Wear Characteristics of Carbon and Low Alloy Steels for Better Performance of Farm Implements

The low stress abrasion behaviours of heat treated mild, medium carbon and high C - low Cr steels, which are generally used in making farm implements, have been investigated. The simple heat treatment greatly improves the hardness, tensile strength and abrasion resistance of medium carbon and high C - low Cr steels. The results indicate that the material removal during abrasion is controlled by a number of factors, such as hardness, chemical composition, microstructure and heat treatment conditions. The conclusion is that the heat treated high C - low Cr steel and mild steel carburized by using coaltar pitch provide the best hardness and abrasion resistance and thus appear to be the most suitable materials for making agricultural tools.

Performance improvement of continuous carbon nanotube fibers by acid treatment

Continuous CNT fibers have been directly fabricated in a speed of 50 m/h-400 m/h,based on an improved chemical vapor deposition method.As-prepared fibers are further post-treated by acid.According to the SEM images and Raman spectra,the acid treatment results in the compaction and surface modification of the CNTs in fibers,which are beneficial for the electron and load transfer.Compared to the HNO3 treatment,HClSO_3 or H_2SO_4 treatment is more effective for the improvement of the fibers＇ properties.After HCISO_3 treatment for 2 h,the fibers＇ strength and electrical conductivity reach up to-2 GPa and-4.3 MS/m,which are promoted by-200%and almost one order of magnitude than those without acid treatment,respectively.The load-bearing status of the CNT fibers are analyzed based on the downshifts of the G＇ band and the strain transfer factor of the fibers under tension.The results reveal that acid treatment could greatly enhance the load transfer and inter-bundle strength.With the HCISO3 treatment,the strain transfer factor is enhanced from-3.9%to-53.6%.

Impact of Temperature Variation on Performance of Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistor-Based on Chaotic Oscillator:A Quantum Simulation Study

We evaluate the impact of temperature on the output behavior of a carbon nanotube field effect transistor （CNFET） based chaotic generator. The sources cause the variations in both current-voltage characteristics of the CNFET device and an overall chaotic circuit is pointed out. To verify the effect of temperature variation on the output dynamics of the chaotic circuit, a simulation is performed by employing the CNFET compact model of Wong et al. in HSPICE with a temperature range from -100℃ to 100℃. The obtained results with time series, frequency spectra, and bifurcation diagram from the simulation demonstrate that temperature plays a significant role in the output dynamics of the CNFET-based chaotic circuit. Thus, temperature-related issues should be taken into account while designing a high-quality chaotic generator with high stability.

Regional Carbon Emission Performance of Pig Production in China according to Malmquist-DEA Approach

As pig production is a main contributor of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions from livestock sector,the carbon emissions of pig production are attracting increasing attention,especially in the developing countries. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2012,this paper measures the provincial carbon emission performance(CEP) of pig production and we use a Malmquist DEA approach to analyze the decomposition which includes desirable and undesirable output. Furthermore,the regional disparity in carbon emission performance of pig production is also analyzed and finally the convergence is tested. The main results are as follows:(i) there are provincial differences in carbon emission performance changing of pig production in China,and the carbon emission performance of pig production in 30 provinces has a downward trend during this period;(ii) among China’s three major economic regions,in terms of carbon emission performance of pig production,they are ranked in descending order as follows: Western China,Central China and Eastern China;(iii) convergence testing shows that there is a convergence trend for carbon emission performance both nationally and for the three regions.

Structural Design and Analysis of a Booster Arm Made of a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composite Material

An analysis of a booster arm made of a carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composite material is conducted by means of a finite element analysis method.The mechanical properties are also determined through stretching and compression performance tests.It is found that the surface treatment of the fibers causes the silane coupling agent to undergo a chemical reaction on the surface of the glass fiber.The used material succeeds in producing significant vibrations damping(vibration attenuation effect is superior to that obtained with conventional alloy materials).

Effects of Carbon Nanotubes by Electrophoretic Deposition on Interlaminar Properties of Two Dimensional Carbon/carbon Composites

Carbon nanotubes（CNTs） were deposited uniformly on carbon cloth by electrophoretic deposition（EPD）. Thereafter, CNT-doped clothes were stacked and densified by pyrocarbon via chemical vapor infiltration to fabricate two-dimensional（2 D） carbon/carbon（C/C） composites. Effects of EPD CNTs on interlaminar shear performance and mode Ⅱ interlaminar fracture toughness（GⅡc） of 2 D C/C composites were investigated. Results showed that EPD CNTs were uniformly covered on carbon fibers, acting as a porous coating. Such a CNT coating can obviously enhance the interlaminar shear strength and GⅡc of 2 D C/C composites. With increaing EPD CNTs, the interlaminar shear strength and GⅡc of 2 D C/C composites increase greatly and then decrease, both of which run up to their maximum values, i e, 13.6 MPa and 436.0 J·m-2, when the content of EPD CNTs is 0.54 wt%, 2.27 and 1.45 times of the baseline. Such improvements in interlaminar performance of 2 D C/C composites are mainly beneficial from their increased cohesion of interlaminar matrix, which is caused not only by the direct reinforcing effect of EPD CNT network but also by the capacity of EPD CNTs to refine pyrocarbon matrix and induce multilayered microstructures that greatly increase the crack propagation resistance through ＂crack-blocking and-deflecting mechanisms＂.

Spatiotemporal evolution of urban carbon emission performance in China and prediction of future trends

Climate change resulting from CO_2 emissions has become an important global environmental issue in recent years.Improving carbon emission performance is one way to reduce carbon emissions.Although carbon emission performance has been discussed at the national and industrial levels,city-level studies are lacking due to the limited availability of statistics on energy consumption.In this study,based on city-level remote sensing data on carbon emissions in China from 1992–2013,we used the slacks-based measure of super-efficiency to evaluate urban carbon emission performance.The traditional Markov probability transfer matrix and spatial Markov probability transfer matrix were constructed to explore the spatiotemporal evolution of urban carbon emission performance in China for the first time and predict long-term trends in carbon emission performance.The results show that urban carbon emission performance in China steadily increased during the study period with some fluctuations.However,the overall level of carbon emission performance remains low,indicating great potential for improvements in energy conservation and emission reduction.The spatial pattern of urban carbon emission performance in China can be described as"high in the south and low in the north,"and significant differences in carbon emission performance were found between cities.The spatial Markov probabilistic transfer matrix results indicate that the transfer of carbon emission performance in Chinese cities is stable,resulting in a"club convergence"phenomenon.Furthermore,neighborhood backgrounds play an important role in the transfer between carbon emission performance types.Based on the prediction of long-term trends in carbon emission performance,carbon emission performance is expected to improve gradually over time.Therefore,China should continue to strengthen research and development aimed at improving urban carbon emission performance and achieving the national energy conservation and emission reduction goals.Meanwhile,neighboring cities with different neighborhood backgrounds should pursue cooperative economic strategies that balance economic growth,energy conservation,and emission reductions to realize low-carbon construction and sustainable development.

Carbon performance evaluation model from the perspective of circular economy~The case of Chinese thermal power enterprise

Carbon emission reduction is the only way to alleviate environmental problems,such as global warming.Effective evaluation of carbon performance can help enterprises to carry out energy saving and emission reduction activities to a certain extent and promote sustainable development.This paper constructs a carbon performance evaluation index system that includes the four dimensions of carbon resource(energy)input,cycle,output,and carbon management by incorporating the principles of circular economy and the theory of resource value circulation from the perspective of the flow trajectory of carbon-containing resources in the circulation of enterprises combined with the production characteristics of thermoelectric enterprises.Subsequently,combined with the case study,this paper discusses the scientific and practical nature of the system and provides another way of thinking for carbon performance evaluation of micro-enterprises in other industries.This paper expands the application boundary of matter-element model and supplements the literature of carbon performance,which has certain theoretical and practical significance.

Evolutionary characteristics and driving factors of carbon emission performance at the city level in China

To achieve carbon peak targets,realize carbon neutrality vision,and tackle global climate change,China must improve the carbon emission performance at the city level.Based on the carbon emission performance of 191 prefecture-level cities in China from 1997 to 2017,this paper analyses the evolution characteristics of urban carbon emission performance from three aspects:the overall spatial and temporal evolution,the differences according to both region and city size,and the differences among clusters categorized by carbon emission performance at the city level.This paper also reveals the impact of the social and economic transition on China’s carbon emission performance.The results show that:(1)The overall level of carbon emission performance of Chinese cities is low,and there is a downward trend during the study period.The differences in carbon emission performance among cities are convergent,but there is a wide gap between high and low values.(2)The carbon emission performance of cities in eastern coastal areas is higher than that in non-coastal areas cities.Large urban agglomerations and economically developed regions,such as provincial capitals,are the agglomeration areas of high urban carbon emission performance values.(3)The carbon emission performance level of cities with similar sizes will converge.At the same time,such changes will enhance the differences among carbon emission performances at the city level within the same region.(4)Cities that belong to high urban carbon emission performance clusters are mainly distributed in the eastern region.Such cities are classified into large cities,supercities,and megacities.Compared with low urban carbon emission performance clusters,cities in high urban carbon emission performance clusters show a higher proportion in the medium-high level and high level of carbon emission performance.Moreover,cities in high urban carbon emission performance clusters are more likely to improve their urban carbon emission performance.(5)The economic agglomeration effect,industrial structure adjustment and carbon intensity reduction have a significant impact on improving urban carbon emission performance.Population agglomeration has an incremental effect,and the anticipated benefits of environmental regulation have yet to be fully realized.The impacts of different clusters and different regions are variable.Finally,this paper advances policy enlightenment according to its research findings.

Carbon accounting system:the bridge between carbon governance and carbon performance in Malaysian Companies

Introduction:Research has shown the negative impacts of climate change on the economy and how the state of the environment has been a complex global challenge.Prior studies have suggested immediate actions to avoid any unforeseen circumstances for all living things on Earth.Previous research has also supported all kinds of sustainability efforts as resolutions to address the deterioration of climate change caused by business activities.Originality:There is a need for companies to start acting and assigning employees to mitigate carbon emitted by corporations.This study is motivated by the lack of empirical evidence that examines how corporate carbon governance influences better carbon performance of organizations and authorizes organizations to implement and embed carbon accounting.Objective:This study used evidence from Malaysia to explore this subject matter and examined the association between carbon governance and carbon performance of corporations.The research also investigated the mediation effect of carbon accounting with respect to carbon governance and carbon performance.Findings:It is revealed that carbon governance had no significant influence on an organization’s carbon performance although carbon accounting implementation positively influenced carbon performance.The findings imply that despite its insignificance,carbon accounting remains a vital matter to be deployed by organizations for better carbon emission mitigation.

Influence of ZrB2 Nanoparticles on the Mechanical and Thermal Behaviors of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Resol Composite

The present study focuses on the thermal response of carbon fiber-reinforced phenolic composites, where the matrix has been modified with different reinforcements. Two types of materials, multiwalled carbon nanotubes and zirconium diboride （ZrB2）, were used in a new design of mixture to produce the heat- resistant ablative composite system. The CNT/ZrB2/carbon/phenolic nanocomposite （Z/NT-CR） system corresponding to CNT/carbon/phenolic nanocomposite （NT-CR） showed a reasonable decrease in mass loss and the ablation rate as compared to carbon/phenolic composite （CR）. However, substantial drop in two factors was found for Z/NT-CR as compared to carbon/phenolic and NT-CR. Ablation mechanisms for all three composites were investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis in conjunction with micro- structural studies using a field emission scanning electron microscope. The microstructural studies revealed that CNTs acted as an ablation resistant phase for protection against 2000 ℃, and the conversion from ZrB2 to ZrO2 played an important role as an insulator in the performance of char layer in the ablation resistance.

Metal-organic framework derived magnetic nanoporous carbon as an adsorbent for the magnetic solid-phase extraction of chlorophenols from mushroom sample

In this work, a metal-organic framework derived nanoporous carbon （MOF-5-C） was fabricated and modified with Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles. The resulting magnetic MOF-5-derived porous carbon （Fe304@MOF-5-C） was then used for the magnetic solid-phase extraction of chlorophenols （CPs） from mushroom samples prior to high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and N2 adsorption were used to characterize the adsorbent. After experimental optimization, the amount of the adsorbent was chosen as 8.0 mg, extraction time as 10 min, sample volume as 50 mL, desorption solvent as 0.4 mL （0.2 mL × 2） of alkaline methanol, and sample pH as 6. Under the above optimized conditions, good linearity for the analytes was obtained in the range of 0.8-100.0 ng g 1 with the correlation coefficients between 0.9923 and 0.9963. The limits of detection （SIN= 3） were in the range of 0.25-0.30 ng g-1, and the relative standard deviations were below 6.8%. The result showed that the Fe304@MOF-5-C has an excellent adsorption capacity for the analytes.

Electrospinning of GeO_2–C fibers and electrochemical application in lithium-ion batteries

GeO2–C fibers were successfully synthesized using electrospinning homogeneous sol and subsequent calcination in an inert atmosphere. The spinnable sol was prepared by adding polyacrylonitrile（PAN）and polyvinylpyrrolidone（PVP） in a weight ratio of 1：1 into a mixture with white precipitate produced by dropping GeCl4 into DMF. X-ray diffraction（XRD）, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,thermogravimetric analysis（TGA）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM） and transmission electron microscopy（TEM） were employed to characterize the as-obtained fibers, and electrochemical tests were conducted to measure electrochemical performance of the electrode. The electrospun fibers have uniform diameters of 300 nm. After being calcined at 600 8C for 2 h in Ar, they transform to amorphous GeO2–C fibers with the same morphologies. The Ge O2–C fibers exhibit excellent cycling stability with a high reversible capacity of 838.93 m A h g^-1after 100 cycles at a current density of 50 m A g^-1, indicating the composite fibers could be promising anode candidates for lithium-ion batteries.