Na-K liquid alloy:A review on wettability enhancement and ionic carrier selection mechanism

The intrinsic liquid interface of Na-K alloy allays concerns about dendrite growth on metal anodes that are thermodynamically within the room temperature(20-22℃).Nevertheless,it hinders the formation of a stable electrode structure due to the inferior wettability induced by considerable liquid tension.In addition,the dominant ionic carrier in the Na-K alloy is subject to multiple factors,which is not conducive to customized battery design.This review,based on recently reported frontier achievements on Na-K liquid anodes,summarizes practical strategies for promoting the wettability by hightemperature induction,capillary effect,vacuum infiltration,and solid interface protection.Furthermo re,four selection mechanisms of the dominant ionic carrier are presented:(1)ion property dominated,(2)cathode dominated,(3)separator dominated,and(4)solid electrolyte interface dominated.Notably,initial electrolytes in energy storage systems have been unable to play a decisive role in ionic selection.Utilizing a superior wettability strategy and simultaneously identifying the dominant ionic carrier can facilitate the tailored application of dendrite-free Na-K liquid anodes.

Competitiveness of the Liner Operators： Methodological Issues and Implications

In the 21 st century, ocean container carriers are facing high competition in cargo volume attraction and retention from their business to business customers. The main focus of this study is on the methodological issues in the analysis of shipping lines＇ competitiveness. A system review of the literature is conducted in three stages to identify the key factors influential to the competitiveness of liner shipping companies. An initial search has found 897 studies, which were then reduced to 39 after further scanning and review. The systematic review has elicited 15 key selection criteria which were further reduced through analytic hierarchy process to five critical factors influential to the liner shipping companies＇ competitiveness. For example, among the most frequently cited factors are the freight rate, service quality, scheduling, handling equipment and information technology. Based on the findings from the systematic literature review, a conceptual framework to identify the main determinants of the liner operators is developed, and implications for future research are also discussed.

Atomic layer deposition enabling higher efficiency solar cells:A review

Atomic layer deposition(ALD)can synthesise materials with atomic-scale precision.The ability to tune the material composition,film thickness with excellent conformality,allow low-temperature processing,and in-situ real-time monitoring makes this technique very appealing for a wide range of applications.In this review,we focus on the application of ALD layers in a wide range of solar cells.We focus on industrial silicon,thin film,organic and quantum dot solar cells.It is shown that the merits of ALD have already been exploited in a wide range of solar cells at the lab scale and that ALD is already applied in high-volume manufacturing of silicon solar cells.

Design of Neutral Carrier for Solvent Polymeric Membrane Iodide Electrode With High Selectivity

Anion-selective electrodes based on dissociated ion-exchangers such as lipophilicquaternary ammonium or phosphonium species always display classical Hofmeister be-havior in the following order: ClO4-】SCN-】I-】Br-】NO2-】Cl-】SO42-.A new sol-vent polymeric membrane electrode based on Schiff base complexes of Co（Ⅱ）[Co（Ⅱ）S]and showing excellent selectivity toward iodide ion is for the first time prepared inour work. The resulting electrodes exhibit fairly low detection limits andpotentiometric anion-selectivity sequences deviated from the Hofmeister pattern.Bis（salicylaldehyde） ethylenediiminecobalt（Ⅱ） [Co（Ⅱ）（salen）], bis（salicylaldehyde）-phenyldiiminecobalt（Ⅱ） [Co（Ⅱ）（salophen）],

4 × 25 GHz uni-traveling carrier photodiode arrays monolithic with In P-based AWG demultiplexers using the selective area growth technique

InP-based photonics integration is becoming a competi- tive candidate for realizing optical modules with enhanced functionality at a reduced cost, especially in optical com- munication systems, since the proposal of wavelength division multiplexing （WDM）. In recent years, network traffic has raised demands for high capacity, high speed transmission systems.