Optical property of an antireflection coating fabricated by an optimal spin-coating method with a pH-modified SiO2 nanoparticle solution

An antireflection （AR） coating is fabricated by applying an optimal spin-coating method and a pH-modified SiO2 nanoparticle solution on a cover glass. Because the pH value of the solution will affect the aggregation and dispersion of the SiO2 particles, the transmittance of the AR-treated cover glass will be enhanced under optimal fabricated conditions. The experimental results show that an AR coating fabricated by an SiO2 nano- particle solution of pH 11 enhances the transmittance approximately by 3% and 5% under normal and oblique incident conditions, respectively. Furthermore, the AR-treated cover glass exhibits hydrophobicity and shows a 65% enhancement at a contact angle to bare glass.

Preparation of Hydroxyapatite-titanium Dioxide Coating on Ti6Al4V Substrates using Hydrothermal-electrochemical Method

Ti6Al4V substrates were anodized in a 0.5 mol/L H_2SO_4 solution at applied voltages of 90-140 V.A hydroxyapatite-titanium oxide（HA-TiO2）coating was then deposited on the anodized Ti6Al4 V substrates via a hydrothermal-electrochemicalmethod at a constant current.The obtained films and coatings were characterized by X-ray diffraction,scanning electron microscopy,energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy,and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry.The microstructures of the porous films on the Ti6Al4 V substrates were studied to investigate the effect of the anodizing voltage on the phase and morphology of the HATiO_2 coating.The results indicated that both the phase composition and the morphology of the coatings were significantly influenced by changes in the anodizing voltage.HA-TiO_2 was directly precipitated onto the surface of the substrate when the applied voltage was between 110 and 140 V.The coatings had a gradient structure and the HA exhibited both needle-like and cotton-like structures.The amount of cotton-like HA structures decreased with an increase in voltage from 90 to 120 V,and then increased slightly when the voltage was higher than 120 V.The orientation index of the（002）plane of the coating was at a minimum when the Ti6Al4 V substrate was pretreated at 120 V.

Study on Air-Purifying Performance of Semi-Flexible Asphalt Samples Coated with Titanium Dioxide Using Different Methods

Titanium dioxide(TiO_(2))was recently employed to apply onto road surfaces to degrade the harmful compounds from vehicle emissions.However,it remains a challenging task to find a highly compatible pavement type for TiO_(2)application to achieve durable and efficient air-purifying performance.This study proposed to coat TiO_(2)particles onto semi-flexible pavement surface and tried to investigate an optimum coating method.Three coating methods,including direct mixing TiO_(2)(MT)with asphalt mixture,spraying dry TiO_(2)(ST)coating and watersolution-based TiO_(2)(WT)coating on semi-flexible pavement surface.To achieve this objective,semi-flexible samples were prepared to evaluate and compare the performances of three coating methods by employing resistance to wearing,NO removal efficiency tests and residual texture depth tests.It was found that the ST method not only provided better NO degrading efficiency but also improved the resistance to wearing than the other two methods.

Amorphous Zr(OH)4 coated LiNi0.915Co0.075Al0.01O2 cathode material with enhanced electrochemical performance for lithium ion batteries

LiNiCoAlO（NCA） with Zr（OH）coating is demonstrated as high performance cathode material for lithium ion batteries（LIBs）. The coated materials are synthesized via a simple dry coating method of NCA with Zr（OH）powders, and then characterized with scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）. Experimental results show that amorphous Zr（OH）powders have been successfully coated on the surface of spherical NCA particles, exhibiting improved electrochemical performance. 0.50 wt% Zr（OH）coated NCA delivers a capacity of 197.6 mAh/g at the first cycle and 154.3 mAh/g after 100 cycles with a capacity retention of 78.1% at 1 C rate. In comparison, the pure NCA shows a capacity of 194.6 mAh/g at the first cycle and 142.5 mAh/g after 100 cycles with a capacity retention of 73.2% at 1 C rate. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy（EIS） results show that the coated material exhibits a lower resistance, indicating that the coating layer can efficiently suppress transition metals dissolution and decrease the side reactions at the surface between the electrode and electrolyte. Therefore, surface coating with amorphous Zr（OH）is a simple and useful method to enhance the electrochemical performance of NCA-based materials for the cathode of LIBs.

Microreactor for the Catalytic Partial Oxidation of Methane

Fixed-bed reactors for the partial oxidation of methane to produce synthetic gas still pose hotspot problems. An alternative reactor, which is known as the shell-and-tube-typed microreactor, has been developed to resolve these problems. The microreactor consists of a 1 cm outside-diameter, 0.8 cm insidediameter and 11 cm length tube, and a 1.8 cm inside-diameter shell. The tube is made of dense alumina and the shell is made of quartz. Two different methods dip and spray coating were performed to line the tube side with the LaNixOy catalyst. Combustion and reforming reactions take place simultaneously in this reactor. Methane is oxidized in the tube side to produce flue gases （CO2 and H2O） which flow counter-currently and react with the remaining methane in the shell side to yield synthesis gas. The methane conversion using the higher-loading catalyst spray-coated tube reaches 97% at 700 ℃, whereas that using the lower-loading catalyst dip-coated tube reaches only 7.78% because of poor adhesion between the catalyst film and the alumina support. The turnover frequencies （TOFs） using the catalyst spray-and dip-coated tubes are 5.75×10^-5 and 2.24×10^-5 mol/gcat· s, respectively. The catalyst spray-coated at 900 ℃ provides better performance than that at 1250 ℃ because sintering reduces the surface-area. The hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio produced by the spray-coated catalyst is greater than the stoichiometric ratio, which is caused by carbon deposition through methane cracking or the Boudouard reaction.

Enhancement of current density using effective membranes electrode assemblies for water electrolyser system

The goal of this study was to develop and design a composite proton exchange membrane（PEM） and membrane electrode assembly（MEA） that are suitable for the PEM based water electrolysis system. In particular,it focuses on the development of sulphonated polyether ether ketone（SPEEK） based membranes and caesium salt of silico-tungstic acid（Cs Si WA） matrix compared with one of the transition metal oxides such as titanium dioxide（TiO2）, silicon dioxide（SiO2） and zirconium dioxide（ZrO2）. The resultant membranes have been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, ion exchange capacity（IEC）, water uptake and atomic force microscopy. Comparative studies on the performance of MEAs were also conducted utilizing impregnation-reduction and conventional brush coating methods. The PEM electrolysis performance of SPEEK-Cs Si WA-ZrO2 composite membrane was more superior than that of other membranes involved in this study. Electrochemical characterization shows that a maximum current density of 1.4 A/cm^2 was achieved at 60 °C, explained by an increased concentration of protonic sites available at the interface.

Recent Progress in Large-Area Perovskite Photovoltaic Modules

Perovskite solar cells(PSCs)have undergone a dramatic increase in laboratory-scale effi ciency to more than 25%,which is comparable to Si-based single-junction solar cell effi ciency.However,the effi ciency of PSCs drops from laboratory-scale to large-scale perovskite solar modules(PSMs)because of the poor quality of perovskite fi lms,and the increased resistance of large-area PSMs obstructs practical PSC applications.An in-depth understanding of the fabricating processes is vital for precisely controlling the quality of large-area perovskite fi lms,and a suitable structural design for PSMs plays an impor-tant role in minimizing energy loss.In this review,we discuss several solution-based deposition techniques for large-area perovskite fi lms and the eff ects of operating conditions on the fi lms.Furthermore,diff erent structural designs for PSMs are presented,including the processing technologies and device architectures.

Enhanced wetting and properties of carbon/carbon-Cu composites with Cr_3C_2 coatings by Cr-solution immersion method

A facile ammonium-dichromate solution immersion method was introduced to synthesize the copperwettable Cr3C2 coating on and inside the carbon-carbon （C/C） preform. The formation mechanism and the microstructures of the Cr3C2 coatings were studied. The contact angle between molten copper and the C/C decreased from 140°to 60°, demonstrating the significant improvement in the wettability. The Cr3C2- coated C/C-Cu composite with only 4.2% porosity and 3.69 gcm^-3 density was manufactured through copper infiltration. As a result, the thermal and electrical conductivity of the modified C/C-Cu increased significantly due to the infiltrated copper. Also the mechanical properties of the composites including both the flexural and compressive strengths were enhanced by over 100%. The modified C/C-Cu composite exhibited lower friction coefficients and wear rates for different load levels than those of the commercial C/Cu composite. These results demonstrate the potential of the modified C/C-Cu material for use in electrical contacts.

On acoustic performance for viscoelastic coating containing axisymmetric cavities using the multiple scattering method

A semi-analytical/numerical model based on the multiple scattering （MS） method has been established for analyzing the effect of acoustic performance on main energy attenua- tion mechanism in viscoelastic coating containing axisymmetric cavities. The basic functions of stress and displacement of the axisymmetric cavity surface are derived in the system of spheri- cal coordinates. The transition matrix between the incident wave and the scattering wave are obtained by the numerical integral of the basic functions of the cavity surface. The reflection, transmission and absorption performance of viscoelastic materials containing periodic cavities are calculated using the MS method and the wave propagating theory of the multi-layered medium. The results indicate that low frequency energy is mainly attenuated through cavity resonance. The resonant properties are found to be very sensitive to the boundary conditions. The coupling of the double-cavity is capable of extending the absorption to even lower fre- quencies. The absorption performance of the viscoelastic coating in the high frequency range is independent of the backing material. Its energy attenuation depends mainly on acoustic properties of cavity scattering and mode conversion.

Tool wear performance and surface integrity studies for milling DD5 Ni-based single crystal superalloy

Based on the results of slot milling experiments on the DD5 Ni-based single crystal superalloy(001) crystal plane along the [110]crystal direction, in this paper, efforts were devoted to investigate the tool wear process, wear mechanism and failure modes of the physical vapor deposition(PVD)-AlTiN and TiAlN coated tools under dry milling and water-based minimum quantity lubrication(MQL) conditions. The scanning electron microscope(SEM) morphological observation and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDX) elements analysis methods were adopted. Moreover, under the water-based MQL condition, the surface integrity such as surface roughness, dimensional and shape accuracy, microhardness and microstructure alteration were researched. The results demonstrated that the tool edge severe adhesion with the work material, induced by the high Al content in the PVD-AlTiN coating caused the catastrophic tool tip fracture. In contrast, the PVD-TiAlN tool displayed a steady and uniform minor flank wear, even though the material peeling and slight chipping also occurred in the final stage. In addition, due to the high effective cooling and lubricating actions of the water-based MQL method, the PVD-TiAlN coated tool demonstrated intact tip geometry; consequently it could be repaired and reused even if the failure criterion was attained. Moreover, as the accumulative milling length and the tool wear increased, all indicators of the surface integrity forehand were deteriorated.

Analytic estimation and numerical modeling of actively cooled thermal protection systems with nickel alloys

Actively cooled thermal protection system has great influence on the engine of a hypersonic vehicle, and it is significant to obtain the thermal and stress distribution in the system. So an analytic estimation and numerical modeling are performed in this paper to investigate the behavior of an actively cooled thermal protection system. The analytic estimation is based on the electric analogy method and finite element analysis（FEA） is applied to the numerical simulation. Temperature and stress distributions are obtained for the actively cooled channel walls with three kinds of nickel alloys with or with no thermal barrier coating（TBC）. The temperature of the channel wall with coating has no obvious difference from the one with no coating, but the stress with coating on the channel wall is much smaller than that with no coating. Inconel X-750 has the best characteristics among the three Ni-based materials due to its higher thermal conductivity, lower elasticity module and greater allowable stress. Analytic estimation and numerical modeling results are compared with each other and a reasonable agreement is obtained.