Trans-scale surface wrinkling model and scaling relationship analysis of stiff film-compliant substrate structures

The self-assembly of surface-order structures based on the surface wrinkling of stiff film-compliant substrate structures(SFCS)is potentially useful in the fabrication of functional devices,the manufacture of superhydrophobic or self-cleaning surfaces,and so on.Due to the influence of the intrinsic characteristic length(g),the surface wrinkling behavior of SFCS at the micro scale is different from that at the macro scale.In this work,based on the strain gradient theory,a trans-scale surface wrinkling model for SFCS is established.First,the effectiveness of this model is verified by previous experiments.Then,based on the model and dimensional analysis,the effect of g on the surface wrinkling behavior is investigated,and the scaling relationship of surface wrinkling of SFCS at different scales is analyzed.The results show that the influence of g cannot be neglected when the film thickness decreases to the one comparable to g.At the micro scale,g will lead to the increase of the critical wrinkling wavelength and load.In addition,the scaling relationship of surface wrinkling at the micro scale will not follow the traditional one.Our study explains the underlying mechanism of the dissimilarity of surface wrinkling behaviors of SFCS at different scales and lays a theoretical foundation for the precise control of surface-order structures.

Propagation characteristics of laser-generated like-Rayleigh waves in viscoelastic adhesive coating/substrate structures

The propagation characteristics of laser-generated like-Rayleigh waves in viscoelastic adhesive coating/substrate structures were studied.Considering the viscoelasticity of the coating and substrate,we have established the finite element models in frequency domain for the laser-generated like-Rayleigh waves in the epoxy coating/aluminum substrate,epoxy coating/brass substrate,and epoxy coating/foam substrate structures,respectively.In addition,we have investigated the waveform and propagation characteristics of the like-Rayleigh waves and studied the influences of the coating transparency,coating thickness,coating viscoelasticity,and substrate viscoelasticity on the propagation characteristics of the like-Rayleigh waves.Moreover,we have verified the results by the theoretical phase velocity and attenuation curves.The results show that the coating viscoelasticity induces the attenuation characteristics of the higher frequencies of the like-Rayleigh waves,but has little effect on the lower frequencies,and the substrate viscoelasticity has the influences on both the higher and lower frequencies of the like-Rayleigh waves,especially the lower frequencies.Furthermore,the mode and dispersive characteristics of the like-Rayleigh waves are closely related to the substrates.This study provides a useful theoretical basis for inverting mechanical parameters and evaluating the adhesive quality of the viscoelastic adhesive coating/substrate structures.

Advances in the structure design of substrate materials for zinc anode of aqueous zinc ion batteries

Aqueous zinc ion batteries(AZIBs) demonstrate tremendous competitiveness and application prospects because of their abundant resources,low cost, high safety, and environmental friendliness. Although the advanced electrochemical energy storage systems based on zinc ion batteries have been greatly developed, many severe problems associated with Zn anode impede its practical application, such as the dendrite formation,hydrogen evolution, corrosion and passivation phenomenon. To address these drawbacks, electrolytes, separators, zinc alloys, interfacial modification and structural design of Zn anode have been employed at present by scientists. Among them, the structural design for zinc anode is relatively mature, which is generally believed to enhance the electroactive surface area of zinc anode, reduce local current density, and promote the uniform distribution of zinc ions on the surface of anode. In order to explore new research directions, it is crucial to systematically summarize the structural design of anode materials. Herein, this review focuses on the challenges in Zn anode, modification strategies and the three-dimensional(3D) structure design of substrate materials for Zn anode including carbon substrate materials, metal substrate materials and other substrate materials. Finally, future directions and perspectives about the Zn anode are presented for developing high-performance AZIBs.

Microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity are associated with organic carbon availability in an agricultural soil

Exploration of soil environmental characteristics governing soil microbial community structure and activity may improve our understanding of biogeochemical processes and soil quality. The impact of soil environmental characteristics especially organic carbon availability after 15-yr different organic and inorganic fertilizer inputs on soil bacterial community structure and functional metabolic diversity of soil microbial communities were evaluated in a 15-yr fertilizer experiment in Changping County, Beijing, China. The experiment was a wheat-maize rotation system which was established in 1991 including four different fertilizer treatments. These treatments included： a non-amended control（CK）, a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer treatment（NPK）; a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with swine manure incorporated treatment（NPKM）, and a commonly used application rate of inorganic fertilizer with maize straw incorporated treatment（NPKS）. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis（DGGE） of the 16 S r RNA gene was used to determine the bacterial community structure and single carbon source utilization profiles were determined to characterize the microbial community functional metabolic diversity of different fertilizer treatments using Biolog Eco plates. The results indicated that long-term fertilized treatments significantly increased soil bacterial community structure compared to CK. The use of inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated for long term（NPKM, NPKS） significantly promoted soil bacterial structure than the application of inorganic fertilizer only（NPK）, and NPKM treatment was the most important driver for increases in the soil microbial community richness（S） and structural diversity（H）. Overall utilization of carbon sources by soil microbial communities（average well color development, AWCD） and microbial substrate utilization diversity and evenness indices（H＇ and E） indicated that long-term inorganic fertilizer with organic amendments incorporated（NPKM, NPKS） could significantly stimulate soil microbial metabolic activity and functional diversity relative to CK, while no differences of them were found between NPKS and NPK treatments. Principal component analysis（PCA） based on carbon source utilization profiles also showed significant separation of soil microbial community under long-term fertilization regimes and NPKM treatment was significantly separated from the other three treatments primarily according to the higher microbial utilization of carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, polymers, phenolic compounds, and amino acid, while higher utilization of amines/amides differed soil microbial community in NPKS treatment from those in the other three treatments. Redundancy analysis（RDA） indicated that soil organic carbon（SOC） availability, especially soil microbial biomass carbon（Cmic） and Cmic/SOC ratio are the key factors of soil environmental characteristics contributing to the increase of both soil microbial community structure and functional metabolic diversity in the long-term fertilization trial. Our results showed that long-term inorganic fertilizer and swine manure application could significantly improve soil bacterial community structure and soil microbial metabolic activity through the increases in SOC availability, which could provide insights into the sustainable management of China＇s soil resource.

Metamorphic growth of 1.55 μm InGaAs/InGaAsP multiple quantum wells laser structures on GaAs substrates

We fabricate a GaAs-based InGaAs/InGaAsP multiple quantum wells （MQWs） laser at 1.55 pm. Using two-step growth method and thermal cyclic annealing, a thin low-temperature InP layer and a thick InP buffer layer are grown on GaAs substrates by low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition technology. Then, high- quality MQWs laser structures are grown on the InP buffer layer. Under quasi-continuous wave （QCW） condition, a threshold current of 476 mA and slope efficiency of 0.15 mW/mA are achieved for a broad area device with 50 μm wide strip and 500 μm long cavity at room-temperature. The peak wavelength of emission spectrum is 1549.5 nm at 700 mA. The device is operating for more than 2000 h at room-temperature and 600 mA.

Strain of 2D materials via substrate engineering

Two-dimensional(2D)materials have received extensive attention in the fields of electronics,optoelectronics,and magnetic devices attributed to their unique electronic structures and physical properties.The application of strain is a simple and effective strategy to change the lattice structure of 2D materials thus modulating their physical properties,which further facilitate their applications in carrier mobility transistor,magnetic sensor,single-photon emitter etc.In this short review,we focus on the strain applied via substrate engineering.Firstly,the relationship between the strain and physical properties has been summarized.Secondly,the methods for achieving substrate engineering-induced strain have been demonstrated.Finally,the latest applications of strained 2D materials have been introduced.In addition,the future challenges and development prospects of strain-modulated 2D materials have also been proposed.

Effect of the silicon substrate structure on chip spiral inductor

In this paper,the effect of the substrate structure on the performance of the spiral inductor is investigated by the 3-D electromagnetic simulator,Ansoft high frequency structure simulator(HFSS).With variations in the substrate structure including substrate conductivity,permittivity and thickness of the dielectric layer,the performance of the inductors has been analyzed in detail.The simulation results and analyses indicate that the performance of the spiral inductor can be mostly improved by lowering the conductivity of the substrate,increasing the thickness of the dielectric layer and using the low K dielectric layer.In the mean time,some guidelines or“design rules”are summarized by the results of this study.

Effects of concave and convex substrate curvature on cell mechanics and the cytoskeleton

In order to understand how cells respond to concave and convex subcellular surface structures,colloidal crystal array and honeycomb-structured surfaces composed of highly ordered hexagonal units with completely inverse curvature were fabricated via facile self-assembly and breath figure approaches,respectively.The influence of hexagonal surface curvature on cell fate was subsequently investigated.Cells underwent more extensive spreading on the convex colloidal crystal array surface,while adhesive forces were higher on the concave honeycomb surface.The behaviors of cells on the different surfaces were investigated by comparing cell morphology,cellular adhesive force and cytoskeleton structure.The results revealed comprehensive differences in cell behavior between those on concave honeycomb surfaces and convex colloidal crystal arrays.

Investigation of the Heterogeneous Nucleation on Fractal Surfaces

Classical theory of heterogeneous nucleation has been developed with an implied hypothesis of smooth substrate surfaces; however, morphologies of any real substrate surfaces are generally complicated and demonstrate fractal characteristics. In this paper, the wettability between the embryo and the fractal substrate surface was discussed, and heterogeneous nucleation behaviors were theoretically analyzed. The result shows that the roughness factor of a fractal surface varies with the scale of the embryo. As a result, the fractal character of the substrate surface has important effects on heterogeneous nucleation behaviors. It has been shown that the energy barrier for heterogeneous nucleation of a non-wetting phase on a fractal rough surface increases with increasing fractal dimensions, and both the critical nucleus radius and the nucleation energy barrier decrease with increasing fractal dimensions for heterogeneous nucleation of a wetting phase on the fractal rough surface. For a non-wetting system, the critical nucleus radius shows a slight shift with changes of the intrinsic wetting angle, but for a wetting system, the critical nucleus radius shows an obvious change with decreasing intrinsic wetting angle, thus imposes a stronger effect on the heterogeneous nucleation behaviors.