Multi-Material Topology Optimization for Spatial-Varying Porous Structures

This paper aims to propose a topology optimization method on generating porous structures comprising multiple materials.The mathematical optimization formulation is established under the constraints of individual volume fraction of constituent phase or total mass,as well as the local volume fraction of all phases.The original optimization problem with numerous constraints is converted into a box-constrained optimization problem by incorporating all constraints to the augmented Lagrangian function,avoiding the parameter dependence in the conventional aggregation process.Furthermore,the local volume percentage can be precisely satisfied.The effects including the globalmass bound,the influence radius and local volume percentage on final designs are exploited through numerical examples.The numerical results also reveal that porous structures keep a balance between the bulk design and periodic design in terms of the resulting compliance.All results,including those for irregular structures andmultiple volume fraction constraints,demonstrate that the proposedmethod can provide an efficient solution for multiple material infill structures.

Nano-Au-decorated hierarchical porous cobalt sulfide derived from ZIF-67 toward optimized oxygen evolution catalysis:Important roles of microstructures and electronic modulation

Enhancing both the number of active sites available and the intrinsic activity of Co-based electrocatalysts simultaneously is a desirable goal.Herein,a ZIF-67-derived hierarchical porous cobalt sulfide decorated by Au nanoparticles(NPs)(denoted as HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67)hybrid is synthesized by low-temperature sulfuration treatment.The well-defined macroporous-mesoporous-microporous structure is obtained based on the combination of polystyrene spheres,as-formed CoxSy nanosheets,and ZIF-67 frameworks.This novel three-dimensional hierarchical structure significantly enlarges the three-phase interfaces,accelerating the mass transfer and exposing the active centers for oxygen evolution reaction.The electronic structure of Co is modulated by Au through charge transfer,and a series of experiments,together with theoretical analysis,is performed to ascertain the electronic modulation of Co by Au.Meanwhile,HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67 catalysts with different amounts of Au were synthesized,wherein Au and NaBH4 reductant result in an interesting“competition effect”to regulate the relative ratio of Co^(2+)/Co^(3+),and moderate Au assists the electrochemical performance to reach the highest value.Consequently,the optimized HP-Au@CoxSy@ZIF-67 exhibits a low overpotential of 340 mV at 10 mA cm^(-2)and a Tafel slope of 42 mV dec-1 for OER in 0.1 M aqueous KOH,enabling efficient water splitting and Zn-air battery performance.The work here highlights the pivotal roles of both microstructural and electronic modulation in enhancing electrocatalytic activity and presents a feasible strategy for designing and optimizing advanced electrocatalysts.

A novel multi-channel porous structure facilitating mass transport towards highly efficient alkaline water electrolysis

An advantageous porous architecture of electrodes is pivotal in significantly enhancing alkaline water electrolysis(AWE)efficiency by optimizing the mass transport mechanisms.This effect becomes even more pronounced when aiming to achieve elevated current densities.Herein,we employed a rapid and scalable laser texturing process to craft novel multi-channel porous electrodes.Particularly,the obtained electrodes exhibit the lowest Tafel slope of 79 mV dec^(-1)(HER)and 49 mV dec^(-1)(OER).As anticipated,the alkaline electrolyzer(AEL)cell incorporating multi-channel porous electrodes(NP-LT30)exhibited a remarkable improvement in cell efficiency,with voltage drops(from 2.28 to 1.97 V)exceeding 300 mV under 1 A cm^(-1),compared to conventional perforated Ni plate electrodes.This enhancement mainly stemmed from the employed multi-channel porous structure,facilitating mass transport and bubble dynamics through an innovative convection mode,surpassing the traditional convection mode.Furthermore,the NP-LT30-based AEL cell demonstrated exceptional durability for 300 h under 1.0 A cm^(-2).This study underscores the capability of the novel multi-channel porous electrodes to expedite mass transport in practical AWE applications.

Modeling of multiphase flow in low permeability porous media:Effect of wettability and pore structure properties

Multiphase flow in low permeability porous media is involved in numerous energy and environmental applications.However,a complete description of this process is challenging due to the limited modeling scale and the effects of complex pore structures and wettability.To address this issue,based on the digital rock of low permeability sandstone,a direct numerical simulation is performed considering the interphase drag and boundary slip to clarify the microscopic water-oil displacement process.In addition,a dual-porosity pore network model(PNM)is constructed to obtain the water-oil relative permeability of the sample.The displacement efficiency as a recovery process is assessed under different wetting and pore structure properties.Results show that microscopic displacement mechanisms explain the corresponding macroscopic relative permeability.The injected water breaks through the outlet earlier with a large mass flow,while thick oil films exist in rough hydrophobic surfaces and poorly connected pores.The variation of water-oil relative permeability is significant,and residual oil saturation is high in the oil-wet system.The flooding is extensive,and the residual oil is trapped in complex pore networks for hydrophilic pore surfaces;thus,water relative permeability is lower in the water-wet system.While the displacement efficiency is the worst in mixed-wetting systems for poor water connectivity.Microporosity negatively correlates with invading oil volume fraction due to strong capillary resistance,and a large microporosity corresponds to low residual oil saturation.This work provides insights into the water-oil flow from different modeling perspectives and helps to optimize the development plan for enhanced recovery.

Pore structure and oxygen content design of amorphous carbon toward a durable anode for potassium/sodium-ion batteries

Both sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)and potassium-ion batteries(PIBs)are considered as promising candidates in grid-level energy storage devices.Unfortunately,the larger ionic radii of K+and Na+induce poor diffusion kinetics and cycling stability of carbon anode materials.Pore structure regulation is an ideal strategy to promote the diffusion kinetics and cyclic stability of carbon materials by facilitating electrolyte infiltration,increasing the transport channels,and alleviating the volume change.However,traditional pore-forming agent-assisted methods considerably increase the difficulty of synthesis and limit practical applications of porous carbon materials.Herein,porous carbon materials(Ca-PC/Na-PC/K-PC)with different pore structures have been prepared with gluconates as the precursors,and the amorphous structure,abundant micropores,and oxygen-doping active sites endow the Ca-PC anode with excellent potassium and sodium storage performance.For PIBs,the capacitive contribution ratio of Ca-PC is 82%at 5.0 mV s^(-1) due to the introduction of micropores and high oxygen-doping content,while a high reversible capacity of 121.4 mAh g^(-1) can be reached at 5 A g^(-1) after 2000 cycles.For SIBs,stable sodium storage capacity of 101.4 mAh g^(-1) can be achieved at 2 A g^(-1) after 8000 cycles with a very low decay rate of 0.65%for per cycle.This work may provide an avenue for the application of porous carbon materials in the energy storage field.

Dependence of lithium metal battery performances on inherent separator porous structure regulation

Boosting of rechargeable lithium metal batteries(LMBs) holds challenges because of lithium dendrites germination and high-reactive surface feature.Separators may experience structure-determined chemical deterioration and worsen Li plating-stripping behaviors when smoothly shifting from lithium-ion batteries(LIBs) to LMBs.This study precisely regulations the crystal structure of β-polypropylene and separator porous construction to investigate the intrinsic porous structure and mechanical properties determined electrochemical performances and cycling durability of LMBs.Crystal structure characterizations,porous structure analyses,and electrochemical cycling tests uncover appropriate annealing thermal stimulation concentrates β-lamellae thickness and enhances lamellae thermal stability by rearranging molecular chain in inferior β-lamellae,maximally homogenizing biaxial tensile deformation and resultant porous constructions.These even pores with high connectivity lower ion migration barriers,alleviate heterogeneous Li^(+) flux dispersion,stabilize reversible Li plating-stripping behaviors,and hinder coursing and branching of Li dendrites,endowing steady cell cycling durability,especially at higher currents due to the highlighted uncontrollable cumulation of dead Li,which offers new insights for the current pursuit of high-power density battery and fast charging technology.The suggested separator structure-chemical nature functions in ensuring cyclic cell stability and builds reliable relationships between separator structure design and practical LMBs applications.

High-Throughput Growth of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Film Using Porous-Structure Isolation Layer

Chemical vapor deposition is considered as the most hopeful method for the synthesis of large-area high-quality hexagonal boron nitride on the substrate of catalytic metal. However, the size the hexagonal boron nitride films are limited to the size of growth chamber, which indicates a lower production efficiency. In this paper, the utilization efficiency of growth chamber is highly improved by alternately stacking multiple pieces of Cu foils and carbon fiber surface felt with porous structure. Uniform and continuous hexagonal boron nitride films are prepared on Cu foils through chemical vapor deposition utilizing ammonia borane as the precursor. This work develops a simple and practicable method for high-throughput preparation of hexagonal boron nitride films, which could contribute to the industrial application of hexagonal boron nitride. .

Simultaneous optimization and control for polypropylene grade transition with two-layer hierarchical structure

In this paper,a two-layer hierarchical structure of optimization and control for polypropylene grade transition was raised to overcome process uncertain disturbances that led to the large deviation between the open-loop reference trajectory and the actual process.In the upper layer,the variant time scale based control vector parametric methods(VTS-CVP) was used for dynamic optimization of transition reference trajectory,while nonlinear model predictive controller(NMPC) based on closed-loop subspace and piece-wise linear(SSARX-PWL) model in the lower layer was tracking to the reference trajectory from the upper layer for overcoming high-frequency disturbances.Besides,mechanism about trajectory deviation detection and optimal trajectory updating online were introduced to ensure a smooth transition for the entire process.The proposed method was validated with the real data from an industrial double-loop propylene polymerization reaction process with developed dynamic mechanism mathematical model.

Mechanical properties and pore structure deformation behaviour of biomedical porous titanium

Porous titanium has been shown to exhibit desirable properties as biomedical materials. In view of the load-bearing situation, the mechanical properties and pore structure deformation behaviour of porous titanium were studied. Porous titanium with porosities varying from 36%-66% and average pore size of 230 μm was fabricated by powder sintering. Microstructural features were characterized using scanning electron microscopy. Uniaxial compression tests were used to probe the mechanical response in terms of elastic modulus and compressive strength. The mechanical properties of porous titanium were found to be close to the those of human bone, with stiffness values ranging from 1.86 to 14.7 GPa and compressive strength values of 85.16-461.94 MPa. The relationships between mechanical properties and relative densities were established, and the increase in relative density showed significant effects on mechanical properties and deformations of porous titanium. In a lower relative density, the microscopic deformation mechanism of porous titanium was yielding, bending and buckling of cell walls, while the deformation of yielding and bending of cell walls was observed in the porous titanium with higher relative density.

Solid-phase sintering process and forced convective heat transfer performance of porous-structured micro-channels

A solid-phase sintering process for the low-cost fabrication of composite micro-channels was developed. Three kinds of composite micro-channels with metallic porous structures were designed. The sintering process was studied and optimized to obtain porous-structured micro-channels with high porosity. The flow resistance and heat transfer performance in the composite micro-channels were investigated. The composite micro-channels show acceptable flow resistance, significant enhancement of heat transfer and dramatic improvement of flow boiling stability, which indicates a promising prospect for the application in forced convective heat transfer.

Effects of Microporous Structure of Activated Carbon on Adsorption Performance of N-butane

[Objective] The paper was to study the effect of microporous structure of ac- tivated carbon on adsorption performance of n-butane. [Method] Using 8 activated car- bons prepared from different materials and technologies, the effects of physical prop- erties of activated carbon on butane adsorption performance were investigated. [Result] Specific surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution of activated carbon exert- ed remarkable effects on butane adsorption. The activated carbon with high percent- age of micropore volume within the range of 1.2-2 nm possessed high butane activity. The level of butane retentivity rose with the increase of the volume of pore within the range of 0.5-0,9 nm, which led to smaller butan working capacity （BWC）. [Conclusion] The study provided reference for the adsorption research for activated carbon.

Synthesis of porous nano/micro structured LiFePO_4/C cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries by spray-drying method

In order to enhance electrochemical properties of LiFePO4 （LFP） cathode materials, spherical porous nano/micro structured LFP/C cathode materials were synthesized by spray drying, followed by calcination. The results show that the spherical precursors with the sizes of 0.5-5 μm can be completely converted to LFP/C when the calcination temperature is higher than 500 ℃. The LFP/C microspheres obtained at calcination temperature of 700 ℃ are composed of numerous particles with sizes of -20 nm, and have well-developed interconnected pore structure and large specific surface area of 28.77 mE/g. The specific discharge capacities of the LFP/C obtained at 700 ℃ are 162.43, 154.35 and 144.03 mA.h/g at 0.5C, 1C and 2C, respectively. Meanwhile, the capacity retentions can reach up to 100% after 50 cycles. The improved electrochemical properties of the materials are ascribed to a small Li＋ diffusion resistance and special structure of LFP/C microspheres.

Evolution of porous structure with dealloying corrosion on Gasar Cu-Mn alloy

The evolution of nanoporous structure with dealloying condition was investigated, thus, the mechanism of porous structure evolution was uncovered. The Gasar Cu-Mn alloy was dealloyed by room and elevated temperature chemical corrosion, low and high current level electrochemical corrosion, four types of porous structures, including uneven corrosion pits, hybrid porous, haystack type and bicontinuous model were prepared by chemically and electrochemically dealloying the porous Cu-34.6%Mn alloy made by the Gasar process. Then, the surface diffusion coefficient(DS) and the diffusion frequency(kD) of Cu atom, as well as the dissolution frequency(kE) of Mn atom were calculated with dealloying condition. The dealloyed morphologies for room temperature chemical corrosion and low current level electrochemical corrosion were similar due to the same DS. While the dealloyed structures changed from bulk hybrid porous structure to bicontinuous porous film with decreasing kD/kE.

A Novel Hierarchical Porous 3D Structured Vanadium Nitride/Carbon Membranes for High-performance Supercapacitor Negative Electrodes

Transition-metal nitrides exhibit wide potential windows and good electrochemical performance, but usually experience imbalanced practical applications in the energy storage field due to aggregation, poor circulation stability, and complicated syntheses. In this study, a novel and simple multiphase polymeric strategy was developed to fabricate hybrid vanadium nitride/carbon(VN/C) membranes for supercapacitor negative electrodes, in which VN nanoparticles were uniformly distributed in the hierarchical porous carbon 3D networks. The supercapacitor negative electrode based on VN/C membranes exhibited a high specific capacitance of 392.0 F g^(-1) at 0.5 A g^(-1) and an excellent rate capability with capacitance retention of 50.5% at 30 A g^(-1). For the asymmetric device fabricated using Ni(OH)_2//VN/C membranes, a high energy density of 43.0 Wh kg^(-1) at a power density of800 W kg^(-1) was observed. Moreover, the device also showed good cycling stability of 82.9% at a current density of 1.0 A g^(-1) after 8000 cycles. This work may throw a light on simply the fabrication of other high-performance transition-metal nitridebased supercapacitor or other energy storage devices.

Triply periodic minimal surface(TPMS)porous structures:from multi-scale design,precise additive manufacturing to multidisciplinary applications

Inspired by natural porous architectures,numerous attempts have been made to generate porous structures.Owing to the smooth surfaces,highly interconnected porous architectures,and mathematical controllable geometry features,triply periodic minimal surface(TPMS)is emerging as an outstanding solution to constructing porous structures in recent years.However,many advantages of TPMS are not fully utilized in current research.Critical problems of the process from design,manufacturing to applications need further systematic and integrated discussions.In this work,a comprehensive overview of TPMS porous structures is provided.In order to generate the digital models of TPMS,the geometry design algorithms and performance control strategies are introduced according to diverse requirements.Based on that,precise additive manufacturing methods are summarized for fabricating physical TPMS products.Furthermore,actual multidisciplinary applications are presented to clarify the advantages and further potential of TPMS porous structures.Eventually,the existing problems and further research outlooks are discussed.

Achieving Ultra-Wideband and Elevated Temperature Electromagnetic Wave Absorption via Constructing Lightweight Porous Rigid Structure

Realizing ultra-wideband absorption,desirable attenuation capability at high temperature and mechanical requirements for real-life applications remains a great challenge for microwave absorbing materials.Herein,we have constructed a porous carbon fiber/polymethacrylimide(CP)structure for acquiring promising microwave absorption performance and withstanding both elevated temperature and high strength in a low density.Given the ability of porous structure to induce desirable impedance matching and multiple reflection,the absorption bandwidth of CP composite can reach ultra-wideband absorption of 14 GHz at room temperature and even cover the whole X-band at 473 K.Additionally,the presence of imide ring group in polymethacrylimide and hard bubble wall endows the composite with excellent heat and compressive behaviors.Besides,the lightweight of the CP composite with a density of only 110 mg cm^(−3) coupled with high compressive strength of 1.05 MPa even at 453 K also satisfies the requirements in engineering applica-tions.Compared with soft and compressible aerogel materials,we envision that the rigid porous foam absorbing material is particularly suitable for environmental extremes.

Self-supporting and hierarchically porous Ni_(x)Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4) heterostructure as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for fluctuating overall water splitting

Stable non-noble metal bifunctional electrocatalysts are one of the challenges to the fluctuating overall water splitting driven by re-newable energy.Herein,a novel self-supporting hierarchically porous Ni_(x)Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4) heterostructure as bifunctional electrocatalyst was constructed based on porous Ni-Fe electrodeposition on three-dimensional(3D)carbon fiber cloth,in situ oxidation,and chemical sulfuration.Results showed that the Ni_(x)Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4) heterostructure with a large specific surface area exhibits good bifunctional activity and stability for both hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)and oxygen evolution reaction(OER)because of the abundance of active sites,synergistic effect of the heterostructure,superhydrophilic surface,and stable,self-supporting structure.The results further confirmed that the Ni_(x)Fe-S phase in the heterostructure is transformed into metal oxides/hydroxides and Ni_(3)S_(2) during OER.Compared with the commercial 20wt%Pt/C||IrO_(2)-Ta_(2)O_(5) electrolyzer,the self-supporting Ni1/5Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4)||Ni1/2Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4) electrolyzer exhibits better stability and lower cell voltage in the fluctu-ating current density range of 10-500 mA/cm^(2).Particularly,the cell voltage of Ni1/5Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4)||Ni1/2Fe-S/NiFe_(2)O_(4) is only approximately 3.91 V at an industrial current density of 500 mA/cm^(2),which is lower than that of the 20wt%Pt/C||IrO_(2)-Ta_(2)O_(5) electrolyzer(i.e.,approximately 4.79 V).This work provides a promising strategy to develop excellent bifunctional electrocatalysts for fluctuating overall water splitting.

Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene aerogel with hierarchically porous structure for high-performance supercapacitors

Supercapacitors with unique performance have been widely utilized in many fields. Herein, we report a nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene aerogel(N/S-GA-2) prepared using a low toxic precursor for high-performance supercapacitors. The as-obtained material possesses a hierarchically porous structure and a large number of electrochemical active sites. At a current density of 1 Ag^-1, the specific capacitance of the N/S-GA-2 for supercapacitors with the ionic liquid as the electrolyte is 169.4 Fg^-1, and the corresponding energy density is 84.5 Wh kg^-1.At a power density of 8.9 k W kg^-1, the energy density can reach up to 75.7 Wh kg^-1, showing that the N/S-GA-2 has an excellent electrochemical performance. Consequently, the N/S-GA-2 can be used as a promising candidate of electrode materials for supercapacitors with high power density and high energy density.

Computer aided modeling and pore distribution of bionic porous bone structure

Artificial bone with porous structure is crucial for tissue scaffold and clinic implants.Scaffold provides structure support for cells and guides tissues regeneration for final tissue structure.A computational aided process of porous bone modeling was developed which described the design and fabrication of tissue scaffolds by considering intricate architecture,porosity and pore size.To simulate intricate bone structure,different constructive units were presented.In modeling process,bone contour was gotten from computed tomography(CT)images and was divided into two levels.Each level was represented by relatively reconstructive process.Pore size distribution was controlled by using mesh generation.The whole hexahedral mesh was reduced by unit structure,when a 3D mesh with various hexahedral elements was provided.The simulation results show that constructive structure of porous scaffold can meet the needs of clinic implants in accurate and controlled way.

Microstructures and properties of porous TiAl-based intermetallics prepared by freeze-casting

Preparation of porous Ti Al-based intermetallics with aligned and elongated pores by freeze-casting was investigated. Engineering Ti-43 Al-9V-1Y powder(D50=50 μm), carboxymethyl cellulose, and guar gum were used to prepare the aqueous-based slurries for freeze-casting. Results showed that the porous Ti Al was obtained by using a freezing temperature of -5 ℃ and the pore structure was tailored by varying the particle content of slurry. The total porosity reduced from 81% to 62% and the aligned pore width dropped from approximately 500 to around 270 μm, with increasing the particle content from 10 to 30 vol.%. Furthermore, the compressive strength along the aligned pores increased from 16 to 120 MPa with the reduction of porosity. The effective thermal conductivities of porous Ti Al were lower than 1.81 W/(m·K) and showed anisotropic property with respect to the pore orientation.