Silver vanadium phosphorous oxide, Ag2VO2PO4: Chimie douce preparation and resulting lithium cell electrochemistry

Recently, we have shown silver vanadium phosphorous oxide (Ag₂VO₂PO₄, SVPO) to be a promising cathode material for lithium based batteries. Whereas the first reported preparation of SVPO employed an elevated pressure, hydrothermal approach, we report herein a novel ambient pressure synthesis method to prepare SVPO, where our chimie douce preparation is readily scalable and provides material with a smaller, more consistent particle size and higher surface area relative to SVPO prepared via the hydrothermal method. Lithium electrochemical cells utilizing SVPO cathodes made by our new process show improved power capability under constant current and pulse conditions over cells containing cathode from SVPO prepared via the hydrothermal method.     

A new strain hardening model for rate-dependent crystal plasticity

This paper presents a crystal plasticity based finite element analysis employing the new microstructure-based strain hardening model recently presented by Saimoto and Van Houtte (2011) [7] to simulate formability and texture evolution in the commercial aluminum alloy 5754. Simulations are performed to compare the predictive capability of the new hardening model against the common work hardening models using a rate-dependent plasticity formulation. The parameters in the numerical models are calibrated using the X-ray data published by Iadicola et al. (2008) [9] for the aluminum sheet alloy 5754. The predictions of the model for balanced biaxial tension and in-plane plane-strain tests are compared against experimental observations presented in Iadicola et al. (2008) [9]. It is concluded that the new model provides the best predictions of the large strain behavior of Aluminum sheet alloy 5754 subjected to various strain paths.     

Reactive and non-reactive transport modelling in partially water saturated argillaceous porous media around the ventilation experiment, Mont Terri

At Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Switzerland, a specific experiment has been performed in a tunnel, in order to investigate the hydro-mechano-chemical (HMC) perturbations induced in the argillaceous formation by forced ventilation. This experiment has been selected in the international project DECOVALEX to be used for process model development and validation. The numerical simulation of the geochemical response to the ventilation experiment (VE) is the object of the present paper, focusing on the transport of chloride as a conservative species and sulphate as a reactive species. Utilising the validated hydro-mechanical (HM) results from earlier steps of the DECOVALEX task, reactive and non-reactive transport models, incorporating the current understanding of the geochemistry at the site, were successfully constructed for the whole experimental period. The associated parametric and process uncertainty analyses clearly demonstrate that the basic HM understanding must be sound. However, to demonstrate this degree of robustness, the explicit inclusion of process representations of water desaturation, liquid vaporisation, species exclusion porosity, and redox processes, is required.     

Pd20Pt20Cu20Ni20P20 high-entropy alloy as a bulk metallic glass in the centimeter

A Pd₂₀Pt₂₀Cu₂₀Ni₂₀P₂₀ bulk metallic glass (BMG) with a high-entropy (HE) alloy composition and a maximum diameter of 10 mm was fabricated by fluxed water quenching. The system and composition of the Pd₂₀Pt₂₀Cu₂₀Ni₂₀P₂₀ alloy were determined from a prototype ternary Pd₄₀Ni₄₀P₂₀ BMG in accordance with two strategic alloy designs of (1) HE alloy defined by an equi-atomic alloy with five or more elements and (2) exchangeability of the constituent elements with a similar chemical nature in the periodic table. Pd₂₀Pt₂₀Cu₂₀Ni₂₀P₂₀ HE-BMG had a supercooled liquid range of 65 K and a reduced glass transition temperature of 0.71. Successful formation of Pd₂₀Pt₂₀Cu₂₀Ni₂₀P₂₀ HE-BMG is significant to develop new alloys for HE alloys and BMGs.     

Thermal Stability of Polycarbosilane-Derived Silicon Carbide Fibers under Reduced Pressures

Three types of polycarbosilane-derived SiC fibers—Nicalon, Hi-Nicalon, and Hi-Nicalon S—were exposed at temperatures of 1573–1773 K under a reduced pressure of 1.3 Pa. The thermal stability of the fibers was investigated through examinations of the gas evolution, grain growth, specific resistivity, fiber morphology, and tensile strength. The thermal decomposition of the silicon oxycarbide phase began at 1523 K; then, active oxidation of the β-SiC crystallites occurred at >1673 K. The active oxidation caused serious damage to the fiber structure, which resulted in significant degradation of the fiber strength. Hi-Nicalon had a tensile strength of ∼0.5 GPa after exposure at 1773 K, although Nicalon and Hi-Nicalon S fibers completely lost their strength, even after exposure at 1673 K. Hi-Nicalon fiber had relatively good thermal stability under reduced pressure.     

Flow‐Based Automatic Generation of Hybrid Picture Mazes

A method for automatically generating a picture maze from two different images is introduced throughout this paper. The process begins with the extraction of salient contours and edge tangent flow information from the primary image in order to build the overall maze. Thus, mazes with passages flowing in the main edge directions and walls that effectively represent an abstract version of the primary image can be successfully created. Furthermore, our proposed approach makes possible the use of their solution path as a means of illustrating the main features of the secondary image, while attempting to keep its image motif concealed until the maze has been finally solved. The contour features and intensity of the secondary image are also incorporated into our method in order to determine the areas of the maze to be shaded by allowing the solution path to go through them. Moreover, an experiment has been conducted to confirm that solution paths can be successfully hidden from the participants in the mazes generated using our method.     

Development of a new X-ray source using backscattered X-ray with the use of a cold cathode

The development of an intense X-ray source using backscattered X-ray produced using an advanced electrode configuration is described. The electrodes were composed of field emitters deposited on a wire mounted on a perforated plate as the cathode and a copper plate as the anode. Electrons from these emitters collided with the copper plate and X-ray was generated at collision points. The backscattered X-ray in the direction normal to the electron trajectory through a hole in the anode escaped from the vacuum chamber through a beryllium window. Continuous and characteristic X-rays were detected at an applied voltage lower than that of a conventional X-ray source from 3.0 to 9.4 kV, respectively. Moreover, the X-ray dosage measured with a survey meter reached 0.95 mSv/h at 5.0 kV of applied voltage. The transmission images of three types of material used as an X-ray source for the X-ray imaging system indicate three advantages; low power consumption, focal point controllable by adjusting applied voltage, and photographable motion picture of X-ray transmission.     

Current Pumping from Spin Dynamics

We show theoretically that charge and spin currents arise from spin dynamics in the presence of the spin–orbit interaction. The dominant calculation is the inverse spin Hall effect, namely the spin current pumped from precession of local spins is converted into the charge current by the spin–orbit interaction. The conversion mechanism is explained based on the conservation laws of charge and spin.     

LD抽运的Cr4+∶YAG被动调Q Nd∶YAG激光器

研究了不同谐振腔下不同透射率的Cr4 + ∶YAG调Q的激光输出特性。采用透射率为 82 %的Cr4 + ∶YAG ,在抽运功率 1 1W时 ,激光重复频率小于 3kHz,单脉冲能量达 2 0 μJ ,可以作为微脉冲激光雷达的发射光源。分析和比较了实验结果和理论计算 ,两者吻合较好     

Address‐While‐Display technique combined with gas‐discharge AND logic for driving AC‐PDPs

A hybrid AWD/AND drive technique has been developed in which an Address‐While‐Display (AWD) scheme is combined with an AND logic characteristic that gas discharges demonstrate. The AWD technique enables AC‐PDPs to be driven at high luminance, while the AND logic reduces the number of scan drivers by an order of magnitude. A detailed analysis of the addressing operation has been made. The hybrid drive utilizes the AND logic in two ways: (1) a combination of two voltage pulses and (2) a combination of a voltage pulse and discharge‐priming particles. It was found that the addressing operation requires the establishment of a discharge between the scan and data electrodes, and also between the scan and display electrodes.