Form selection of concomitant polymorphs: A case study informed by crystallization kinetics modeling

Molecular mechanisms and process kinetics of crystallizing concomitant polymorphs remain poorly understood. Solvent-mediated phase transformation and concomitant crystallization are difficult to be distinguished in practice, as multiple forms can be detected at the same time. Herein, we developed a population balance model to simulate a concomitant crystallization process of two polymorphs of tolfenamic acid. Our kinetic modeling aims to understand concomitant crystallization and help guide form selection of such a molecular system. Crystallization kinetics of ethanolic solutions were uncovered from induction time measurements, as well as seeded and unseeded crystallization experiments. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate that the stable form I crystallizes concomitantly with the metastable form II. The faster growing form II results in an intermediate decline in the composition of form I in crystallized samples, a characteristic feature of the concomitantly crystallized system. A four-quadrant scheme of attainable polymorph outcome was simulated under various crystallization conditions.     

Er3+-Yb3+ ions doped fluoro-aluminosilicate glass-ceramics as a temperature-sensing material

The transparent Er³⁺-Yb³⁺-doped fluoro-aluminosilicate glass-ceramic (GC) was prepared by melt-quenching. The crystal phase, morphology, and up-conversion (UC) luminescence of as-produced GC were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and fluorescence spectrophotometry, respectively. The results show that BaYF₅ nanocrystals were uniformly distributed in the glass matrix of the as-produced GC. When the as-produced GC was subjected to heat treatment, the crystallinity was increased, but the crystal identity remains unchanged. Such heat-treatment doubled the intensity of the UC luminescence, and this enhancement was ascribed to the increased incorporation of both Er³⁺ and Yb³⁺ ions into the lower phonon energy environment of BaYF₅ nanocrystals. Furthermore, the heat-treated GC was stable against further crystallization, and consequently its UC luminescence was stable at the application temperature. The heat-treated GC was found to possess an outstanding temperature-sensing capability.     

Cold sintered,temperature-stable CaSnSiO5-K2MoO4 composite microwave ceramics and its prototype microstrip patch antenna

Dense (1-x)wt%CaSnSiO₅-xwt%K₂MoO₄ (CSSO-KMO) composite ceramics were fabricated by the cold sintering process at 180 °C under 400 MPa for 60 min. X-ray diffraction, Energy dispersive X-ray and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that CSSO and KMO coexisted without intermediate phases. As KMO weight fraction increased, relative permittivity (ε_r) and temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ_f) decreased and the microwave quality factor (Q×f, where f is resonant frequency) increased. Near-zero τ_f (-0.5 ppm/°C) was obtained for 65 wt%CSSO-35 wt%KMO with ε_r ～ 9.2 and Q×f ～ 6240 GHz. No chemical reaction between ceramic composites and silver was observed, demonstrating potential for cofiring with Ag-paste. A prototype antenna was fabricated from 65 wt%CSSO-35 wt%KMO composite ceramic with a bandwidth of 144 MHz @ -10 dB, a gain of 5.7 dBi and a total efficiency of 88.4 % at 5.2 GHz, suitable for 5 G mobile communication systems.     

Nb2O5-doped NiZnCo ferrite ceramics with ultra-high magnetic quality factor and low coercivity for high-frequency electronic devices

This work investigates the influence of niobium pentoxide (Nb₂O₅) as dopant, on the structural, magnetic, and dielectric properties of NiZnCo ferrites. The results showed that Nb₂O₅ was an effective dopant, and the Nb⁵⁺ ions entered the B site to replace Fe³⁺ ions, which altered the electromagnetic properties of the NiZnCo ferrite. In particular, the coercivity (H_c) was 20～24 Oe, and the magnetic quality factor (Q), was more than 200 at x = 0 and x = 0.1 wt%, which is 4～5 times higher than that of NiZn and NiCuZn ferrites. Excellent electromagnetic properties were obtained for 0.1 wt% Nb₂O₅-doped NiZnCo ferrite, i.e., M_s = 88.3 emu/g, H_c =20.4 Oe, ρ = 2.4 × 10⁵ Ω m and Q = 202 @20 MHz. These excellent electromagnetic properties of Nb₂O₅-doped NiZnCo ferrites could be potentially applied to resonators and capacitors at high frequency.     

Methods and mechanisms for uniformly refining deformed mixed and coarse grains inside a solution-treated Ni-based superalloy by two-stage heat treatment

The uniform refinement mechanisms and methods of deformed mixed and coarse grains inside a solution-treatment Ni-based superalloy during two-stage annealing treatment have been investigated.The two-stage heat treatment experiments include an aging annealing treatment(AT)and a subsequent recrystallization annealing treatment(RT).The object of AT is to precipitate some δ phases and consume part of storage energy to inhibit the grain growth during RT,while the RT is to refine mixed and coarse grains by recrystallization.It can be found that the recrystallization grains will quickly grow up to a large size when the AT time is too low or the RT temperature is too high,while the deformed coarse grains cannot be eliminated when the AT time is too long or the RT temperature is too low.In addition,the mixed microstructure composed of some abnormal coarse recrystallization grains(ACRGs)and a large number of fine grains can be observed in the annealed specimen when the AT time is 3 h and RT tem-perature is 980℃.The phenomenon attributes to the uneven distribution of δ phase resulted from the heterogeneous deformation energy when the AT time is too short.In the regions with a large number of δ phases,the recrystallization nucleation rate is promoted and the growth of grains is limited,which results in fine grains.However,in the regions with few δ phases,the recrystallization grains around grain boundaries can easily grow up,and the new recrystallization nucleus is difficult to form inside grain,which leads to ACRGs.Thus,in order to obtain uniform and fine annealed microstructure,it is a prereq-uisite to precipitate even-distributed δ phase by choosing a suitable AT time,such as 12 h.Moreover,a relative high RT temperature is also needed to promote the recrystallization nucleation around δ phase.The optimal annealing parameters range for uniformly refining mixed crystal can be summarized as:900℃×12 h+990℃×(40-60 min)and 900℃×12 h+1000℃×(10-15 min).     

针刺复合生态土工布的制备及植生性能研究

以黏胶短纤维和再生植物纤维为主要原料,采用短纤维干法成网-针刺加固工艺,在针刺密度为60～160针/cm2、针刺深度为3.5～ 12.0 mm、针刺频率为720～ 940次/min的条件下,制备单位面积质量在196～979g/m2、厚度在3.6～ 14.4 mm、再生植物纤维质量分数在39.6％ ～ 70.9％的针刺复合生态土工布,用于植生护坡.性能测试和植物种植试验结果表明:针刺复合生态土工布具有较好的力学性能和吸水保水性能,且对植物的生长具有良好的促进作用;随着针刺复合生态土工布单位面积质量的增加,其力学性能增加,吸水保水性能变好,发芽率、植株高度和植株质量也均呈现出增加的趋势.     

Dynamic hierarchical collaborative caching scheme in ultra-dense networks

Pushing popular contents to the edge of the network can meet the growing demand for data traffic, reduce latency and relieve the pressure of the backhaul. However, considering the limited storage space of the base stations, it is impossible to cache all the contents, especially in ultra-dense network ( UDN). Furthermore, the uneven distribution of mobile users results in load imbalance among small base stations (SBSs) in both time and space, which also affects the caching strategy. To overcome these shortcoming, the impact of the changing load imbalance in UDN was investigated, and then a dynamic hierarchical collaborative caching (DHCC) scheme was proposed to optimize latency and caching hit rate. The storage of the SBS is logically divided into the independent caching layer and the collaborative caching layer. The independent caching layer caches the most popular contents for local users爷interest, and the collaborative caching layer caches contents as much as possible for the benefit of content diversity in the region. Different SBSs have respective storage space layer division ratios, according to their real-time traffic load. For SBSs with heavy load, the independent caching layers are allocated with more space. Otherwise, the collaborative caching layers could store more contents with larger space. The simulation results show that, DHCC improved both transmission latency and hit rate compared with existing caching schemes.