Amorphous carbon (a-C) film about 3
μm in thickness is coated on 316L stainless steel by close field unbalanced magnetron sputter ion plating (CFUBMSIP). The AFM and Raman results reveal that the a-C ...coating is dense and compact with a small size of graphitic crystallite and large number of disordered band. Interfacial contact resistance (ICR) results show that the surface conductivity of the bare SS316L is significantly increased by the a-C coating, with values of 8.3–5.2
mΩ
cm
2 under 120–210
N/cm
2. The corrosion potential (
E
corr) shifts from about −0.3
V vs SCE to about 0.2
V vs SCE in both the simulated anode and cathode environments. The passivation current density is reduced from 11.26 to 3.56
μA/cm
2 with the aid of the a-C coating in the simulated cathode environment. The a-C coated SS316L is cathodically protected in the simulated anode environment thereby exhibiting a stable and lower current density compared to the uncoated one in the simulated anode environment as demonstrated by the potentiostatic results.
The
in situ growth of ZnO nanosheets has been demonstrated by our research group and the excellent electrical contact between the ZnO nanosheets and brass substrate enables many potential ...applications in gas sensing and photocatalytic degradation. However, problems arising from corrosion, especially that arising from chloride ions, are inevitable in the field. In this work, the corrosion behavior of these ZnO nanosheets is investigated in chloride solutions. Our results show that in a NaCl solution, the chloride ions can react with ZnO to form ZnCl
2. When the NaCl concentration is relatively low (1
wt%), the structure exhibits a strong passivation behavior but a higher concentration of chloride ions can accelerate the transformation from ZnO to ZnCl
2. The results also disclose that a high concentration of NaCl weakens the passivation performance and when the concentration reaches 3
wt%, the passivation ability vanishes completely.
Nanocomposite coatings were prepared by atmospheric plasma spraying process using the Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) power mixed 5
wt.% nano-Al
2O
3. The mechanical properties of the nanocomposite ...coatings were studied by nanoindentation and the microstructures were studied by SEM and TEM. Compared to the microcomposite coatings prepared with YSZ powers without nano-Al
2O
3, the nanocomposite coatings can better tolerate applied loads and has higher hardness and elastic modulus values, better elastic recovery, and excellent microstructure. Associated with the investigation of the microstructure, the nano-Al
2O
3 is shown to play a major role in the grain refinement, densification, and microcrack formation, and be beneficial for better mechanical properties of the coatings.
Copper which has many favorable properties such as low cost, high thermal and electrical conductivity, as well as easy fabrication and joining is one of the main materials in lead frames, ...interconnects, and foils in flexible circuits. Furthermore, copper is one of the best antibacterial materials. However, unlike aluminum oxide or chromium oxide, the surface copper oxide layer does not render sufficient protection against oxidation. In this work, in order to improve the surface oxidation resistance of Cu, Al and N were introduced into copper by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) and beam-line ion implantation (BII). The implantation fluences of Al and N were 2
×
10
17
ions
cm
−2 and 5
×
10
16
ions
cm
−2, respectively. The implanted and untreated copper samples were oxidized in air at 260
°C for 1
h. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that both implantation methods can enhance the oxidation resistance of copper but to different extent. PIII is superior to BII in enhancing the oxidation resistance of copper. The effects and possible mechanisms are discussed.
In computer vision field, edge detection is often regarded as a basic step in range image processing by virtue of its crucial effect. Due to huge computational costs, majorities of existing edge ...detection methods cannot satisfy the requirement of efficiency in several industrial or biometric applications. This Chapter proposes a novel Rule-based Instantaneous Denoising and Edge Detection method (RIDED-2D) for preprocessing range images. First of all, a new classification is proposed to categorize silhouettes of 2D scan line into eight types by defining a few new coefficients. Subsequently, several discriminant criteria on large noise denoising and edge detection are stipulated based on qualitative feature analysis on each type. By selecting some scan points as feature point candidates, a practical parameter learning method is provided to train and refine the threshold set. RIDED-2D is implemented with three mode algorithms, fastest of which is an integrated algorithm by merging calculation steps to the most extent. Since all the coefficients are established based on distances among the points or their ratio, RIDED-2D is inherently invariant to translation and rotation transformations. For refining the edge lines, a forbidden region approach is proposed to eliminate interference of the mixed pixels. Furthermore, key performances of RIDED-2D are evaluated detailedly, including computational complexity, time expenditure, accuracy and stability. The results indicate that RIDED-2D can detect edge points accurately from several real range images, in which large noises and systematic noises are involved, and the total processing time is less than 0.1 millisecond on an ordinary PC platform using the integrated algorithm. Comparing with other state-of-the-art edge detection methods qualitatively, RIDED-2D exhibits a prominent advantage on computational efficiency. Thus, the proposed method is qualified for real-time processing in stringent applications. Besides, another contribution of this chapter is introducing CPU clock counting technique to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, consequently, the technique suggests a convenient and objective way to estimate algorithm’s time expenditure in other platforms.
Ionic actuators are promising candidates for artificial intelligence by virtue of their fast response and large strain under a low voltage stimulus. However, their actuation performances were limited ...to inferior ion-sensitive materials and electrodes with rather low mass loading (∼1 mg cm
−2
). Thicker electrodes with higher mass loading increase ion diffusion limitations during the electrochemical process and hence reduce the utilization of active materials without fully expressing the actuation effect. Here, a highly ion-sensitive silicon nanocomposite with a hierarchical porous structure is designed for ionic actuators. According to
ex situ
cryogenic TEM results, this material exhibits a large volume strain of 310% at the microscale under a voltage of 0.8 V in a three-electrode system. Additionally, its highly interconnected architecture facilitates rapid ion/electron transport and thus reduces the ion penetration depth across the thickness direction in electrodes. The actuator with a mass loading of 9 mg cm
−2
delivered impressive actuation performances, including a wide frequency response from 1 to 20 Hz, superfast response speed within 210 ms, a high blocking force of 71 mN, a large energy density of 10.91 kJ m
−3
, and excellent cycling stability over 10 000 cycles. Furthermore, a meso-mechanical model is put forward to verify actuation performances and displays great potential for prediction of advanced actuation materials.
Ultrahigh ion-sensitive silicon nanocomposites are designed for powerful ionic actuators with highly efficient electromechanical conversion and long cycling life.
To extract dysprosium (Dy) from LiCl–KCl molten salt, the electrochemical properties of Dy on liquid Sn electrode were explored by various electrochemical methods such as cyclic voltammetry (CV), ...chronopotentiometry (CP), and coulometric titration (CT). The Dy-Sn solid solution ((Dy-Sn)
solution
) was formed when the Dy was deposited on liquid Sn. The electrode process is a reversible reaction controlled by diffusion, and the diffusion coefficient of Dy(III) in LiCl–KCl molten salt was measured in the order of 10
−5
cm
2
s
−1
. CT and CP were used to assess the solubility and diffusion coefficient of Dy in liquid Sn, respectively. Meanwhile, the co-deposition of Dy(III) and Sn(II) was analyzed by CV and square wave voltammetry (SWV) to obtain the Dy-Sn intermetallic compounds, and four electrochemical signals related to Dy-Sn intermetallic compounds were observed. In addition, the feasibility of extracting Dy using liquid Sn electrode was verified by galvanostatic electrolysis (GE) and potentiostatic electrolysis (PE), and the products were characterized by XRD and SEM–EDS. The Dy-Sn alloys prepared by PE and GE consisted of DySn
2
and (DySn
3
+ DySn
2
), respectively.
•A novel low-loss microwave dielectric ceramic Ba16ZrNb12O48 is firstly reported: εr=36.85, Q×f=57,000 GHz, and τf=48 ppm/℃.•The relationship between microstructure and microwave dielectric ...properties were built.•Infrared reflectivity spectra of Ba16ZrNb12O48 ceramics are investigated to understand the internal dielectric properties.
A novel Ba16ZrNb12O48 ceramic is synthesized by a solid-state sintering method. The phase composition, microstructure, infrared reflectivity spectrum and microwave dielectric properties of Ba16ZrNb12O48 ceramic sintered at 1400−1500℃ are investigated. The differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction analysis indicate that Ba16ZrNb12O48 crystallizes in the hexagonal perovskite structure with space group R-3 m at 1250℃. As the temperature increases, the permittivity and Q × f value exhibit a strong relevance to the relative density. The satisfactory microwave dielectric properties of εr = 36.85, Q × f = 57,000 GHz (at f = 6.50 GHz), and τf = 48 ppm/℃ are obtained when the specimen is sintered at 1450℃, which renders Ba16ZrNb12O48 a potential candidate for microwave electronic devices.
