High Utilization Ratio Research Articles

Synthesis of high color performance V-ZrSiO4 blue pigment with low doping amount via inorganic sol–gel route

In this paper, high color performance vanadium ion (V4+) doped ZrSiO4 (V-ZrSiO4) blue pigment with low doping amount has been successfully synthesized by inorganic sol–gel route. According to the phase evolution and color behavior of the samples, the formation mechanism of the V-ZrSiO4 pigment was revealed. Besides, due to the immobilization effect of the gel network and the high precursor reactivity, the reported synthesis route has extremely high vanadium utilization ratio (99.69%). Based on the results of XPS and XRF analysis, it is found that the valence state of vanadium ion in the V-ZrSiO4 pigment is 4+, meanwhile, the vanadium cations are heterogeneously distributed in the pigment particles and are enriched within the outer layers. Compared with the previously reported V-ZrSiO4 pigments, the as-prepared V-ZrSiO4 pigment shows a bright blue hue (b*=–22.01), in which the theoretical content of V4+ is only 2 mol%. After applying on ceramic glaze, the V-ZrSiO4 pigment exhibited superior coloring performance and high-temperature stability, indicating its potential application in ceramic decoration. This work provides a facile strategy to synthesize high color performance ion-doping type pigment.

Scalable Blade Coating: A Technique Accelerating the Commercialization of Perovskite‐Based Photovoltaics

Since the first report in 2009 with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.8%, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have become the hot research topic in the field of photovoltaics and rapidly achieved a certified PCE of 25.5% within just a decade. Compared to its counterparts such as single‐crystalline silicon solar cells or CIGS, PSCs present the obvious advantages of low cost and solution processability. However, the most efficient PSCs are mainly based on devices with an active area of less than 0.1 cm2 by a conventional spin‐coating method in the lab. To put forward the commercialization of PSCs, it is mandatorily required to manufacture a large‐scale PSC module with practical and scalable fabrication techniques. As one of the most viable and promising scalable techniques, the blade coating process with various types available (including doctor‐blade coating, slot‐die coating, roller coating) has been widely investigated due to many attractive merits of high PCE, easy operation, low cost with cheap facilities, and high materials utilization ratio. Herein, the challenges of fabricating large‐area PSCs and manipulation of film quality for highly efficient PSCs fabricated with blade coating are introduced and discussed.

Series-Parallel Reconfigurable Electric Double-Layer Capacitor Module with Cell Equalization Capability, High Energy Utilization Ratio, and Good Modularity

Voltages of electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) modules vary rather wider than traditional secondary batteries. Although EDLCs should desirably be cycled in a voltage range as wide as possible to achieve a high energy utilization ratio, the wide voltage variation of EDLC modules impairs the performance of DC–DC converters. To address such issues, previous works reported series-parallel reconfiguration techniques, which are roughly divided into balance- and unbalance-shift circuits. However, conventional balance-shift circuits are not applicable to modules comprising odd number cells, impairing modularity. Unbalance-shift circuits, on the other hand, unavoidably cause cell voltage imbalance that reduces energy utilization ratio. This paper proposes a novel series-parallel reconfigurable EDLC module with cell voltage equalization capability. The proposed reconfigurable EDLC module is applicable to any number of cells, realizing good modularity. Furthermore, all cells in the proposed module can be charged and discharged uniformly without generating cell voltage imbalance, achieving an improved energy utilization ratio compared with conventional techniques. A five-cell module prototype was built for experimental verification. While the module voltage varied between 1.04 and 2.83 V, all cells discharged from 2.5 to 0.3 V. The result is equivalent to a 98.6% energy utilization ratio.

Leaf-Inspired Flexible Thermoelectric Generators with High Temperature Difference Utilization Ratio and Output Power in Ambient Air.

The inherently small temperature difference in air environment restricts the applications of thermoelectric generation in the field of Internet of Things and wearable electronics. Here, a leaf‐inspired flexible thermoelectric generator (leaf‐TEG) that makes maximum use of temperature difference by vertically aligning poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate and constantan thin films is demonstrated. Analytical formulae of the performance scales, i.e., temperature difference utilization ratio (φ th) and maximum output power (P max), are derived to optimize the leaf‐TEG dimensions. In an air duct (substrate: 36 °C, air: 6 °C, air flowing: 1 m s−1), the 10‐leaf‐TEG shows a φ th of 73% and P max of 0.38 µW per leaf. A proof‐of‐concept wearable 100‐leaf‐TEG (60 cm2) generates 11 µW on an arm at room temperature. Furthermore, the leaf‐TEG is flexible and durable that is confirmed by bending and brushing over 1000 times. The proposed leaf‐TEG is very appropriate for air convection scenarios with limited temperature differences.

Annual report readability, agency costs, firm performance: an investigation of Oman's financial sector

PurposeThe readability of annual reports is an important feature that determines the quality of communication between a firm and its stakeholders. Extant literature has demonstrated that readability characteristics of annual reports are crucial in facilitating the investor's ability to process and analyze information, resulting in higher firm performance and lower agency costs. This study examines the relationship between annual report readability, agency costs and the firm performance of listed financial sector companies in Oman.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 150 firm-year observations of listed financial sector companies on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) over the period 2014 to 2018, a panel regression analysis is used, along with the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to address endogeneity concerns. The readability of annual reports is proxied by the length of the annual report, the Flesch reading ease and the Flesch–Kincaid index.FindingsThe ordinary least squares (OLS) results suggest that readability proxied by the length of the annual report has no significant relationship with agency cost, return on assets (ROA) or stock returns. The OLS results are confirmed through the system GMM estimation model for agency costs, Tobin's Q and stock returns. Easier-to-read annual reports measured by the Flesch reading ease demonstrate high asset utilization ratio and Tobin's Q. These results emphasize Flesch reading ease measure in explaining the economic significance of agency cost and Tobin's Q. In contrast, difficult-to-read annual reports are observed for firms with high ROA.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to the financial sector. Its generalizability could be extended to a similar sector or countries with features similar to Oman. Future studies on readability could be extended to other sectors of Oman, and financial firms with easier-to-read annual reports show a high Tobin's Q, which reflects the confidence of investors in the stock market. These findings may encourage policymakers to regulate the readability features of annual reports and influence the reporting quality of financials and disclosures also including cross-country comparisons.Practical implicationsFinancial firms with easier-to-read annual reports show a high Tobin's Q, which reflects the confidence of investors in the stock market. These findings may encourage policymakers to regulate the readability features of annual reports and influence the reporting quality of financials and disclosures.Originality/valueWhile the study extends prior literature on readability, agency costs and firm performance, it is also one of the first to examine the financial sector of an emerging country, namely, Oman. The study supports the obfuscation hypothesis through the association of readability measure with agency cost. Unlike prior research that has focused on common computational linguistic literature, this study uses three proxies for readability to assess information quality.

Self-Propagating Enabling High Lithium Metal Utilization Ratio Composite Anodes for Lithium Metal Batteries.

Constructing three-dimensional (3D) structural composite lithium metal anode by molten-infusion strategy is an effective strategy to address the severe problems of Li dendritic growth and huge volume changes. However, various challenges, including uncontrollable Li loading, dense inner structure, and low Li utilization, still need to be addressed for the practical application of 3D Li anode. Herein, we propose a self-propagating method, which is realized by a synergistic effect of chemical reaction and capillarity effect on porous scaffold surface, for fabricating a flexible 3D composite Li metal anode with high Li utilization ratio and controllable low Li loading. The composite 3D anode possesses controllable low loading (8.0-24.0 mAh cm-2) and uniform grid structure, realizing a stable cycling over 600 h at a high Li metal utilization ratio over 75%. The proposed strategy for fabricating composite 3D anode could promote the practical application of Li metal batteries.

Torque Performance Improvement of Consequent-Pole PM Motors With Hybrid Rotor Configuration

Both the consequent-pole permanent magnet (CPM) motor and the spoke-type PM motor have the potential to reduce the consumption of PMs while suffering from the high-torque pulsation. This article proposes a new hybrid rotor CPM motor, in which the hybrid rotor is composed of consequent-pole surface-mounted PM (SPM) modules and spoke-type PM rotor modules. Compared with the existed hybrid rotor CPM motor with half of spoke-type PM rotor modules, the whole of spoke-type PM rotor modules and their shifting are capable to adjust the harmonics of the rotor-MMF, which is the benefit to improvement of the torque performances. To obtain high-torque performances and low PM volume, multiobjective optimization is employed to optimize the key parameters. Afterward, the proposed motor is compared with three PM motors. The results show that, compared with the SPM motor, the proposed CPM motor offers high PM torque and PM utilization ratio, such as other CPM motors. Besides, the torque pulsation is reduced significantly compared with the traditional CPM motor. Hence, the proposed motor offers a high PM utilization ratio and low-torque pulsation simultaneously. Through the finite element method (FEM) analysis and experimental test, the merits of the proposed hybrid CPM motor are verified.

Single-Stage Active Split-Source Inverter With High DC-Link Voltage Utilization

Split-source inverter (SSI) has been proved to be an attractive single-stage dc/ac converter for its compact structure, continuous input voltage, and input current. However, due to the coupling of the boost stage and the inverter stage, SSI suffers from the low dc-link voltage utilization problem, which will increase the system cost and switching losses. To break through this inherent limitation, this article proposes an active SSI (ASSI). It replaces the two clamping diodes in SSI with reverse-blocking switches, which features extended control degrees of freedom. One modulation scheme tailored for the ASSI has also been developed in this article to enhance its performance. Theoretical analyses and simulation results show that the proposed ASSI features not only a high dc-link voltage utilization ratio but also higher efficiency compared to the traditional SSI. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed ASSI has been verified experimentally.

An Ultra-Highly Parallel Polynomial Multiplier for the Bootstrapping Algorithm in a Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme

Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is a post-quantum secure cryptographic technology that enables privacy-preserving computing on an untrusted platform without divulging any secret or sensitive information. The core of FHE is the bootstrapping algorithm, which is the intermediate refreshing procedure of a processed ciphertext. However, this step has been the computational bottleneck that prevents real-world deployments among various FHE schemes. This paper, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time, presents a scalable and ultra-highly parallel design for the number theoretic transform (NTT)-based polynomial multiplier with a variable number of reconfigurable processing elements (PEs). Hence, the highest degree of acceleration can be achieved for any targeted hardware platform by implementing as many PEs as possible under the resource constraint. The corresponding addressing and scheduling schemes are also proposed to avoid memory access conflict for the PEs, which yields an extremely high utilization ratio of 99.18% on average. In addition, the latency of the proposed design with the general negative wrapped convolution algorithm is reduced by 59.20% compared to prior works.

A High Capacity and Working Voltage Potassium‐Based Dual Ion Batteries

Potassium‐based dual ion batteries (KDIBs) have attracted significant attention owing to high working voltage, high safety, low processing cost, and environmental friendliness. Nevertheless, one great challenge for practical KDIBs is to develop suitable anode materials with high specific capacity. Herein, we report an architecture of hierarchically porous antimony nanoparticles/carbon nanofibers (HPSbCNFs) as flexible, free‐standing anode for high‐performance KDIBs. The HPSbCNFs with hierarchically porous structure, and high‐content nitrogen doping, not only offer sufficient free space to tolerate the repetitive volume expansion of Sb nanoparticles during long‐term cycling, but also greatly facilitate the transport of electrons and ions within electrode, ensuring high material utilization ratio. Thus, the KDIBs, constituted by HPSbCNFs‐700 (calcined at 700 °C) anode and graphite cathode, exhibited a high reversible capacity of 440 mAh g−1with high discharge medium voltage of 4.5 V at a specific current of 200 mA g−1(the highest capacity for all KDIBs normalized by the mass of the anode), and excellent cyclic life. Outstanding electrochemical reversibility of the KDIBs was further demonstrated byex situXRD,ex situRaman spectrum, and HRTEM. These results suggest the as‐designed HPSbCNFs‐700 with high‐capacity and long‐term cycling stability is a promising anode material for high‐performance KDIBs.

Utilization of quinoa flour (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) in gluten-free pasta formulation: Effects on nutritional and sensory properties.

In this study, raw and germinated quinoa seed flour was utilized in gluten-free pasta formulation. Rice:corn semolina (50:50) blend was used in gluten-free pasta as a control group. Quinoa flours were replaced with rice:corn semolina blend at different (0-30%) ratios in gluten-free pasta formulation. Guar gum (3%) was also used to tolerate structural defects caused by gluten deficiency. Trials were conducted according to (2 × 4) × 2 factorial design. Color values, cooking properties, and chemical and sensory attributes of gluten-free pasta samples were determined. Quinoa flour type and quinoa flour addition ratio factors significantly (p < 0.05) affected the L*, a* color values and all of the cooking properties of the gluten-free pasta samples. Utilization of germinated quinoa flour in gluten-free pasta revealed lower water uptake, volume increase, firmness, and higher cooking loss values than that of raw quinoa flour. Quinoa flour especially improved the mean values of protein, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity from 8.1%, 0.7 mg GAE/g, and 13.4%, up to 12.7%, 1.5 mg GAE/g, and 28.8%, respectively. A significant (p < 0.05) increment was observed in Ca, Fe, K, Mg, P, and Z content of the gluten-free pasta and all addition ratios of quinoa flour. As a result, increasing amount of quinoa flour enriched the nutritional composition of gluten-free pasta but high utilization ratio resulted in slight sensory losses.

Changes in chemical and anti-nutritional properties of pasta enriched with raw and germinated quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) flours

In this study, quinoa seeds were processed to flour in ungerminated (raw) and germinated forms. Raw quinoa flour (RQF) and germinated quinoa flour (GQF) were replaced (0, 10, 20 and 30%) with wheat semolina in pasta formulation to improve nutritional and functional properties of pasta. Some chemical (ash, crude fat, crude protein, total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (AA) and mineral matter), anti-nutritional (phytic acid), physical and sensory properties of pasta samples were determined. With germination of quinoa seed, ash, protein, TPC and AA amount of GQF increased by 51%, 37%, 111%, 123% and 17%, respectively, while phytic acid amount decreased by 77%, in comparison to RQF. As the RQF or GQF ratio increased in pasta formulation, ash, crude protein, TPC, AA and mineral matter amounts significantly (p < 0.05) increased. Such parameters linearly increased with the elevated ratio of quinoa flour. Compared to RQF, GQF at high utilization ratios displayed higher negative effects on cooking quality of pasta, but it showed great performance on increasing nutritional and functional properties.

Improved film morphology and reduced defects in solution-processed red phosphorescent emission layer of the organic light-emitting diodes

The fabrication of highly efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) by solution processes has become a hot research point due to the low production cost, high material utilization ratio and simple fabrication process. Herein, highly efficient, solution-processed red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) using chlorobenzene (CB) and isopropanol (IPA) as mixed solvents are proposed. It is found that both the roughness and the defect states of emission layer (EML) prepared with mixed solvents are reduced. Thereby, the electroluminescence performance of PhOLEDs are enhanced compared with that of the ones with pure CB as the solvent. With CB:IPA ratio of 5:1, the current efficiency and the external quantum efficiency of device reach 27.1 cd/A and 17.2 %, respectively. These results prove that the use of IPA can improve the device performance even if it is not able to dissolve the organic materials, which breaks the limitation of the use of alcohol solvent in solution-processed OLEDs.

Fluorine-Substituted Phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole Derivatives with Optimized Charge-Transfer Characteristics for Efficient Deep-Blue Emitters

The development of high-efficiency deep-blue emitters is of great importance for full-color organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In this contribution, three difluorine-substituted phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole derivatives with optimized charge-transfer character and deep-blue emission have been developed. It is demonstrated that the fluorine substitution can facilitate the “state mixing” of singlet and triplet excitons, which increases the utilization of triplet excitons. The fluorine substitution also brings more intermolecular interactions which have influence on the molecular packing pattern of the solid states, ultimately impacting their carrier mobilities. Through fine-tuning of molecular structures, 4'-(1-(3,5-difluorophenyl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazol-2-yl)-N,N-diphenyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-amine (2FPPIDPA) realized a high exciton utilization ratio with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.156, 0.046), and 4'-(1-(3,5-difluorophenyl)-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazol-2-yl)-N,N-diphenyl-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-amine (2FPPIDPA) achieved an external quantum efficiency of 8.47% with CIE coordinates of (0.152, 0.083) in multilayer OLEDs. Due to their good hole-transport abilities, double-layer OLEDs without the hole-transport layer showed performances comparable or even superior to the multilayer ones.

Realization and evaluation of the Boron Nano Particle-based drip-coating method for boron-lined gaseous neutron detectors

A variety of boron coating methods have been applied for realizing the boron-lined gaseous neutron detectors, however they usually have to face the problem of non-uniform thickness for large area boron coating and low utilization ratio of boron materials. In this study, a Boron Nano Particle (BNP)-based drip-coating method was researched and introduced, with the advantages of fast boron coating speed and high utilization ratio of boron material. Neutron tests conducted at the Institute Laue Langevin, Grenoble, France, demonstrated that the natB4C sample made by this method can realize boron layer with the mass thickness ranging from 0.05 to 0.5 mg/cm2, as well as a good thickness uniformity, indicating that the BNP-based drip-coating method has the potential to realize boron layers that can be used for various boron-lined gaseous neutron detectors.

Share-Based Edge Computing Paradigm With Mobile-to-Wired Offloading Computing

The underutilized resources from nearby wired devices can be shared to compute for the restricted mobile devices at the edge of network. In this letter, we propose the share-based edge computing (SEC) paradigm with the mobile-to-wired (M2W) offloading computing. By sharing the idle resources under control of SEC servers, tasks from mobile devices can be computed on wired devices. Moreover, a well-designed computing allocation and sharing (CAS) algorithm is proposed to ensure the low fail ratio and the high utilization ratio of the SEC paradigm. Numerical results demonstrate the SEC paradigm has a better performance compared to local computing and mobile edge computing (MEC).

Energy-Saving Strategies and their Energy Analysis and Exergy Analysis for In Situ Thermal Remediation System of Polluted-Soil

The environmental safety of soil has become a severe problem in China with the boost of industrialization. Polluted-soil thermal remediation is a kind of suitable remediation technology for large-scale heavily contaminated industrial soil, with the advantages of being usable in off-grid areas and with a high fuel to energy conversion rate. Research on energy-saving strategies is beneficial for resource utilization. Focused on energy saving and efficiency promotion of polluted-soil in situ thermal remediation system, this paper presents three energy-saving strategies: Variable-condition mode (VCM), heat-returning mode (HRM) and air-preheating mode (APM). The energy analysis based on the first law of thermodynamics and exergy analysis based on the second law of thermodynamics are completed. By comparing the results, the most effective part of the energy-saving strategy for variable-condition mode is that high savings in the amount of natural gas (NG) used can be achieved, from 0.1124 to 0.0299 kg·s−1 in the first stage. Energy-saving strategies for heat-returning mode and air-preheating mode have higher utilization ratios than the basic method (BM) for the reason they make full use of waste heat. As a whole, a combination of energy-saving strategies can improve the fuel savings and energy efficiency at the same time.

Modeling Evacuation of High-Rise Buildings Based on Intelligence Decision P System

High-rise buildings usually have more complex architectural structures and hold more people than single-storey buildings. Currently, crowd management under emergent conditions, especially rapid evacuations of high-rise buildings, is a worldwide problem. In this study, a bio-inspired simulation technology extracted from a cell migration process, namely Intelligent Decision System (IDPS), was used to model the dynamic evacuation of high-rise buildings and calculate the evacuation time for different scenarios. This work was motivated by the comparability between the pedestrian movement behavior and cell migration process. Specific structure information of high architecture was also described in IDPS. A case study was done about evacuation simulation of a 12-storey teaching building in China University of Geosciences in Beijing. The simulation results showed that evacuation time varied with different parameters, such as density threshold, interaction probability, walking speed, population distribution, and stair width. With the proper density threshold and good interaction probability, the load balance of staircases and exits can be improved. For staircases with high utilization ratios, it was recommended that the evacuation process can be accelerated by widening the staircases appropriately. Finally, the impact of initial number of evacuees at each floor level was also analyzed in view of safety management.

Palladium clusters confined in triazinyl-functionalized COFs with enhanced catalytic activity

Noble-metal-cluster-based catalysts have attracted immense research attention due to their high atom utilization ratio and superior catalytic activity. However, it is still challenging to control the size growth of noble-metal clusters. Here, triazinyl-functionalized covalent organic frameworks (Triazinyl-COFs) with different pore diameters were synthesized by the condensation of cyanuric chloride with each of p-phenylenediamine and 4,4′-diaminobiphenyl, referred to as COF-Ph and COF-BPh, respectively. A simple synthetic strategy was employed for controlling the Pd clusters growth and anchoring Pd clusters based on the confinement effect of Triazinyl-COFs pores. The as-obtained Pd@COF-Ph and Pd@COF-BPh catalysts with a Pd cluster size of ˜0.8 nm exhibited superior activity and excellent stability for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, attributing to the high utilization of Pd active sites and the confinement effect of Triazinyl-COFs. Besides, the influence of the different pore sizes of COF-Ph and COF-BPh on the catalytic performance of the obtained catalysts was also investigated.

Study on Preliminarily Estimating Performance of Elementary Deep Underground Engineering Structures in Future Large-Scale Heat Mining Projects

Geothermal energy will become an important part of energy in the future because of its advantages in source stability, sustainability, and potential high utilization ratio. In particular, the development and utilization of deep geothermal energy from HDR have gradually attracted people’s attention. Aiming at solution to the bottleneck of EGS-D, a new EGS-E based on excavation technology is proposed. In this paper, a concise and direct method for estimating the early performance of this disruptive and innovative geothermal development scheme is established as a viable alternative to supercomputing for the subsequent quantitative research of the corresponding relationship between a typical deep engineering structure and its heat extraction efficiency. Firstly, the effects of the fixed temperature at a tunnel wall, the radius of a tunnel, and the rock type on the annual heat extraction rate of the tunnel are studied based on the analytical solution of a one-dimensional radial plane problem of the transient heat conduction through high-temperature surrounding rock to the tunnel wall covering 30 years. Then, three different estimation methods of EGS-E efficiency with comb-shaped and chessboard-shaped underground tunnels, respectively, are studied, and the research ideas for the estimation of the EGS-E system with more complicated cobweb-shaped tunnels are pointed out.