A critical assessment and summary on the low carbon energy pile technologies based on the life-cycle perspective: Challenges and prospects

Energy piles, a technology integrating the heat exchange component within building pile foundations for shallow geothermal energy utilization, have proven economically efficient. They outperform conventional ground source heat pumps by mitigating additional borehole costs and space requirements. This paper systematically examines low-carbon...

An integrated EDIB model for probabilistic risk analysis of natural gas pipeline leakage accidents

Natural gas pipeline construction is developing rapidly worldwide to meet the needs of international and domestic energy transportation. Meanwhile, leakage accidents occur to natural gas pipelines frequently due to mechanical failure, personal operation errors, etc., and induce huge economic property loss, environmental damages, and even...

Thickness-Independent Capacitive Performance of Holey Ti₃C₂T_x Film Prepared through a Mild Oxidation Strategy

The Ti₃C₂T_x film with metallic conductivity and high pseudo-capacitance holds profound promise in flexible high-rate supercapacitors. However, the restacking of Ti₃C₂T_x sheets hinders ion access to thick film electrodes. Herein, a mild yet green route has been developed to...

Turning Maneuver Prediction of Connected Vehicles at Signalized Intersections: A Dictionary Learning-Based Approach

Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication has provided a solution for the improvement of the traffic efficiency of smart city intersections. For example, turning maneuvers prediction at signalized intersections in a connected environment helps traffic command centers time traffic lights and dynamically predict traffic flow. However, the...

Kinetic Analysis of Thermal Decomposition Process of Emulsion Explosive Matrix in the Presence of Sulfide Ores

This study aims to characterize the whole reaction process of (i) emulsion explosive matrix and sulfide ores, and (ii) ammonium nitrate and pyrite by the thermodynamics analysis method. A series of experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure from 25 °C to 350 °C at four heating rates (3, 5, 10, and 15 K/min) and the Coats–Redfern method...

Synergy of Ni micro-alloying and thermomechanical processing in Al–Mg–Si–Cu–Zn–Fe–Mn alloys with enhanced bendability

Synergy of Ni micro-alloying and thermomechanical processing on the phase distribution, formability and bendability of Al–Mg–Si–Cu–Zn–Fe–Mn alloys was systematically studied in this paper. With the addition of micro-alloying Ni, the Ni-containing Fe-rich phase can be formed, which not only serves as nucleation sites of Mg–Si precipitates ...

Fast age-hardening response of Al–Mg–Si–Cu–Zn–Fe–Mn alloy via coupling control of quenching rate and pre-aging

The coupling control of quenching rate and pre-aging and its positive effect on the age-hardening response of Al–Mg–Si–Cu–Zn–Fe–Mn alloy was systematically investigated. The larger and more stable solute clusters can be formed in alloy with fast age-hardening response by using the lower quenching rate (5.3 °C/min) and an appropriate pre-aging...

Dual-Functionalized Crescent Microgels for Selectively Capturing and Killing Cancer Cells

In cancer therapy, the selective targeting of cancer cells while avoiding side effects to normal cells is still full of challenges. Here, we developed dual-functionalized crescent microgels, which selectively captured and killed lung cancer cells in situ without killing other cells. Crescent microgels with the inner surface of the cavity...

Preparation of a poly(acrylic acid) based hydrogel with fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for the removal of cationic dyes

A biocompatible Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel was prepared through copolymerization of glycidyl methacrylate substituted dextran (Dex-MA) with acrylic acid (AA), which was applied as the adsorbent to remove cationic dyes from aqueous solutions. Dex-MA/PAA hydrogel presented a fast adsorption rate and the removal efficiency of Methylene Blue (MB) and...

Suppressing the Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Nanoparticles by Extremely Thin Al2O3 Films Grown by Gas-Phase Deposition at Ambient Conditions

This work investigated the suppression of photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide (TiO2) pigment powders by extremely thin aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films deposited via an atomic-layer-deposition-type process using trimethylaluminum (TMA) and H2O as precursors. The deposition was performed on multiple grams of TiO2 powder at room temperature...

Chitosan cross-linked poly(acrylic acid) hydrogels: drug release control and mechanism

Chitosan has been used to cross-link poly(acrylic acid) to give three pH-sensitive hydrogels designed to control the release of the drugs amoxicillin and meloxicam. The extent of cross-linking and solution pH was found to dominate the swelling behavior of these hydrogels as shown by scanning electron microscopy and swelling time dependencies....

Room-temperature pulsed CVD-grown SiO₂ protective layer on TiO₂ particles for photocatalytic activity suppression

This work presents a novel chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach that enables the deposition of ultrathin and conformal SiO₂ layers on TiO₂ anatase nanoparticles at room temperature using SiCl₄ and air containing water without the use of a catalyst. The morphology of the CVD-grown SiO₂ layers was...