Search

The four-point loading tests of polyvinyl alcohol fiber-reinforced recycled aggregate concrete (PVAF-RRAC) slabs are conducted and the impacts of reinforcement ratio ρs, content of PVA fiber ρf, span-thickness ratio l/h and replacement ratio of recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) γ on crack formation mechanism, crack spacing and crack width are analyzed. The failure modes of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) slabs and PVAF-RRAC slabs are distinguished by yield of longitudinal tensile reinforcement and fragmentation of concrete in compression zone. Meanwhile, the damage of PVAF-RRAC slabs is also accompanied by pull-out or broken of PVA fibers along crack gaps. In contrast, the concrete crushing phenomenon of PVAF-RRAC slabs is not distinct, indicating PVA fibers incorporation could improve flexural performance. The average spacing and maximum crack width of PVAF-RRAC slabs are relatively small, the crack distribution is more uniform. The crack development rate and crack width decrease as ρf or ρs increases while they increase as γ or l/h increases. Considering the impact of ρf on average crack spacing, a formula for approximately forecasting the average crack spacing of PVAF-RRAC slabs is proposed. Additionally, an influence coefficient of RCA is introduced, a prediction model for crack width in PVAF-RRAC slabs is established and test data are validated with favorable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the mechanisms of differentiated discursive disciplining for immigrants of different religious backgrounds in the French media. Based on a sample of 120 articles on immigration in the French mainstream media, textual analyses and comparisons were conducted. Results show that influenced by religious factors, the French media use secularism as a tool to portray completely different images of immigrants through different discursive logics. Muslim immigrants present a paradoxically biased negative image in the French media discourse as a collection of invaders and the disciplined. In contrast, the media image of Ukrainian immigrants of Orthodox Christian background is positive on the whole, with a certain degree of deliberateness in the details of its construction. The difference in the symbolic characterization between Catholicism and Islam enables the exclusionary media discourse against Muslim immigrants. The paper also discusses French media discourse flaws and policy dilemmas. The logic of French media discourse is paradoxical in its inability to maintain an intact secularist identification and to effectively influence political issues to the detriment of promoting immigrant integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify the associations of clinical and magnetic resonance (MR) features with overall survival (OS) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) achieving complete response (CR) after conventional transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and to further develop an individual nomograph to estimate the survival probability. Materials and methods: A total of 112 patients with unresectable HCC treated with TACE as first-line treatment were retrospectively evaluated. Potential risk factors associated with OS were identified by univariate and multivariate Cox analyses. The survival model was developed by multivariate Cox proportional hazard model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was calculated to assess the performance of each marker and of the whole model. Discrimination was performed using Kaplan–Meier curves, and the survival curves were compared by the log-rank test. A nomogram derived from the survival model was established. Results: Multivariate Cox analyses indicated that nonsmooth tumor margin, peritumoral enhancement, fat sparing in solid mass, and Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) stage were independent risk indicators associated with OS. The survival model showed acceptable diagnostic power, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.687. Kaplan–Meier curves demonstrated that the model discriminated well, as the high-risk and low-risk groups had median survival times of 21.6 months and 34.8 months, respectively (log-rank test, P = 0.01). Conclusions: Nonsmooth tumor margin, peritumoral enhancement, fat sparing in solid mass, and BCLC stage were potential biomarkers to evaluate the survival with favorable performance and discriminate HCC patients with CR under conventional TACE treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photochromic wood was fabricated by coating microencapsulated photochromic material (MP)/polydimethylsiloxane composites onto wood using a simple drop-coating method. Urea-melamine–formaldehyde resin was used to microencapsulate the photochromic material (PM) via in situ polymerization. The concentration of the MP affected the photochromic property of the wood surface. The total color change (ΔE*) reached 82.2 when the concentration of the composite coating is 8%. Adhesion tests confirmed that the composite coating adhered firmly to the wood. This method is potentially useful for the production of functional wooden products, such as anti-counterfeiting materials and aesthetic wood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acid sites of zeolite are important local structures to control the products in the chemical conversion. However, it remains a great challenge to precisely design the structures of acid sites, since there are still lack the controllable methods to generate and identify them with a high resolution. Here, we use the lattice mismatch of the intergrown zeolite to enrich the inherent Lewis acid sites (LASs) at the interface of a mortise-tenon ZSM-5 catalyst (ZSM-5-MT) with a 90° intergrowth structure. ZSM-5-MT is formed by two perpendicular blocks that are atomically resolved by integrated differential phase contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy (iDPC-STEM). It can be revealed by various methods that novel framework-associated Al (AlFR) LASs are generated in ZSM-5-MT. Combining the iDPC-STEM results with other characterizations, we demonstrate that the partial missing of O atoms at interfaces results in the formation of inherent AlFR LASs in ZSM-5-MT. As a result, the ZSM-5-MT catalyst shows a higher selectivity of propylene and butene than the single-crystal ZSM-5 in the steady conversion of methanol. These results provide an efficient strategy to design the Lewis acidity in zeolite catalysts for tailored functions via interface engineering. The acid sites are important local structures to determine catalytic performances of zeolites. Here, the authors expand the interface engineering to the field of porous zeolites through the lattice mismatch of the intergrown zeolite to enrich the inherent Lewis acid sites at the interface of a mortise-tenon ZSM-5 catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon (Si) nanowire as a kind of one-dimensional semiconductor material is widely used in solar cells, biosensors, nanoelectronic devices, and lithium-ion batteries, among other applications. Traditional preparation methods for Si nanowires require high-purity substrates and metal catalysts. Herein, we report an efficient method of synthesizing Si nanowires by electrochemical reduction of CaSiO3 in CaCl2 molten salt. An electrolytic cell with a ceramic diaphragm is designed to separate the cathode and anode, which effectively avoids the migration and enrichment of oxygen and impurity ions. The ceramic diaphragm slows the diffusion of O2− ions and is favorable to the formation of Si nanowires. Electron microscopy and XRD analysis reveal that the electrolytic products are mainly Si nanowires with a uniform size of 20–60 nm. The as-synthesized Si nanowires evaluated as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries deliver a reversible capacity of 886 mA h g–1 after 150 cycles at 0.2 A g–1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upper catchment of the Miyun reservoir is an important drinking water source in Beijing. In recent years, researchers have used the soil conservation service curve number (SCS-CN) model to calculate surface runoff for the district. Although the runoff forecasting accuracy was unsatisfactory, the lack of understanding of rainfall processes and their influence on runoff may explain the observed deviations. Our study sought to optimize and assess the SCS-CN model simulation accuracy for the district by proposing an SCS-CN calculation method for each runoff event (CNt) based on observation data for 253 rainfall and runoff events from 7 plots in the Miyun Shixia watershed. This study elucidated a significant positive correlation between the ratio of CNt and the average SCS-CN (CN1), as well as the ratio of the maximum X-minute rainfall amount (PX) to the total rainfall amount for each rainfall event (P). Furthermore, a calculation method involving power function equations between CNt/CN1 and PX/P was proposed for CNt. When X = 5 min and the initial abstraction ratio (λ) = 0.01, the simulation performance of the optimized model was the highest, with a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient of 0.791, which was significantly higher than that of the non-optimized SCS-CN model. The simulation performance for bare and cultivated land was higher than that of other land uses, with Ef values of 0.831 and 0.828, respectively. Future research should focus on improving the prediction accuracy of runoff events resulting from high-intensity and short-duration rainfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotic resistance is increasing to dangerous levels across the globe. A growing list of bacterial infections that lead to blood poisoning or foodborne diseases are becoming challenging to treat due to the loss of antibiotic efficacy. Studies on the antibacterial performance of Ag nanoparticles and other transitional metal oxides have gained increasing attention as an alternative therapeutic strategy. In this study, NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with different contents of Ag were synthesized through a simple co-precipitation method. The composites were assessed via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results demonstrated that the morphology of NiCo2O4 was unaffected by the addition of Ag. The NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with different contents of Ag showed a suitable size of approximately 10 nm. The NiCo2O4 and Ag/NiCo2O4 composites displayed potent activity against a range of disease-causing bacteria. The Ag/NiCo2O4 composites with low Ag content displayed weak antibacterial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital image processing has been widely used in the wood industry, and it is expected that the algorithms are accurate and have low computational complexities, especially for the real-time lumber grading and lumber classification processes. This paper investigates variations of deep learning strategies based on ResNet18 for classification of lumber images. The four datasets used in this work were manually marked as lumber defects, wood textures and lumbers by experts. A key ideal is to employ the transfer learning in the context of convolutional neural networks with a classifier layer only training with a small amount of training data for different tasks at the same lumber machinery. Through the expansion of unbalanced samples, the accuracy rate has been effectively improved. The human involvement when needed is kept to a minimum only for the training phase. The proposed approach was independently tested with four datasets, of which 80% of the data is used for training and 20% of the data is used for testing. The classification accuracy of the approach for each of the datasets is 98.16%, 93.32%, 96.64% and 99.50%. The average time for sorting the lumber image was kept at 0.003 s when the system runs on Nvidia GTX860 GPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nanocomposite soft actuator based on porous high-conductivity electrode membrane, which was composed of biopolymer cellulose mixed with chitosan and highly conductive nanoparticles generated by reduced graphene oxide encapsulated multi-walled carbon nanotube, was developed in this paper. No new substance was discovered in the regenerated electrode layer through the scanning analysis from FT-IR and XRD. Actuators exhibited significant enhancement in peak to peak displacement, which was 3.64 times increased than the traditional value at 5 V 0.1 Hz. With the test of solid-state electric double layer capacitor, actuators showed the highest specific capacitance (10.695 F g−1) at the current density of 1 A g−1, the lowest internal resistance (9.2 Ω g−1) in the frequency range of 105-10−2 Hz, and the lowest energy density (901 Wh kg−1) at the current density of 10 A g−1, which demonstrated the absolute advantages in the conductivity and channels for electrons. These findings suggest that research on porous high-conductivity electrode layer holds great promise in the further study of higher performance actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the growing demand of actuation performance, a highly powerful IL-cellulose based biocompatible ionic actuator was developed by the plasticization treatment method. In view of the effects of plasticizing treatment, the electromechanical properties and electrochemical properties of biocompatible ionic actuator were mainly studied in this paper. The characteristic peaks scanned by FT-IR and the phase analysis tested by XRD showed that no regenerated substances in the IL-cellulosed membrane were generated under different plasticizing parameters. With the increase of the plasticizing bath concentration and plasticizing time, the porosity of the IL-cellulose layer obviously decreased with a good flexibility, which improved the inner ions movement channels. CV results revealed that the specific capacitance under plasticization parameter of 30%—120 min was a significantly higher than that other IL-cellulose membranes. The results of EIS and GCD demonstrated that the ions diffusion rate increased under different plasticizer concentrations, and the charge and discharge speed was faster than the initial state. However, the ion diffusion rate remained unchanged under different plasticizing time, and the power density was declining along with a deteriorated permeability of IL-cellulose membrane. Additionally, through plasticization treatment, actuators under plasticization parameter of 30%—120 min exhibited largest single cycle peak displacement and peak to peak displacement, which were 219 and 393% over un-plasticized actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lumber moisture content (LMC) is the important parameter to judge the dryness of lumber and the quality of wooden products. Nevertheless the data acquired are mostly redundant and incomplete because of the complexity of the course of drying, by interference factors that exist in the dryness environment and by the physical characteristics of the lumber itself. To improve the measuring accuracy and reliability of LMC, the optimal support vector machine (SVM) algorithm was put forward for regression analysis LMC. Environmental factors such as air temperature and relative humidity were considered, the data of which were extracted with the principle component analysis method. The regression and prediction of SVM was optimized based on the grid search (GS) technique. Groups of data were sampled and analyzed, and simulation comparison of forecasting performance shows that the main component data were extracted to speed up the convergence rate of the optimum algorithm. The GS-SVM shows a better performance in solving the LMC measuring and forecasting problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volume variation is an uncertainty element which affects timber processing. We studied the volume variation of logs caused by quality defects in traditional timber processing and set up an optimization approach, using a robust optimization method. We used total number of acceptable boards produced to study the relationship between board thickness and raw material logs, using a heuristic search algorithm to control the variation of board volume to improve the output of boards, reduce the quantity of by-products, and lower production costs. The robust optimization method can effectively control the impact of volume variations in timber processing, reduce cutting waste as far as possible using incremental processing and increase profits, maximize the utilization ratio of timber, prevent waste in processing, cultivate the productive type of tree species and save forest resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the anti-friction and anti-wear properties of the WC/TiC/Co carbide, micro-EDM was selected to fabricate textured micro-holes on the carbide surface, and graphite was embedded into the micro-holes to form self-lubricating tools. Dry machining tests on AISI 1045 hardened steel were carried out with the self-lubricating tool and conventional ones. The cutting temperature and tool wear were investigated and compared. The results showed that the self-lubricating tool embedded with graphite exhibited excellent efficiency and stability in reducing cutting temperature, and then the tool wear was reduced compared to that of the conventional one. Through the analysis of test results and cutting temperature distribution theory, the mechanisms responsible are put forward: the first one is the formation of a graphite film on the tool rake face, which is conducive to reducing the temperature of chip and tool caused by tool-chip friction and chip deformation; the other one is attributed to the reduced actual contact length at the tool-chip interface due to the micro-holes, which is propitious to lower the temperature of chip and tool caused by tool-chip friction, supply more graphite, and store chip debris. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial muscles have attracted great attention for their potentials in intelligent robots, biomimetic devices, and micro-electromechanical system. However, there are many performance bottlenecks restricting the development of artificial muscles in engineering applications, e.g., the little blocking force and short working life. Focused on the larger requirements of the output force and the lack characteristics of the linear motion, an innovative muscle-like linear actuator based on two segmented IPMC strips was developed to imitate linear motion of artificial muscles. The structures of the segmented IPMC strip of muscle-like linear actuator were developed and the established mathematical model was to determine the appropriate segmented proportion as 1:2:1. The muscle-like linear actuator with two segmented IPMC strips assemble by two supporting link blocks was manufactured for the study of electromechanical properties. Electromechanical properties of muscle-like linear actuator under the different technological factors were obtained to experiment, and the corresponding changing rules of muscle-like linear actuators were presented to research. Results showed that factors of redistributed resistance and surface strain on both end-sides were two main reasons affecting the emergence of different electromechanical properties of muscle-like linear actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the tribological properties of the cemented carbide, Ti-MoS/Zr composite coatings were deposited on the substrate surface by medium-frequency magnetron sputtering coupled with multi-arc ion plating. The morphology and fundamental properties of the coatings were examined. Dry machining test on AISI 1045 hardened steel was carried out with the coated tool and uncoated tool. The variation of cutting temperature was tested by a TH5104 thermo tracer. The results showed that cutting speed had a profound effect on the cutting temperature. In low-speed cutting of less than 120 m/min, the cutting temperature was decreased by 18-22% and flank wear resistance was improved by 25-30% in comparison with that of uncoated tool, while in high-speed cutting, there was not much difference in cutting performance owing to the high temperature caused by the elevated cutting speed. Through the analysis of cutting heat distribution theory, two responsible mechanisms are found: as lubricating additive between the tool and chip sliding couple, the Ti-MoS/Zr composite coatings contribute to the decrease of average shear stress on the rake face and the thermal barrier effect in heat conduction. These may result in the decrease of the cutting temperature of tool and chip, and hence the improvement of tool wear resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, MCNT/MnO composite electrode actuators were fabricated by ultrasonic oscillating adsorption of MnO on both sides of the MCNT coated chitosan membrane. Elemental composition determined by an energy-dispersive spectrometer showed that the doping MnO was successfully adsorbed on the surface of MCNT. Surface morphologies of actuators under different doping MnO ratios (0, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1) were characterized using scanning electron microscopy. The electromechanical properties of actuators were further given by the experimental test platform, and the electrochemical properties of actuators were analyzed using cyclic voltammetry (CV). CV results revealed that the changing trends of specific capacitance and output force density, specific capacitance and strain were basically the same. When the ratio of MnO was less than 0.5, the former performance increased rapidly, while higher than 0.5, the latter grew faster. The experimental results showed that the adsorption content of MnO particles was affected by changing the conductivity of the electrode layer, which affected the electromechanical properties of actuators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, we introduce a chitosan polymer gel ionic actuator with dilute acid as electrolyte solution replacing ionic liquid. Interestingly, the switch not only produces obvious improvements in actuation performance, but the actuator bends towards the opposite direction. It presents a cathode deflection phenomenon instead of the usual anode deflection. Moreover, ion channels inside the electrolyte layer are obtained through a natural crosslinking treatment, so it allows an effective ions transportation inside the electrolyte layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of acid deposition on pine forest ecosystems in Longli of Guizhou Province, southwestern China are studied using indoor experiments and model simulations. Indoor experiments are designed to explore the aluminum toxicity on pine seedlings, and the long-term soil acidification model (LTSAM) and a terrestrial biogeochemistry model (CENTURY) are used to simulate the influences of acid deposition on pine forest ecosystems. The indoor experiment results of aluminum toxicity show that aluminum ions in solution limit plant growth and acid deposition enhances this effect by facilitating the release of aluminum ions from the soil. Pine seedling biomass and root elongation decrease as the aluminum concentration increases. The results of model simulations show that the soil chemistry varies significantly with different changes in acid deposition. When the acid deposition increases, the pH value in the soil solution decreases and the soil Al concentration increases. The increased acid deposition also has negative impacts on the forest ecosystem, i.e., decreases plant biomass, net primary productivity (NPP) and net CO uptake. As a result, the soil organic carbon (SOC) decreases because of the limited supply of decomposition material. Thus acid deposition need be reduced to help protect the forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel Krein space approach to robust estimation for uncertain systems with accumulated bias is proposed. The bias is impacted by system uncertainties and exists in both state transition and observer matrices. Initial conditions and cross-correlated uncertainty inputs are described by the sum quadratic constraint (SQC). Without modifying the SQC, the minimal state of the SQC is obtained through Krein space method. The inertia condition for a minimum of a deterministic quadratic form is derived when the coefficient of observer uncertainty input is non-unit matrix. Recursions of Krein space state filtering and bias filtering are developed respectively. Since the cross correlation between uncertainties is considered, a cross correlation gain is introduced into the posteriori estimator. Finally, a numerical example illustrates the performance of the proposed filter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coral-like mesoporous SnO was synthesized by controlled hydrolysis of SnCl and subsequent removal of the template by calcination in air. The obtained powder was doped directly with palladium chloride solution. The morphology, crystal structure, specific surface area, and photoelectrical and ethanol gas-sensing properties of undoped and Pd-doped coral-like SnO were investigated. The average crystalline sizes of undoped and Pd-doped SnO were estimated by Williamson-Hall plots to be 10.3 and 10.0 nm, respectively. From the N adsorption-desorption analysis, the pure sample had a surface area 63.3 m/g with pore size distribution narrowly centered around 5.7 nm. The film sensors based on undoped and Pd-doped SnO exhibited novel photoelectrical properties. The photocurrents of the sensors decreased with increasing UV light intensity. The response of the Pd-doped SnO sensor to 500 ppm ethanol was 35.3 under UV illumination at room temperature. The results demonstrated that Pd doping could achieve room-temperature detection to ethanol under UV light radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To implement a bioinspired methodology using superhydrophobic surfaces suitable for producing smart hydrogel beads in which the bioactive substance is introduced in the particles during their formation. Methods: Several superhydrophobic surfaces, including polystyrene, aluminum and copper, were prepared. Polymeric solutions composed by photo-crosslinked dextran-methacrylated and thermal responsive poly( N-isopropylacrylamide) mixed with a protein (insulin or albumin) were dropped on the superhydrophobic surfaces, and the obtained millimetric spheres were hardened in a dry environment under UV light. Results: Spherical and non-sticky hydrogels particles were formed in few minutes on the superhydrophobic surfaces. The proteins included in the liquid formulation were homogeneously distributed in the particle network. The particles exhibited temperature-sensitive swelling, porosity and protein release rate, with the responsiveness tunable by the dextran-MA/PNIPAAm weight ratio. Conclusions: The proposed method permitted the preparation of smart hydrogel particles in one step with almost 100% encapsulation yield. The temperature-sensitive release profiles suggest that the obtained spherical-shaped biomaterials are suitable as protein carriers. These stimuli-responsive beads could have potential to be used in pharmaceutical or other biomedical applications, including tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoS/Zr composite films were deposited on the cemented carbide YT14 (WC+14%TiC+6%Co) by medium-frequency magnetron sputtered and coupled with multi-arc ion plated techniques. The influence of negative bias voltage on the composite film properties, including adhesion strength, micro-hardness, thickness and tribological properties were investigated. The results showed that proper negative bias voltage could significantly improve the mechanical and tribological properties of composite films. The effects of negative bias voltage on film properties were also put forward. The optimal negative bias voltage was −200 V under this experiment conditions. The obtained composite films were dense, the adhesion strength was about 60 N, the thickness was about 2.4 μm, and the micro-hardness was about 9.0 GPa. The friction coefficient and wear rate was 0.12 and 2.1×10 cm/N·m respectively after 60 m sliding operation against hardened steel under a load of 20 N and a sliding speed of 200 rev·min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoS2/Zr composite films were deposited on the cemented carbide YT14 (WC+14%TiC+6%Co) by medium-frequency magnetron sputtered coupled with multi-arc ion plating techniques. The thickness, micro-hardness, and coating/substrate adhesion strength of the coatings were tested. Surface morphologies of the composite coatings, as well as wear features, were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. Dry machining tests on hardened steel were carried out with the coated tool and uncoated YT15 tool. The variation of cutting forces for 45# hardened steel was tested by the Kistler force tester. The result shows that the cutting forces of coated tool were decreased by 25–30%, and flank wear resistance was improved by 30–35% in comparison with the uncoated YT15 tool. Through the analysis of cutting force distribution theory, the lower mean shear stress on the MoS2/Zr-coated tool face leads to the decrease of cutting force and increase of tool wear resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the key challenge in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is how to efficiently enhance the surface charge density. Here, a new strategy is proposed to increase the surface charge density by comprehensively utilizing solar energy and tidal energy, and a bioinspired photoelectric-electromechanical integrated TENG (Pem-iTENG) is developed. This enhancement of output performance is greatly attributed to the accumulation of photoelectrons from photocatalysis and the triboelectric negative charges from contact electrification. Pem-iTENG shows a maximal open-circuit voltage of 124.2 V and a maximal short-circuit current density of 221.6 μA cm−2 under tidal wave and sunlight, an improvement by nearly a factor of 10 over that of reported TENGs based on solid-liquid contact electrification. More importantly, it exhibits a high energy conversion efficiency according to the evaluation method for solar cells. This work provides insights into development of high-performance TENGs by using different natural energy sources. Increasing the surface charge density of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) under a single energy source is of wide interest. Here, the authors increase the surface charge density by comprehensively utilizing solar energy and tidal energy to develop a bioinspired photoelectric-electromechanical integrated TENG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the performance of ionic actuators, the electrochemical and electromechanical properties of green ionic actuators with the electrolyte layer after doping with MWCNT was investigated in this paper. The surface morphology, elemental composition, corresponding content and functional group of the mixed electrolyte layer were observed and characterized by SEM–EDS, FT-IR and XRD. The CV test showed that when the doping amount was 0.8 wt%, the specific capacitance increases 187.6% and 205.3% compared with undoped electrolyte layer at the sweep speed of 20 mV s−1,500 mV s−1, respectively. The GCD test showed that the energy density increased to 144.3% at the current density of 1 A g−1. and the cycle life is correspondingly increased. At 5 V DC, the deflection displacement of actuators was 10.12 mm when the doping amount was 0.8 wt%, which was 238.1% higher than when the doping amount was 1.5 wt%. And the output force of actuators was 3.10 mN, which was 147.2% higher than when the doping amount was 0 wt%. At 5 V/0.05 Hz voltage, the peak displacement of the actuator was 2.871 mm, which was 238.1% higher than when the doping amount was 1.5 wt%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]