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Maillard reaction between chitosan and xylan was performed in common ionic liquid solvent at the first time. FT-IR, UV-visible spectrophotometry and fluorescence spectrometry were used to character...

As a kind of potential absorbent, polysaccharide materials are limited due to weak stability, low absorption and recovery rate. Herein, a novel composite adsorbent – the magnetic composite gel beads (CMC/SA/graphene oxide@Fe3O4) were prepared by combining carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC), sodium alginate (SA) with graphene oxide@Fe3O4, and then utilized for the adsorption of Cu2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ from the wastewater. The physicochemical property of CMC/SA/graphene oxide@Fe3O4 beads were characterized in detail. The CMC/SA/graphene oxide@Fe3O4 magnetic gel beads could separate easily from the wastewater and showed a higher stability due to the addition of graphene oxide@Fe3O4. The adsorption experiments show that the adsorption of Cu2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ on the magnetic gel bead was well fitted with pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm model, and the maximum adsorption capacity of Cu2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+ reached 55.96, 86.28 and 189.04 mg/g, respectively. Moreover, the magnetic gel beads had selective adsorption toward Pb2+. In addition, the magnetic gel beads still obtained 90% of the adsorption rates after five cycles, and showed good adsorption efficiency in the simulated real environment. This work proves that the CMC/SA/graphene oxide@Fe3O4 magnetic gel beads as the adsorbents have promising potential in wastewater treatment.

Large aperture, lightweight optics are frequently utilized in modern optical systems. However, despite the use of advanced techniques for developing their materials, fabrication, and mechanical structure, the coatings placed on the substrates induce slight lattice mismatches and increase the thin film stress on polished surfaces. This significantly distorts nano-accuracy optical surfaces, especially on lightweight freeform surfaces. In this study, we construct a finite element model (FEM) and a ray tracing model to estimate the impact of the stress-induced deformation of the coating on a 1.5m class lightweight silicon carbine (SiC) mirror with a freeform surface. Our simulation results are within 10% deviation from the experimental results, and the deformation texture map matches these results as well. We discuss several possible strategies to overcome stress-induced deformation, including fabrication pre-compensation, lightweight structure redesign, and an inverse print-through effect.

In computer-controlled optical surfacing (CCOS), the paths of the lap tools are limited inside the optical surface; this restricts convolution in the dwell-time algorithm and causes mid-spatial-frequency surface errors. An optimized strategy ensuring relatively complete convolution of the dwell-time algorithm is developed to control the mid-spatial-frequency surface error and simultaneously ensure high optical manufacturing efficiency. Different-sized lap tools are then introduced to correct the surface error in different areas of the optics. Simulations and experiments using a large off-axis SiC mirror demonstrate the validity of the strategy, and it could be widely applied to CCOS in grinding or polishing processes.

Wound bleeding and infection are two of the major threats to patients' lives, but developing safe materials with high hemostasis efficiency and antibacterial activity remains a major challenge. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are suitable as antibacterial agents in the hemostatic process, but the application is hampered because of easy accumulation of toxicity. Herein, thiol-modified chitosan (TMC) was prepared by modifying with mercaptosuccinic acid and then was used to immobilize AgNPs to obtain composite sponges (TMC/AgNPs) for stemming the bleeding and preventing infection. TMC/AgNPs sponges had complex interlaced tubular porous structure with high porosity (99.42%), indicating high absorption. TMC had high immobilization efficiency for AgNPs-the release rate of AgNPs was 14.35% after 14 days-but the TMC/AgNPs sponge still had excellent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirm that the TMC/AgNPs sponge had fast and efficient hemostatic performance in comparison with the PVF sponge, and its possible mechanism was the synergistic effect of high blood absorption capacity and the interaction between amino, sulfydryl, and blood cells. Furthermore, the TMC/AgNPs sponge can promote wound healing by preventing wound infection, while the PVF sponge cannot. More importantly, the sponges had good safety due to the immobilization of TMC for AgNPs.

Chitosan (CS) can be used for the preparation of carbon materials with different morphologies due to its excellent properties, but there are no reports on its spherical morphology. In this study, a feasible step-by-step strategy was proposed to fabricate nitrogen-containing chitosan-based porous carbon microspheres (CPCM) in HCl and KOH. The unique spherical morphology and honeycomb-like porous structure of CPCM were accurately regulated. A great quantity of micro/mesopores endowed CPCM an ultra-high specific surface area up to 2463.9 m2 g-1. Moreover, CPCM exhibited an ultra-high maximum adsorption capacity up to 1599.03 mg g-1 for methylene blue (MB), meanwhile the adsorption process was in well agreement with the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. It was simultaneously a favorable reusable adsorbent with high regenerative capacity. The high dye adsorption properties suggest that chitosan can be a promising candidate for sewage treatment in the form of carbon microspheres.

Magnetorheological finishing (MRF) fabrication can effectively facilitate a rapid fabrication of an aspherical 2 m reaction-bonded silicon carbide mirror. The dwell-time algorithm and tool path supported tool-mark mitigation and virtual-axis employment are analyzed. A rapid-fabrication strategy alternates MRF and a large polishing lap to converge surface error profile before MRF alone is used to high-precise finishing. In the alternate-use process, large polishing lap’s dwell time map for low-order space frequency is calculated before MRF’s for high-order one, but executed later in reality. The fabricated mirror with a silicon modification layer showed accuracy convergence from 0.098 λ rms to 0.019 λ rms at 84.6 h, demonstrating the strategy’s validity for large optical-surface processing. Keywords: Computer controlled polishing, Silicon carbide mirror, Surface error, Magnetorheological finishing, Large polishing lap

Amounts of cost-effective biological observing and detecting instruments are needed in biology and medical applications. In these demands, a low-cost, portable microscope with light-weight and tele-communication, is very attractive in the resource-limit area. In this manuscript, a portable singlet phase contrast microscope based on smart-phones are proposed. In the optics hardware, an external singlet lens is designed and closely attached before the rear cameras of a smart-phone, which constructs the imaging part of a simplified microscope. And a circular oblique illumination is adopted. In the computational imaging part, the in-focus images recorded by the smart-phone are virtually enhanced and style-transferred to phase contrast images by deep learning methods. Through pairs of experimental image data, we train the deep learning network and demonstrate the effectiveness of this virtual phase contrast imaging approach using multiple samples, e.g., unstained/transparent tumor tissue pathological slide, and H&E (Hematoxylin and Eosin) stained tumor tissue pathological slide. Our results provide a powerful example of low-cost portable phase contrast microscope with high-speed tele-communication abilities in the 5G + mobile internet era.

Singlet microscopy is very attractive for the development of cost-effective and portable microscopes. In contrast to conventional microscope objectives, which consist of multiple lenses, the manufacturing process for singlet lenses is done without extensive assembling and aligning. In this manuscript, we report a novel singlet virtual Zernike phase contrast microscopy setup for unstained pathological tumor tissue slides. In this setup, the objective consists of only one lens. There is no need for the inset Zernike phase plate, which is even more expensive than a whole brightfield microscopy setup. The Zernike phase contrast is virtually achieved by the deep learning computational imaging method. For the practical virtual Zernike phase contrast microscopy setup, the computational time is less than 100 ms, which is far less than that of other computational quantitative phase imaging algorithms. With a conceptual demo experimental setup, we proved our proposed method to be competitive with a research-level conventional Zernike phase contrast microscope and effective for the unstained transparent pathological tumor tissue slides. It is believed that our deep learning singlet virtual phase contrast microscopy is potential for the development of low-cost and portable microscopes and benefits resource-limited areas.

Anisotropic conductive films (ACFs) are of great significance in miniaturized sensing devices, however it still is a huge challenge to fabricate ACFs via a facile and cost-effective method. Herein, ACFs containing aligned conductive stripes have been developed based on polypropylene (PP)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite. Compared with their isotropic counterparts, they demonstrate quick response, high responsivity and excellent reversibility for volatile organic vapors. The maximum responsivity toward three organic vapors is in the order of cyclohexane > dichloromethane > ethyl acetate, which is consistent with the calculated Flory-Huggins interaction parameter. The superior organic vapor sensing behavior of anisotropic PP/MWCNTs film (A-P/M-F) can be ascribed to the clear interfaces between stripes, which can accelerate the rapid absorption/desorption of vapors at such interfaces. Moreover, the spatial confining forced effect between the neighboring stripes is beneficial for reconstructing and stabilizing the internal conductive network, endowing A-P/M-F containing aligned conductive stripes with a good sensing stability. Furthermore, their vapor sensing behavior shows temperature dependence, that is, it increases with the increasing temperature because of higher absorption activation energy at higher temperature. This work provides a facile but cost-effective way to fabricate ACFs, enabling its industrial-scale application as organic vapor sensor with high stability and satisfied reliability.

Ion beam figuring (IBF) is a deterministic method for final figuring process of optical surface. The removal functions of IBF should be measured and calibrated strictly to guarantee the accuracy of the figuring results. The incident parameters of ion, surface profile and ion density distribution on the surface are the main factors which affect the material removal rate within the removal function. For the curved surfaces these factors vary from point to point so that the removal functions keeps changing when figuring curved surface especially for steep surface. Unlike the first two factors, the ion density distribution can’t be described by mathematic expression directly. Moreover, the ion is not in Gaussian distribution on the curved surface any more, which will result in variation of removal functions. Faraday cup is used to get the ion space distribution. So that the ion density on an arbitrary point can be obtained exactly. Based on the material removal features, revision method is proposed to fix the difference of the removal functions between the curved surface and the flat surface. Through experiments and theoretical analysis, the removal functions changes distinctly and not in Gaussian distribution. The computation method can fit the variety of the removal function effectively.

A functionalized paper based on gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) conjugated graphene oxide (GO) was developed for near-infrared (NIR) laser triggered photothermal ablation against infectious bacterial pathogens. Firstly, quaternized carboxymethyl chitosan (QCMC) not only acted as reducing agent to synthesize Au NPs, but also functioned as coupling agent to link up Au NPs with GO. Au-QCMC-GO(+) was supposed to synergistically intensify the photothermal effect, which was then mixed with nanocellulose to form a functionalized paper via vacuum filtration. The photothermal efficiency, antibacterial treatment and mechanical property of Au-QCMC-GO(+)/nanocellulose paper were investigated. Excited by NIR laser irradiation, Au-QCMC-GO(+)/nanocellulose paper generated a temperature rise over 80 °C, sufficient for photothermal ablation upon both Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Stapylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Additionally, Au-QCMC-GO(+)/nanocellulose paper showed a remarkable enhancement in tensile strength, bursting index and tear index compared to those of pure nanocellulose paper.

In deterministic computer-controlled optical surfacing, accurate dwell time execution by computer numeric control machines is crucial in guaranteeing a high-convergence ratio for the optical surface error. It is necessary to consider the machine dynamics limitations in the numerical dwell time algorithms. In this paper, these constraints on dwell time distribution are analyzed, and a model of the equal extra material removal is established. A positive dwell time algorithm with minimum equal extra material removal is developed. Results of simulations based on deterministic magnetorheological finishing demonstrate the necessity of considering machine dynamics performance and illustrate the validity of the proposed algorithm. Indeed, the algorithm effectively facilitates the determinacy of sub-aperture optical surfacing processes.

During the ion beam figuring (IBF) of a space mirror, thermal radiation of the neutral filament and particle collisions will heat the mirror. The adhesive layer used to bond the metal parts and the mirror is very sensitive to temperature rise. When the temperature exceeds the designed value, the mirror surface shape will change markedly because of the thermal deformation and stress release of the adhesive layer, thereby reducing the IBF accuracy. To suppress the thermal effect, we analyzed the heat generation mechanism. By using thermal radiation theory, we established a thermal radiation model of the neutral filament. Additionally, we acquired a surface-type Gaussian heat source model of the ion beam sputtering based on the removal function and Faraday scan result. Using the finite-element-method software ABAQUS, we developed a method that can simulate the thermal effect of the IBF for the full path and all dwell times. Based on the thermal model, which was experimentally confirmed, we simulated the thermal effects for a 675 mm×374 mm rectangular SiC space mirror. By optimizing the dwell time distribution, the peak temperature value of the adhesive layer during the figuring process was reduced under the designed value. After one round of figuring, the RMS value of the surface error changed from 0.094 to 0.015λ (λ=632.8 nm), which proved the effectiveness of the thermal analysis and suppression method.