2,117 research outputs found
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A model of ideal elastomeric gels for polyelectrolyte gels
The concept of the ideal elastomeric gel is extended to polyelectrolyte gels and verified using a polyacrylamide-co-acrylic acid hydrogel as a model material system. A comparison between mixing and ion osmosis shows that the mixing osmosis is larger than the ion osmosis for small swelling ratios, while the ion osmosis dominates for large swelling ratios. We show further that the non-Gaussian chain effect becomes important in the elasticity of the polymer network at the very large swelling ratios that may occur under certain conditions of pH and salinity. We demonstrate that the Gent model captures the non-Gaussian chain effect well and that it provides a good description of the free energy associated with the stretching of the network. The model of ideal elastomeric gels fits the experimental data very well.Engineering and Applied Science
Scaling Behavior of Quasi-One-Dimensional Vortex Avalanches in Superconducting Films
Scaling behaviour of dynamically driven vortex avalanches in superconducting
YBaCuO films deposited on tilted crystalline
substrates has been observed using quantitative magneto-optical imaging. Two
films with different tilt angles are characterized by the probability
distributions of avalanche size in terms of the number of moving vortices. It
is found in both samples that these distributions follow power-laws over up to
three decades, and have exponents ranging between 1.0 and 1.4. The
distributions also show clear finite-size scaling, when the system size is
defined by the depth of the flux penetration front -- a signature of
self-organized criticality. A scaling relation between the avalanche size
exponent and the fractal dimension, previously derived theoretically from
conservation of the number of magnetic vortices in the stationary state and
shown in numerical simulations, is here shown to be satisfied also
experimentally.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
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Stiff, strong, and tough hydrogels with good chemical stability
Most hydrogels have poor mechanical properties, severely limiting their scope of applications. Here a hybrid hydrogel, consisting of hydrophilic and crystalline polymer networks, achieves an elastic modulus of 5 MPa, a strength of 2.5 MPa, and a fracture energy of 14 000 J m−2, while maintaining physical integrity in concentrated electrolyte solutions.Engineering and Applied Science
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Variation of stress with charging rate due to strain-rate sensitivity of silicon electrodes of Li-ion batteries
Silicon is a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its enormous theoretical energy density. Fracture during electrochemical cycling has limited the practical viability of silicon electrodes, but recent studies indicate that fracture can be prevented by taking advantage of lithiation-induced plasticity. In this paper, we provide experimental insight into the nature of plasticity in amorphous LixSi thin films. To do so, we vary the rate of lithiation of amorphous silicon thin films and simultaneously measure stresses. An increase in the rate of lithiation results in a corresponding increase in the flow stress. These observations indicate that rate-sensitive plasticity occurs in a-LixSi electrodes at room temperature and at charging rates typically used in lithium-ion batteries. Using a simple mechanical model, we extract material parameters from our experiments, finding a good fit to a power law relationship between the plastic strain rate and the stress. These observations provide insight into the unusual ability of a-LixSi to flow plastically, but fracture in a brittle manner. Moreover, the results have direct ramifications concerning the rate-capabilities of silicon electrodes: faster charging rates (i.e., strain rates) result in larger stresses and hence larger driving forces for fracture.Engineering and Applied Science
Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oscillatory shape evolution for electromigration-driven islands
The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands under electromigration-driven
periphery diffusion is studied by kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations and
continuum theory. The energetics of the KMC model is adapted to the Cu(100)
surface, and the continuum model is matched to the KMC model by a suitably
parametrized choice of the orientation-dependent step stiffness and step atom
mobility. At 700 K shape oscillations predicted by continuum theory are
quantitatively verified by the KMC simulations, while at 500 K qualitative
differences between the two modeling approaches are found.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
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Failure by Simultaneous Grain Growth, Strain Localization, and Interface Debonding in Metal Films on Polymer Substrates
In a previous paper, we have demonstrated that a microcrystalline copper film well bonded to a polymer substrate can be stretched beyond 50% without cracking. The film eventually fails through the co-evolution of necking and debonding from the substrate. Here we report much lower strains to failure (around 10%) for polymer-supported nanocrystalline metal films, whose microstructure is revealed to be unstable under mechanical loading. We find that strain localization and deformation-associated grain growth facilitate each other, resulting in an unstable deformation process. Film/substrate delamination can be found wherever strain localization occurs. We therefore propose that three concomitant mechanisms are responsible for the failure of a plastically deformable but microstructurally unstable thin metal film: strain localization at large grains, deformation-induced grain growth and film debonding from the substrate.Engineering and Applied Science
Receptor Specificity Engineering of TNF Superfamily Ligands
The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand family has nine ligands that show promiscuity in binding multiple receptors. As different receptors transduce into diverse pathways, the study on the functional role of natural ligands is very complex. In this review, we discuss the TNF ligands engineering for receptor specificity and summarize the performance of the ligand variants in vivo and in vitro. Those variants have an increased binding affinity to specific receptors to enhance the cell signal conduction and have reduced side effects due to a lowered binding to untargeted receptors. Refining receptor specificity is a promising research strategy for improving the application of multi-receptor ligands. Further, the settled variants also provide experimental guidance for engineering receptor specificity on other proteins with multiple receptors
The U(1)A anomaly in noncommutative SU(N) theories
We work out the one-loop anomaly for noncommutative SU(N) gauge
theories up to second order in the noncommutative parameter .
We set and conclude that there is no breaking of the classical
symmetry of the theory coming from the contributions that are either
linear or quadratic in . Of course, the ordinary anomalous
contributions will be still with us. We also show that the one-loop
conservation of the nonsinglet currents holds at least up to second order in
. We adapt our results to noncommutative gauge theories with
SO(N) and U(1) gauge groups.Comment: 50 pages, 5 figures in eps files. Some comments and references adde
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