Inchworm-like Soft Robot with Multi-Responsive Bilayer Films

As an important branch of robotics, soft robots have the advantages of strong flexibility, a simple structure, and high safety. These characteristics enable soft robots to be widely used in various fields such as biomedicine, military reconnaissance, and micro space exploration. However, contemporary soft crawling robots still face problems such as the single drive mode and complex external equipment. In this study, we propose an innovative design of an inchworm-like soft crawling robot utilizing the synergistic interaction of electricity and moisture for its hybrid dual-drive locomotion. The legs of the soft robot are mainly made of GO-CNT/PE composite film, which can convert its own volume expansion into a corresponding bending motion after being stimulated by electricity or moisture. Unlike other drive methods, it requires less power and precision from external devices. The combination of the two driving methods greatly improves the environmental adaptability of the soft robot, and we developed visible light as the driving method on the basis of the dual drive. Finally, we also verified the robot’s excellent load capacity, climbing ability, and optical drive effect, which laid the foundation for the application of soft robots in the future

Preparation and Characterization of Regenerated Cellulose Membrane Blended with ZrO2 Nanoparticles

It is of great significance to search for efficient, renewable, biodegradable and economical membrane materials. Herein, we developed an organic-inorganic hybrid regenerated cellulose membrane (ZrO2/BCM) with excellent hydrophilic and anti-fouling properties. The membrane was prepared by introducing ZrO2 particles into an N-Methylmorpholine-N-oxide(NMMO)/bamboo cellulose(BC) solution system by the phase inversion method. The physi-chemical structure of the membranes were characterized based on thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The modified regenerated cellulose membrane has the excellent rejection of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and anti-fouling performance. The membrane flux of ZrO2/BCM is 321.49 (L/m2·h), and the rejection rate of BSA is 91.2%. Moreover, the membrane flux recovery rate after cleaning with deionized water was 90.6%. This new type of separation membrane prepared with green materials holds broad application potential in water purification and wastewater treatment

Palladium on Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbon: A Bifunctional Catalyst for Formate-Based, Carbon-Neutral Hydrogen Storage

The lack of safe, efficient, and economical hydrogen storage technologies is a hindrance to the realization of the hydrogen economy. Reported herein is a reversible formate-based carbon-neutral hydrogen storage system that is established over a novel catalyst comprising palladium nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon. The support was fabricated by a hard template method and nitridated under a flow of ammonia. Detailed analyses demonstrate that this bicarbonate/formate redox equilibrium is promoted by the cooperative role of the doped nitrogen functionalities and the well-dispersed, electron-enriched palladium nanoparticles

Recent development of PeakForce Tapping mode atomic force microscopy and its applications on nanoscience

Nanoscience is a booming field incorporating some of the most fundamental questions concerning structure, function, and applications. The cutting-edge research in nanoscience requires access to advanced techniques and instrumentation capable of approaching these unanswered questions. Over the past few decades, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been developed as a powerful platform, which enables in situ characterization of topological structures, local physical properties, and even manipulating samples at nanometer scale. Currently, an imaging mode called PeakForce Tapping (PFT) has attracted more and more attention due to its advantages of nondestructive characterization, high-resolution imaging, and concurrent quantitative property mapping. In this review, the origin, principle, and advantages of PFT on nanoscience are introduced in detail. Three typical applications of this technique, including high-resolution imaging of soft samples in liquid environment, quantitative nanomechanical property mapping, and electrical/electrochemical property measurement will be reviewed comprehensively. The future trends of PFT technique development will be discussed as well

In-situ carbonization approach for the binder-free Ir-dispersed ordered mesoporous carbon hydrogen evolution electrode

A binder-free Ir-dispersed ordered mesoporous carbon (Ir-OMC) catalytic electrode has been prepared through a designed in-situ carbonization method, which involves coating resorcinol and formaldehyde mixtures with iridium precursors onto the three-dimensional nickel foam framework, followed by in-situ calcination in N-2 atmosphere at 800 degrees C for 3 h. This electrode shows a large surface area, ordered mesoporous structure and homogeneous distribution of metal nanoparticles. It presents good activity and stability towards hydrogen evolution reaction, which is attributed to the efficient mass and electron transport from the intimate contact among Ir nanoparticles, ordered mesoporous carbon matrix and 3D conductive substrate. We hope that this in-situ carbonization synthetic route can also be applied to design more high-performance catalysts for water splitting, fuel cells and other clean energy devices. (C) 2017 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved

Highly efficient and durable MoNiNC catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

We report a carbothermal ammonia reduction (CAR) strategy for one-pot preparation of highly efficient and durable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst composed of earth abundant early transition metals. In this strategy, resin is applied both as the pre-binder and carbon source, and Pluronic F127 as the structuredirecting agent. Upon annealing in NH3, the Mo-containing precursor on Ni foam undergoes the CAR, and simultaneously Ni from the substrate diffuses out, resulting in the formation of a quaternary complex structure of molybdenum-nickel bimetallic carbonitride (MoNiNC). The as-prepared electrode showed outstanding HER performance with an overpotential of 150 mV at 50 mA cm(-2) and maintained steady hydrogen bubble evolution for continuous 48 h. Our strategy offers a quick and simple way to fabricate earth-abundant HER electrode with highly efficient and durable electrocatalytic performance

Blending Advertising with Organic Content in E-commerce via Virtual Bids

It has become increasingly common that sponsored content (i.e., paid ads) and non-sponsored content are jointly displayed to users, especially on e-commerce platforms. Thus, both of these contents may interact together to influence their engagement behaviors. In general, sponsored content helps brands achieve their marketing goals and provides ad revenue to the platforms. In contrast, non-sponsored content contributes to the long-term health of the platform through increasing users' engagement. A key conundrum to platforms is learning how to blend both of these contents allowing their interactions to be considered and balancing these business objectives. This paper proposes a system built for this purpose and applied to product detail pages of JD.COM, an e-commerce company. This system achieves three objectives: (a) Optimization of competing business objectives via Virtual Bids allowing the expressiveness of the valuation of the platform for these objectives. (b) Modeling the users' click behaviors considering explicitly the influence exerted by the sponsored and non-sponsored content displayed alongside through a deep learning approach. (c) Consideration of a Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) Auction design compatible with the allocation of ads and its induced externalities. Experiments are presented demonstrating the performance of the proposed system. Moreover, our approach is fully deployed and serves all traffic through JD.COM's mobile application