Prepare lignin for carbon fiber production

https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/techtalks/1056/thumbnail.jp

FPSA: A Full System Stack Solution for Reconfigurable ReRAM-based NN Accelerator Architecture

Neural Network (NN) accelerators with emerging ReRAM (resistive random access memory) technologies have been investigated as one of the promising solutions to address the \textit{memory wall} challenge, due to the unique capability of \textit{processing-in-memory} within ReRAM-crossbar-based processing elements (PEs). However, the high efficiency and high density advantages of ReRAM have not been fully utilized due to the huge communication demands among PEs and the overhead of peripheral circuits. In this paper, we propose a full system stack solution, composed of a reconfigurable architecture design, Field Programmable Synapse Array (FPSA) and its software system including neural synthesizer, temporal-to-spatial mapper, and placement & routing. We highly leverage the software system to make the hardware design compact and efficient. To satisfy the high-performance communication demand, we optimize it with a reconfigurable routing architecture and the placement & routing tool. To improve the computational density, we greatly simplify the PE circuit with the spiking schema and then adopt neural synthesizer to enable the high density computation-resources to support different kinds of NN operations. In addition, we provide spiking memory blocks (SMBs) and configurable logic blocks (CLBs) in hardware and leverage the temporal-to-spatial mapper to utilize them to balance the storage and computation requirements of NN. Owing to the end-to-end software system, we can efficiently deploy existing deep neural networks to FPSA. Evaluations show that, compared to one of state-of-the-art ReRAM-based NN accelerators, PRIME, the computational density of FPSA improves by 31x; for representative NNs, its inference performance can achieve up to 1000x speedup.Comment: Accepted by ASPLOS 201

Recent Advances in Nanostructured Thermoelectric Half-Heusler Compounds

Half-Heusler (HH) alloys have attracted considerable interest as promising thermoelectric (TE) materials in the temperature range around 700 K and above, which is close to the temperature range of most industrial waste heat sources. The past few years have seen nanostructuing play an important role in significantly enhancing the TE performance of several HH alloys. In this article, we briefly review the recent progress and advances in these HH nanocomposites. We begin by presenting the structure of HH alloys and the different strategies that have been utilized for improving the TE properties of HH alloys. Next, we review the details of HH nanocomposites as obtained by different techniques. Finally, the review closes by highlighting several promising strategies for further research directions in these very promising TE materials.Comment: 34 pages, 22 figure

Incorporation of biochar to improve mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of polymer composites

The strive for utilization of green fillers in polymer composite has increased focus on application of natural biomass-based fillers. Biochar has garnered a lot of attention as a filler material and has the potential to replace conventionally used inorganic mineral fillers. Biochar is a carbon rich product obtained from thermochemical conversion of biomass in nitrogen environment. In this review, current studies dealing with incorporation of biochar in polymer matrices as a reinforcement and conductive filler were addressed. Each study mentioned here is nuanced, while addressing the same goal of utilization of biochar as a filler. In this review paper, an in-depth analysis of biochar and its structure is presented. The paper explored the various methods employed in fabrication of the biocomposites. A thorough review on the effect of addition of biochar on the overall composite properties showed immense promise in improving the overall composite properties. An analysis of the possible knowledge gaps was also done, and improvements were suggested. Through this study we tried to present the status of application of biochar as a filler material and its potential future applications

Microwave Assisted Hydrolysis Of Holocellulose Catalyzed With Sulfonated Char Derived From Lignin-Rich Residue

A microwave assisted green process has been developed for production of sugars through liquefying holocellulose catalyzed with sulfonated char derived from the lignin-rich residue produced during pretreatment of lignocellulose. Various reaction parameters including the hydrolysis temperature, hydrolysis time, catalyst content, and the ratio of water to feedstock were evaluated. The maximum sugars yield of 82.6% (based on the dry mass of holocellulose) was obtained under the optimum reaction conditions. The sulfonated char showed superior catalytic performance to that of dilute sulfuric acid in converting holocellulose into sugars under microwave irradiation

Electrochemical detection of heavy metals and chloramphenicol at nafion/graphene quantum dot modified electrode

Graphene quantum dots (GQDS) with uniform particle size were successfully prepared by a simple in-situ electrolytic graphite rod method at a certain current density, and nafion/GQDS modified glassy carbon electrodes (nafion/GQDS/GCE) were constructed. Anodic stripping voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry were applied to heavy metal Pb(Ⅱ) respectively. Electrochemical detection of CD(Ⅱ) and chloramphenicol. The results showed that the dissolution current of Pb (Ⅱ) and CD(Ⅱ) increased with the increase of their concentration, and showed a good linear relationship. The linear range of Pb (Ⅱ) was 4.82×10-8~9.65×10-7mol/L (R2=0.9923), CD (Ⅱ) linear range is 1.07×10-7~1.96×10-6mol/L (R2=0.9912), the detection limits of Pb (Ⅱ) and CD (Ⅱ) are 1.61×10-8mol/L and 3.57×10-8mol/L respectively. The nafion/GQDs/GCE has obvious electrocatalytic reduction effect on chloramphenicol. The electrocatalytic mechanism is an irreversible reaction involving 6 Electrons, and the electron transfer rate constant KS is 105.4s-1. The catalytic reduction current of chloramphenicol at the modified electrode is 5.00×10-7~2.50×There is a good linear relationship in the range of 10-3mol/L, and the detection limit (S/N=3) is 1.67×10-7mol/L. The nafion/GQDs/GCE also has good anti-interference performance. Stability and reproducibility, and satisfactory results were obtained for the detection of actual samples

Styrene-assisted maleic anhydride grafted poly(lactic acid) as an effective compatibilizer for wood flour/poly(lactic acid) bio-composites

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of styrene-assisted maleic anhydride-grafted poly(lactic acid) (PLA-g-St/MAH) on the interfacial properties of wood flour/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) bio-composites. PLA-g-St/MAH was synthesized by free-radical melt grafting using styrene as a comonomer and dicumyl peroxide as an initiator. The structure of PLA-g-St/MAH was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Wood flour/PLA composites were prepared by compression molding using PLA-g-St/MAH as a compatibilizer. The effects of PLA-g-St/MAH on the rheological and mechanical properties, as well as on the fractured surface morphology of the composites were investigated. Results indicated that storage modulus, complex viscosity, equilibrium torque, and shear heat were significantly increased. The mechanical properties of the wood flour/PLA composites were also significantly increased after the addition of PLA-g-St/MAH. The maximum values were achieved at the loading rate of 3 wt % because of the improved interfacial adhesion between the wood flour and the PLA matrix