Effect of the Abrasive Grain Distribution on Ground Surface Roughness

In order to reduce the grinding surface roughness, it is necessary to optimize the grinding conditions; this requires clear understanding of the relationship between the grinding conditions and ground surface roughness. Therefore, various studies have been carried out over the decades on the ground surface roughness and have proposed statistical grinding theory to define the relationship between the grinding conditions and ground surface roughness. However, the statistical grinding theory does not consider a few grinding conditions such as abrasive grain shape and distribution of abrasive grain, which affect the ground surface roughness. In this study, we construct a statistical grinding theory that considers the effect of abrasive grain distribution and improves the accuracy of the theoretical analysis of the ground surface roughness.

Arylenevinylene Oligomer-Based Heterostructures on Flexible AZO Electrodes

We investigated the optical and electrical properties of flexible single and bi-layer organic heterostructures prepared by vacuum evaporation with a p-type layer of arylenevinylene oligomers, based on carbazole, 3,3′ bis(N hexylcarbazole)vinylbenzene = L13, or triphenylamine, 1,4 bis [4 (N,N’ diphenylamino)phenylvinyl] benzene = L78, and an n-type layer of 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyrydil)21H,23H-porphyne = TPyP. Transparent conductor films of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) with high transparency, >90% for wavelengths >400 nm, and low resistivity, between 6.9 × 10−4 Ωcm and 23 × 10−4 Ωcm, were deposited by pulsed laser deposition on flexible substrates of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The properties of the heterostructures based on oligomers and zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) were compared, emphasizing the effect of the surface morphology. The measurements revealed a good absorption in the visible range of the PET/AZO/arylenevinylene oligomer/TPyP heterostructures and a typical injection contact behavior with linear (ZnPc, L78) or non-linear (L13) J-V characteristics in the dark, at voltages <0.4 V. The heterostructure PET/AZO/L78/TPyP/Al showed a current density of ~1 mA/cm2 at a voltage of 0.3 V. The correlation between the roughness exponent, evaluated from the height-height correlation function, grain shape, and electrical behavior was analyzed. Consequently, the oligomer based on triphenylamine could be a promising replacement of donor ZnPc in flexible electronic applications.

Identification and verification of grain shape QTLs by SNP array in rice

Grain shape strongly influences the economic value and grain yield of rice. Thus, identifying quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain shape has been a longstanding goal in rice genetic research and breeding programs. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers are ubiquitous in the rice genome and are more abundant and evenly distributed on the 12 rice chromosomes than traditional markers. An F2 population was genotyped using the RICE6K SNP array to elucidate the mechanisms governing grain shape. Thirty-five QTLs for grain shape were detected on 11 of 12 chromosomes over 2 years. The major QTL cluster qGS7 was detected in both years and displayed strong genetic effects on grain length and width, showing consistency with GL7/GW7. Some minor QTLs were also detected, and the effects of four QTLs on seed size were then validated using BC1F6 populations with residual heterozygous lines in each QTL region. Our findings provide insights into the molecular basis of grain shape as well as additional resources and approaches for producing hybrid high-yield rice varieties.

The Influence of Grain Shape and Size on the Relationship Between Porosity and Permeability in Sandstone

An accurate and reliable description of the relationship between porosity and permeability in geological materials is valuable in understanding subsurface fluid movement. This is of great importance for studies of reservoir characterisation, useful for energy exploitation, carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) and groundwater contamination and remediation. Whilst the relationship between pore characteristics and porosity and permeability are well examined, there is scope for further investigation into the influence of grain characteristics on porosity and permeability due to the inherent relationship between grains and related pores. In this work we use digital image analysis (DIA) of reconstructed 3D X-ray micro computed tomographic (μCT) images to measure porosity, permeability and segment individual grains enabling the measurement of grain shape (sphericity) and size (Feret diameter). We compare two marker-based watershed workflows to grain boundary segmentation before applying the most reliable one to our images. We found there to be a positive relationship between grain sphericity and porosity according to ϕ=1.22ϕs-0.42 whereas no such relationship exists with grain size. We applied our grain shape and size measurements to calculate a Kozeny-Carman (K-C) porosity-permeability fit which was found to be unsatisfactory, possibly due to significant deviation from the K-C assumption that grains are spherical. Therefore, we show that a simpler fit of the form K= 10^5.54 ϕ^3.7, excluding any influence of grain characteristics, is most suitable for the studied materials and that grain shape and size is not influential on the porosity-permeability relationship in a K-C paradigm.

Micro-structural, magnetic and dielectric performance of rare earth ion (Sm3+) doped MgCd ferrites

The combined effects of Sm3+ substitution together with the addition of 3 wt% Bi2O3 endowed the MgCd ferrites with excellent magnetic permeability and dielectric permittivity. Various concentrations of Sm3+ (x=0.00, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12, and 0.15) were employed to modify the permeability (μ') and permittivity (ε') of the MgCd ferrites. XRD, SEM, VSM and vector network analysis techniques were used to characterize the samples. The measurement results reveal that the ferrites processed a saturation magnetization of up to 36.8 emu/g and coercivity of up to 29.2 Oe via the conventional solid-state reaction method. The surface morphology SEM confirms that with increasing Sm3+ concentration, the grain shape changes from a polygon to a circle. Moreover, the outstanding dielectric performance of dielectric permittivity can achieve 23. The excellent properties obtained in Sm3+-substituted Mg ferrites suggest that they could be promising candidates for modern high-frequency antenna substrates or multilayer devices.