Dip-Coating Self-Assembly Fabrication and Polarization Sensitive Photoresponse of Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Film

It is challenging to obtain wafer-scaled aligned films for completely exploiting the promising properties of semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs). Aligned s-SWCNTs with a large area can be obtained by combining water evaporation and slow withdrawal-induced self-assembly in a dip-coating process. Moreover, the tunability of deposition morphology parameters such as stripe width and spacing is examined. The polarized Raman results show that s-SWCNTs can be aligned in ±8.6°. The derived two terminal photodetector shows both a high negative responsivity of 41 A/W at 520 nm and high polarization sensitivity. Our results indicate that aligned films with a large area may be useful to electronics- and optoelectronics-related applications.

Sediment-trapping effectiveness of check dams with multiple debris-flow surges: Experimental study

<p>A series of check dams were constructed for debris-flow hazard mitigation in China. Based on the results of field investigation, check dam has a significant impact on the geomorphology of debris flow gully, especially the upstream and downstream of a check dam. According to the relationship between the sediment deposition thickness and the check dam height, the running status of a check dam can be divided into three states: without sediment deposition, half of the storage capacity with sediment deposition, and full of sediment deposition. With the accumulation of sediment transport, the running state of a check dam gradually changed and the sediment-trapping effect of check dams has gradually weakened, leading to the loss of part of the disaster mitigation effect, increasing the risk of downstream infrastructure and human security. Therefore, experiments with multi-surges of debris flows were carried out to study the geomorphic and sediment-trapping effectiveness of check dams. The results showed that with the increase of the sediment amount with multi-surges, the deposition slope in the downstream dam approached or even exceeded that of upstream dam. For one surge, deposition morphology has slightly difference in the cascade dams. At last, a method for calculating the reduction coefficient of deposition slope considering the check dam height and sediment amount with multi-surges is proposed.</p>

The Mechanics of Landslide Mobility with Erosion

<p>Erosion can dramatically change the dynamics and deposition morphology and escalate the destructive power of a landslide by rapidly amplifying its volume, turning it into a catastrophic event. Mobility is the direct measure of the thread posed by an erosive landslide as it plays a dominant role in controlling the enormous impact energy. However, no clear-cut mechanical condition has been presented so far for when and how the erosive landslide gains or loses energy resulting in enhanced or reduced mobility. We pioneer a mechanical model for the energy budget of an erosive landslide that delineates the enhanced or reduced mobility. A fundamentally new understanding is that the increased inertia due to the increased mass is not related to the landslide velocity, but it is associated with the distinctly different entrainment velocity emerging from the inertial frame of reference. The true inertia can be much less than incorrectly proposed previously. We eliminate the existing erroneous perception and make a breakthrough in correctly determining the mobility of the erosive landslide. We reveal that the erosion velocity plays an outstanding role in appropriately determining the energy budget of the erosive landslide. Crucially, whether the erosion related mass flow mobility will be enhanced, reduced or remains unaltered depends exclusively on whether the newly constructed energy generator is positive, negative or zero. This provides a first-ever explicit mechanical quantification of the state of energy, and thus, the precise description of mobility. This becomes a game-changer and fully addresses the long-standing scientific question of why and when some erosive landslides have higher mobility, while others have their mobility reduced. By introducing three important novel mechanical concepts: erosion-velocity, entrainment-velocity and energy-velocity, we demonstrate that the erosion and entrainment are essentially different processes. With this, we draw a central inference: that the landslide gains energy and enhances its mobility if the erosion velocity is greater than the entrainment velocity. The energy velocity delineates the three excess energy regimes: positive, negative and zero. We establish a mechanism of landslide-propulsion that emerges from the net momentum production, providing the erosion-thrust to the landslide. Analytically obtained velocity quantifies the effect of erosion in landslide mobility and indicates the fact that erosion can have the major control on the landslide dynamics. We have also presented a full set of dynamical equations in conservative form in which the momentum balance correctly includes the erosion induced change in inertia and the momentum production. This is a great advancement in legitimate simulation of landslide motion with erosion.</p>

Finite-size analysis and the influence of the cross-section shape of the granular column collapses

<p>The collapse of granular columns, which sheds light on the kinematics, dynamics, and deposition morphology of mass-driven flows, is crucial for understanding complex flows in both natural and engineering systems, such as debris flows and landslides. However, our research shows that a strong size effect and cross-section shape influence exist in this test. Thus, it is essential to better understand these effects. In this study, we explore the influence of both relative column sizes and cross-section shapes on the run-out behavior of collapsed granular columns and analyze their influence on the deposition morphology with the discrete element method (DEM) with Voronoi-based spheropolyhedron particles. We link the size effect that occurs in granular column collapse problems to the finite-size scaling functions and investigate the characteristic correlation length associated with the granular column collapses. The collapsing behavior of granular columns with different cross-section shapes is also studied, and we find that particles tend to accumulate in the direction normal to the edge of the cross-section instead of the vertex of it. The differences in the run-out behavior in different directions when the cross-section is no longer a circle can also be explained by the finite-size analysis we have performed in this study. We believe that such a study is crucial for us to better understand how granular material flows, how it deposits, and how to consider the size effect in the rheology of granular flows.</p>

Quantification of the ion transport mechanism in protective polymer coatings on lithium metal anodes

Protective Polymer Coatings (PPCs) protect lithium metal anodes in rechargeable batteries to stabilize the Li/electrolyte interface and to extend the cycle life by reducing parasitic reactions and improving the lithium deposition morphology.