Ready for Screening: Fast Assessable Hydraulic and Anatomical Proxies for Vulnerability to Cavitation of Young Conifer Sapwood

Research Highlights: novel fast and easily assessable proxies for vulnerability to cavitation of conifer sapwood are proposed that allow reliable estimation at the species level. Background and Objectives: global warming calls for fast and easily applicable methods to measure hydraulic vulnerability in conifers since they are one of the most sensitive plant groups regarding drought stress. Classical methods to determine P12, P50 and P88, i.e., the water potentials resulting in 12, 50 and 88% conductivity loss, respectively, are labour intensive, prone to errors and/or restricted to special facilities. Vulnerability proxies were established based on empirical relationships between hydraulic traits, basic density and sapwood anatomy. Materials and Methods: reference values for hydraulic traits were obtained by means of the air injection method on six conifer species. Datasets for potential P50 proxies comprised relative water loss (RWL), basic density, saturated water content as well as anatomical traits such as double wall thickness, tracheid lumen diameter and wall/lumen ratio. Results: our novel proxy P25W, defined as 25% RWL induced by air injection, was the most reliable estimate for P50 (r = 0.95) and P88 (r = 0.96). Basic wood density (r = −0.92), tangential lumen diameters in earlywood (r = 0.88), wall/lumen ratios measured in the tangential direction (r = −0.86) and the number of radial cell files/mm circumference (CF/mm, r = −0.85) were also strongly related to P50. Moreover, CF/mm was a very good predictor for P12 (r = −0.93). Conclusions: the proxy P25W is regarded a strong phenotyping tool for screening conifer species for vulnerability to cavitation assuming that the relationship between RWL and conductivity loss is robust in conifer sapwood. We also see a high potential for the fast and easily applicable proxy CF/mm as a screening tool for drought sensitivity and for application in dendroecological studies that investigate forest dieback.

Electronic, Optical and Vibrational Properties of B3N3H6 from First-Principles Calculations

The electronic, optical and vibrational properties of B3N3H6 have been calculated by means of first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and the local density approximation (LDA). The calculated structural parameters of B3N3H6 are in good agreement with experimental work. With the band structure and density of states (DOS), we have analyzed the optical properties including the complex dielectric function, refractive index, absorption, conductivity, loss function and reflectivity. By the contrast, it is found that on the (001) component and (100) component have obvious optical anisotropy. Moreover, the vibrational properties have been obtained and analyzed.

Graphene/Silver Nanowires/Graphene Sandwich Composite for Stretchable Transparent Electrodes and Its Fracture Mechanism

Polycrystalline graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is characterized by line defects and disruptions at the grain boundaries and nucleation sites. This adversely affects the stretchability and conductivity of graphene, which limits its applications in the field of flexible, stretchable, and transparent electrodes. We demonstrate a composite electrode comprised of a graphene/silver nanowires (AgNWs)/graphene sandwich structure on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate to overcome this limitation. The sandwich structure exhibits high transparency (>90%) and excellent conductivity improvement of the graphene layers. The use of AgNWs significantly suppresses the conductivity loss resulting from stretching. The mechanism of the suppression of the conductivity loss was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and lateral force microscopy. The results suggest that the high surface friction of the sandwich structure causes a sliding effect between the graphene layers would produce low crack or hole formation to maintain the conductivity. In addition to acting as conductive layers, the top and bottom graphene layers can also protect the AgNWs from oxidation, thereby enabling maintenance of the electrical performance of the electrodes over a prolonged period. We also confirmed the applicability of the sandwich structure electrode to the human body, such as on the wrist, finger, and elbow.

Heterostructure Composites of CoS Nanoparticles Decorated on Ti3C2Tx Nanosheets and Their Enhanced Electromagnetic Wave Absorption Performance

As a typical two-dimensional material, MXene possesses excellent conductivity and tunable interlayer space, which makes it have an impressive development potential in the field of electromagnetic (EM) waves absorbing materials. In this work, we fabricated a sandwich structure CoS@Ti3C2Tx composite using a simple solvothermal process. The CoS nanoparticles are anchored on the Ti3C2Tx MXene sheets, forming a heterolayered structure. The results demonstrate that the CoS@Ti3C2Tx composites with the sandwich-like architecture showed excellent EM absorbing performance due to the synergistic effects of the conductivity loss, interface polarization, and dipole polarization. When the doping ratio was 40 wt %, the maximum reflection loss value of CoS@Ti3C2Tx was up to –59.2 dB at 14.6 GHz, and the corresponding effective absorption bandwidth (below –10 dB) reached 5.0 GHz when the thickness was only 2.0 mm. This work endows a new candidate for the design of MXene-based absorption materials with optimal performance.

Evaluation of Epoxy Resin Composites in Multilayer Structure for Stealth Technology

The present work evaluates a multilayer structure based on epoxy resin for stealth technology. The structure consists of two absorber layers with nanoferrite and a resistive layer between them containing polyaniline (PANI) with and without carbon nanotube (CNT). The best reflection loss result multilayer structure analyzed was Ni-PANICNT-Fe with RL = –22dB at 11,9 GHz, justified by higher conductivity loss due to the CNT in PANI epoxy composite.

Application of the Shifted Frequency Internal Equivalence to Two Dimensional Lossy Objects

Performance of a new method, Shifted Frequency Internal Equivalence (SFIE) is studied in the analysis of scattering from two dimensional lossy objects. This method finds the solution of a wideband scattering problem faster than classical approaches.By introducing conductivity, loss shows itself as imaginary electrical permittivity. Changing conductivity also changes the distribution of electromagnetic waves and modifies RCS plots. In this study homogeneous and inhomogeneous conductive media are investigated to widen the usage of SFIE method. By increasing conductivity skin effect phenomenon is observed, electrical dimensions are decreased and RCS plots are flattened as expected.Numerical results obtained by SFIE are compared to the ones obtained by Method of Moments and the differences are shown.

Within-ring variability of wood structure and its relationship to drought sensitivity in Norway spruce trunks

ABSTRACTRelationships between hydraulic vulnerability expressed as P50 (the air pressure causing 50% loss of hydraulic conductivity) and within-ring differences in wood density (WD) and anatomical features were investigated with the aim to find efficient proxies for P50 relating to functional aspects. WD and tracheid dimensions were measured with SilviScan on Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) trunk wood.P50 was strongly related to mean WD (r = -0.64) and conduit wall reinforcement ((t/b)2), the square of the ratio between the tracheid double wall thickness (t) and the lumen width (b), where use of tangential lumen width ((t/bt)2) gave better results (r = -0.54) than radial lumen width (r = -0.31). The correlations of P50 with earlywood (EW), transition wood (TW) and latewood (LW) traits were lower than with the specimen averages, both for WD (r = -0.60 for WDEW, r = -0.56 for WDTW, r = -0.23 for WDLW) and all anatomical traits. The loss of hydraulic conductivity was addressed as a dynamic process and was simulated by defining consecutive phases of 5% theoretical conductivity loss. WD and tracheid traits were calculated and correlated with P50 values of each specimen. Tightest correlations were found for (t/bt)2, at relative cumulated theoretical conductivities until 45 to 50% (r = -0.75).We conclude that WD is one of the best available proxies for P50, but does not necessarily reflect the mechanism behind resistance to cavitation. The new trait, based on estimation of conductivity loss as a dynamic process, provided even stronger correlations.