Silicon-Based Anode with High Capacity and Performance Produced by Magnesiothermic Coreduction of Silicon Dioxide and Hexachlorobenzene

Ma, Kai The Korean Electrochemical Society 2021 Journal of electrochemical science and technology Vol.12 No.3

Silicon (Si) has been considered as a promising anode material because of its abundant reserves in nature, low lithium ion (Li⁺) intercalation/de-intercalation potential (below 0.5 V vs. Li/Li⁺) and high theoretical capacity of 4200 mA h/g. In this paper, we prepared a silicon-based (Si-based) anode material containing a small amount of silicon carbide by using magnesiothermic coreduction of silica and hexachlorobenzene. Because of good conductivity of silicon carbide, the cycle performance of the silicon-based anode materials containing few silicon carbide is greatly improved compared with pure silicon. The raw materials were formulated according to a silicon-carbon molar ratio of 10:0, 10:1, 10:2 and 10:3, and the obtained products were purified and tested for their electrochemical properties. After 1000 cycles, the specific capacities of the materials with silicon-carbon molar ratios of 10:0, 10:1, 10:2 and 10:3 were still up to 412.3 mA h/g, 970.3 mA h/g, 875.0 mA h/g and 788.6 mA h/g, respectively. Although most of the added carbon reacted with silicon to form silicon carbide, because of the good conductivity of silicon carbide, the cycle performance of silicon-based anode materials was significantly better than that of pure silicon.

EFFECT OF THE STRUCTURE OF ISOMERS OF MERCAPTOVALERIC ACID ON OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CdTe QUANTUM DOTS

KAI-GUO MA,JIN-YI BAI,TAN FANG,Haiqing Guo 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2013 NANO Vol.8 No.5

4-Mercaptovaleric acid (4MVA) and 3-mercaptovaleric acid (3MVA), two branched isomers of 5-mercaptovaleric acid (MVA), were designed and synthesized. They were used as capping agents in the aqueous synthesis of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) by a modified hydrothermal method with sodium tellurite as Te source. Compared with MVA-CdTe, either 4MVA-QDs or 3MVA-QDs exhibited higher fluorescent quantum yield (QY) and sharper absorption peak, which confirmed the superiority of using branched mercapto acids in the aqueous synthesis of QDs for improved optical properties. The fluorescence of QDs capped with 4MVA was higher than that of QDs capped with 4-mercaptobutyric acid (MBA) but lower than that of QDs capped with 3-mercaptobutyric acid (3MBA), which further confirmed the advantage of designing methyl side group rather than methylene group in the main chain for desired optical properties. However, the lower fluorescence, less sharp absorption peak and faster growth rate of 3MVA-QDs than that of 3MBA-QDs indicated adverse effect of side group on the aqueous synthesis of QDs if the size of side group is very bulky. Our results are helpful for selecting and designing appropriate capping agents for QDs with excellent properties.

Manipulation of microdroplets at a T-junction: Coalescence and scaling law

Rui Ma,Qindan Zhang,Taotao Fu,Chunying Zhu,Kai Wang,Youguang Ma,Guangsheng Luo 한국공업화학회 2018 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.65 No.-

The manipulation of a droplet at a microfluidic T-junction is achieved via adding reagents into the droplet with the same solution. Three types for droplet coalescence at the T-junction were observed: tail coalescence, slipping coalescence and unsteady coalescence behaviors with a new droplet formation. The final droplet size decreased (increased) with increasing the capillary number when the flow rate of the dispersed (continuous) phase was fixed. The final droplet size increased with increasing the capillary number of the added phase. The correlations for predicting the coalesced droplet size for tail and slipping coalescence were proposed.

Effect of Dietary Concentrate:forage Ratios and Undegraded Dietary Protein on Nitrogen Balance and Urinary Excretion of Purine Derivatives in Dorper×thin-tailed Han Crossbred Lambs

Ma, Tao,Deng, Kai-Dong,Tu, Yan,Jiang, Cheng-Gang,Zhang, Nai-Feng,Li, Yan-Ling,Si, Bing-Wen,Lou, Can,Diao, Qi-Yu Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2014 Animal Bioscience Vol.27 No.2

This study aimed to investigate dietary concentrate:forage ratios (C:F) and undegraded dietary protein (UDP) on nitrogen balance and urinary excretion of purine derivatives (PD) in lambs. Four Dorper${\times}$thin-tailed Han crossbred castrated lambs with $62.3{\pm}1.9$ kg body weight at 10 months of age were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments in a $2{\times}2$ factorial arrangement of two levels of C:F (40:60 and 60:40) and two levels of UDP (35% and 50% of CP), according to a complete $4{\times}4$ Latin-square design. Each experimental period lasted for 19 d. After a 7-d adaptation period, lambs were moved into individual metabolism crates for 12 d including 7 d of adaption and 5 d of metabolism trial. During the metabolism trial, total urine was collected for 24 h and spot urine samples were also collected at different times. Urinary PD was measured using a colorimetric method and creatinine was measured using an automated analyzer. Intake of dry matter (DM) (p<0.01) and organic matter (OM) (p<0.01) increased as the level of UDP decreased. Fecal N was not affected by dietary treatment (p>0.05) while urinary N increased as the level of UDP decreased (p<0.05), but decreased as dietary C:F increased (p<0.05). Nitrogen retention increased as dietary C:F increased (p<0.05). As dietary C:F increased, urinary excretion of PD increased (p<0.05), but was not affected by dietary UDP (p>0.05) or interaction between dietary treatments (p>0.05). Daily excretion of creatinine was not affected by dietary treatments (p<0.05), with an average value of $0.334{\times}0.005$ mmol/kg $BW^{0.75}$. A linear correlation was found between total PD excretion and PDC index ($R^2$ = 0.93). Concentrations of creatinine and PDC index in spot urine were unaffected by sampling time (p>0.05) and a good correlation was found between the PDC index (average value of three times) of spot urine and daily excretion of PD ($R^2$ = 0.88). These results suggest that for animals fed ad libitum, the PDC index in spot urine is effective to predict daily excretion of PD. In order to improve the accuracy of the spot sampling technique, an appropriate lag phase between the time of feeding and sampling should be determined so that the sampling time can coincide with the peak concentration of PD in the urine.

Dynamic Compliance and its Compensation Control of HIVC Force Control System

Kai-xian Ba,Bin Yu,Wen-feng Li,Dong-kun Wang,Ya-liang Liu,Guo-liang Ma,Xiang-dong Kong 대한전기학회 2018 Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology Vol.13 No.2

In this paper, the dynamic compliance and its compensation control of the force control system on the highly integrated valve-controlled cylinder (HIVC), the joint driver of the hydraulic drive legged robot, is researched. During the robot motion process, the outer loop dynamic compliance control is applied on the base of hydraulic control inner loop and most inner loop control are the force or torque closed loop control. While the dynamic compliance control effectiveness of outer loop can be affected by the inner loop self-dynamic-compliance. Based on this problem, the dynamic compliance series composition theory of HIVC force control system as well as the analysis of its self-dynamiccompliance is proposed. And then the paper comes up with the compliance-enhanced control, which is a compound compensation control method of dynamic compliance with multiple series branches. Finally, the experiment results indicate that the control method mentioned above can enhance the dynamic compliance of HIVC force control system observably. This provides the compensation control method of inner loop dynamic compliance for the outer loop compliance control requiring the high accuracy and high robustness for the robot.

Decellularized Human Umbilical Artery Exhibits Adequate Endothelialization in Xenogenic Transplantation

Kai Hsia,Tien-Shiang Wang,Chin-Su Liu,Chih-Kuan Su,Chien-Chin Chen,Chang-Ching Yeh,Hsinyu Lee,Chao-Ling Yao,Tsung-Yu Tseng,Shih-Hwa Chiou,Hsu Ma,Chih-Hsun Lin,Jen-Her Lu 한국생물공학회 2023 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.28 No.3

Decellularized human umbilical arteries (dHUA) is an off-the-shelf graft that can potentially serve as vascular scaffolds in tissue engineering of small-diameter vascular grafts. This research aimed to investigate that dHUA could exhibit adequate endothelialization for a long term in xenogenic transplantation. 13 dHUAs were implanted in rat abdominal aortas up to 90 days. Rats were divided into three groups in terms of survival period: Group 1, one to seven days (n = 6); Group 2, 14 to 30 days (n = 4) and Group 3, 90 days (n = 3). The explants were analyzed by histological, immunohistochemistry and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) examination. Allograft implantation of 12 decellularized rat abdominal aortas` were processed the same way as the rat in order to make a comparison for survival rates (Group 1, n = 5; Group 2, n = 4; Group 3, n = 3). The results demonstrated that the survival rates of xenograft and allograft implantation were estimated to be 59.2% vs. 58.3% in Group 1, 50.7% vs. 58.3% in Group 2 and 3. Grafts harvested from Group 2 were showed CD31, endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression at intima, and α-smooth muscle actin, CD45, CD68 and CD168 expression at the tunica externa. A layer structure with obvious endothelialization and fiber regeneration/orientation could be inspected from the explants of Group 3. MRA demonstrated the patency of dHUA on day 30 and 90. In conclusion, more than 50% dHUA maintained patency in the xenogenic model till 90 days after surgery. A mature vessel-like functional structure with intact endothelial layer was observed then. This warrants further study in the reinforcement of decellularized vascular scaffolds.

The generalized Fermat type difference equations

Kai Liu,Lei Ma,Xiaoyang Zhai 대한수학회 2018 대한수학회보 Vol.55 No.6

This paper is to consider the generalized Fermat difference equations with different types which ever considered by Li \cite{li}, Ishizaki and Korhonen \cite{IK}, Zhang \cite{zhangjie} and Liu \cite{liuk4,11,1177,liu}, respectively. Some new observations and results on these equations will be given.

Enhanced electrical conductivity of nanocomposites containing hybrid fillers of carbon nanotubes and carbon black.

Ma, Peng-Cheng,Liu, Ming-Yang,Zhang, Hao,Wang, Sheng-Qi,Wang, Rui,Wang, Kai,Wong, Yiu-Kei,Tang, Ben-Zhong,Hong, Soon-Hyung,Paik, Kyung-Wook,Kim, Jang-Kyo American Chemical Society 2009 ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES Vol.1 No.5

<P>Nanocomposites reinforced with hybrid fillers of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon black (CB) are developed, aiming at enhancing the electrical conductivity of composites with balanced mechanical properties while lowering the cost of the final product. Epoxy-based nanocomposites were prepared with varying combinations of CNTs and CB as conducting fillers, and their electrical and mechanical properties were evaluated. It was shown that the addition of CNTs in CB composites enhanced the electrical conductivity of composites: a low percolation threshold was achieved with 0.2 wt % CNTs and 0.2 wt % CB particles. The CB particles also enhanced the ductility and fracture toughness of nanocomposites, confirming the synergistic effect of CB as a multifunctional filler. The novelty of this work lies in the synergy arising from the combination of two conducting fillers with unique geometric shapes and aspect ratios as well as different dispersion characteristics, which have not been specifically considered previously.</P>

Prospectively Electrocardiogram-Gated High-Pitch Spiral Acquisition Mode Dual-Source CT Coronary Angiography in Patients with High Heart Rates: Comparison with Retrospective Electrocardiogram-Gated Spiral Acquisition Mode

Kai Sun,Rui-Juan Han,Li-Jun Ma,Li-Jun Wang,Li-Gang Li,Jiu-Hong Chen 대한영상의학회 2012 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.13 No.6

Objective: To assess the image quality and effective radiation dose of prospectively electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated high-pitch spiral acquisition mode (flash mode) of dual-source CT (DSCT) coronary angiography (CTCA) in patients with high heart rates (HRs) as compared with retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition mode. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and sixty-eight consecutive patients (132 female, mean age: 55 ± 11 years) with mean HR > 65 beats per minute (bpm) were prospectively included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups. Collection was performed in group A CTCA using flash mode setting at 20-30% of the R-R interval, and retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition mode in group B. The image noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), image quality scores, effective radiation dose and influencing factors on image quality between the two groups were assessed. Results: There were no significant differences in image quality scores and proportions of non-diagnostic coronary artery segments between two groups (image quality scores: 1.064 ± 0.306 [group A] vs. 1.084 ± 0.327 [group B], p = 0.063; proportion of non-diagnostic coronary artery segments: segment-based analysis 1.52% (group A) vs. 1.74% (group B), p = 0.345; patient-based analysis 7.5% (group A) vs. 6.7% (group B), p = 0.812). The estimated radiation dose was 1.0 ± 0.16 mSv in group A and 7.1 ± 1.05 mSv in group B (p = 0.001). Conclusion: In conclusion, in patients with HRs > 65 bpm without cardiac arrhythmia, the prospectively high-pitch spiral-acquisition mode with image-acquired timing set at 20-30% of the R-R interval provides a similar image quality and low rate of non-diagnostic coronary segments to the retrospectively ECG-gated low-pitch spiral acquisition mode, with significant reduction of radiation exposure. Objective: To assess the image quality and effective radiation dose of prospectively electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated high-pitch spiral acquisition mode (flash mode) of dual-source CT (DSCT) coronary angiography (CTCA) in patients with high heart rates (HRs) as compared with retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition mode. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and sixty-eight consecutive patients (132 female, mean age: 55 ± 11 years) with mean HR > 65 beats per minute (bpm) were prospectively included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups. Collection was performed in group A CTCA using flash mode setting at 20-30% of the R-R interval, and retrospectively ECG-gated spiral acquisition mode in group B. The image noise, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), image quality scores, effective radiation dose and influencing factors on image quality between the two groups were assessed. Results: There were no significant differences in image quality scores and proportions of non-diagnostic coronary artery segments between two groups (image quality scores: 1.064 ± 0.306 [group A] vs. 1.084 ± 0.327 [group B], p = 0.063; proportion of non-diagnostic coronary artery segments: segment-based analysis 1.52% (group A) vs. 1.74% (group B), p = 0.345; patient-based analysis 7.5% (group A) vs. 6.7% (group B), p = 0.812). The estimated radiation dose was 1.0 ± 0.16 mSv in group A and 7.1 ± 1.05 mSv in group B (p = 0.001). Conclusion: In conclusion, in patients with HRs > 65 bpm without cardiac arrhythmia, the prospectively high-pitch spiral-acquisition mode with image-acquired timing set at 20-30% of the R-R interval provides a similar image quality and low rate of non-diagnostic coronary segments to the retrospectively ECG-gated low-pitch spiral acquisition mode, with significant reduction of radiation exposure.

Efficient Expression of Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Analogue with Human Serum Albumin Fusion Protein in Pichia pastoris Using the Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate Dehydrogenase Promoter

Kai Qian,XiaoHai Gong,Bo Guan,SuPing Wu,JingJing Zhang,Jing Qian,YanFei Cai,Yun Chen,ZuoYing Duan,Xin Ma,HuaZhong Li,Jian Jin 한국생물공학회 2015 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.20 No.4

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) was a potential therapeutic drug for type II diabetes, mainly because of the stimulatory effect on insulin secretion under condition of high blood glucose. We used PCR to obtain a recombination gene, GGH, in which two GLP-1 (GLP-1A2G) mutants were connected in series and then fused to the N terminal of human serum albumin. The fusion gene was inserted into pGAPZaA plasmid with Saccharomyces cerevisiae α- factor secretion signal sequence, and was expressed by the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAP) promoter. The engineered strain was constructed by integrating the recombinant plasmid pGAPZαA/GGH into the genome of Pichia pastoris GS115. Genome PCR and western blot showed that the recombinant P. pastoris successfully expressed the fusion protein GGH. The yield of GGH reached 78 mg/L after 72 h fermentation in a flask, using glucose as the optimal carbon source. Fed-batch fermentation was investigated in a 5 L bioreactor, and the expression level of GGH reached 246 mg/L in 52 h. The fusion protein GGH was purified in four steps, and the final purity was 96.1%. The in vitro bioactivity of GGH was the same as that expressed in P. pastoris by the AOX1 promoter. This study described an efficient way to express GGH fusion protein in P. pastoris using GAP promoter, fermentation was easier to control without carbon source change and fermentation time was 20 h less than AOX1 promotercontrolled GGH fermentation.