[1] We investigated micromechanical properties and ultrastructure of the shells of the modern brachiopod species Lingula anatina, Discinisca laevis, and Discradisca stella with scanning electron microscopy (SEM, EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Vickers microhardness indentation analyses. The shells are composed of two distinct layers, an outer primary layer and an inner secondar...

Conventional steam activation pyrolysis of waste materials such as oil palm kernel shell for production of biochar was investigated using central composite design. Conventional steam activation was carried out via an initial carbonization of oil palm kernel shell to obtain biochar and thereafter steam activation of the biochar using the conventional heating to produce activated carbon. Addition...

In this work, novel MoS2/nitrogen-doped carbon shell–core microspheres (MNCS) have been designed and prepared through the microwave-assisted method, and used as counter electrodes for platinum-free dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results show that as-prepared shell–core composite microspheres possess low charge transfer resistance and high electrocatalytic activity. When used as a counte...

This paper is concerned with a new type of deployable structures that can be rolled up like a tape measure but, unlike a tape measure, are stable in two different configurations. The key to the behaviour of these structures is a particular type of composite construction based on an anti-symmetric lay-up of glass fibres in a polypropylene matrix. The paper presents a finite element analysis usin...

Based on the classical shell theory, the linear dynamic response of functionally graded carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) truncated conical shells resting on elastic foundations subjected to dynamic loads is presented. The truncated conical shells are reinforced by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) that vary according to the linear functions of the shell thickness. The motio...

Supercapacitor behavior has been reported in a number of oxides including reduced BaTiO 3 ferroelectric ceramics. These so-called giant properties are however not easily controlled. We show here that the continuous coating of individual BaTiO 3 grains by a silica shell in combination with Spark Plasma Sintering is a way to process bulk composites having supercapacitor features with low dielectr...

Chitooligosaccharides could be produced from chitosan by a newly isolated microorganism, Bacillus thuringiensis ZJOU-010, which exhibited chitosanase activity using shrimp shell wastes as the carbon/nitrogen source. In this study, a 2 central composite experimental design was performed to improve the chitosanase activity by response surface methodology (RSM). The mathematical model developed wa...

We rigorously establish the existence of the limit homogeneous constitutive law of a piezoelectric composite made of periodically perforated microstructures and whose reference configuration is a thin shell with fixed thickness. We deal with an extension of the Koiter shell model in which the three curvilinear coordinates of the elastic displacement field and the electric potential are coupled....

Synthesis of the core/shell-structured Fe3O4/Au nanoparticles by trapping Fe3O4 inside hollow Au nanoparticles is described. The produced composite nanoparticles are strongly magnetic with their surface plasmon resonance peaks in the near infrared region (wavelength from 700 to 800 nm), combining desirable magnetic and plasmonic properties into one nanoparticle. They are particularly suitable f...

We demonstrate a simple technique for quantitative ultrasound imaging of the cortical shell of long-bone replicas. Traditional ultrasound computed tomography instruments use the transmitted or reflected waves for separate reconstructions but suffer from strong refraction artifacts in highly heterogeneous samples such as bones in soft tissue. The technique described here simplifies the long bone...