Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China (中国有色金属学报)•2026•DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(26)67070-7
The co-processing of lead-containing waste materials in oxygen bottom-blowing lead smelting alters melt viscosity, which in turn governs gas−liquid mixing efficiency, splashing behavior, and furnace lining erosion. A multi-fluid volume of fluid (VOF) model, incorporating experimentally determined high-lead slag viscosity values, was applied to an industrial-scale bottom-blowing furnace to resolve these coupled phenomena. The simulations demonstrate that optimal gas−liquid mixing occurs at viscosity values of 0.01 and 0.5 Pa·s, whereas minimal splashing is confined to the viscosity range of 0.1−0.25 Pa·s, corresponding to temperatures of approximately 1076−1100 °C. The regions surrounding the oxygen lances are identified as the most susceptible to erosion. Shear stress increases with melt viscosity, rising particularly rapidly within the 0.1−0.25 Pa·s interval. To minimize erosion, the melt viscosity should be maintained within 0.01−0.1 Pa·s. These findings provide quantitative thresholds for viscosity control in industrial bottom-blowing furnaces processing lead-containing secondary materials, enabling trade-offs between mixing intensity, splashing suppression, and lining protection to be optimized on an operational basis.
Nano Research•2026•DOI: 10.26599/FRICT.2025.9441201
During cardiovascular interventional surgeries, catheters contact vascular tissues, causing friction, collisions, and compression that may damage tissue. Surface engineering is essential to modify catheter surfaces. Effective coatings require high adhesion to prevent delamination from the inner surface, while the outer surface must provide excellent lubricity and biocompatibility. In this study, layer-by-layer (LbL) technique was employed to introduce catechol-modified chitosan (CC) and dopamine-modified oxidized hyaluronic acid (DOHA), forming a nanoscale, superhydrophilic, strongly adhesive, and biocompatible coating on cardiovascular catheters. Tight binding of CC and DOHA results from electrostatic interactions, chemical reactions, and catechol group enrichment, yielding an adhesion strength of up to 1 MPa. These CC/DOHA multilayers greatly enhance lubrication of the TPU substrate, reducing the coefficient of friction (COF) by up to 95% compared with the uncoated state. After a 30-min friction test, the COF of the CC/DOHA16 coating only slightly increased from 0.032 to 0.044, demonstrating excellent stability. Evaluations revealed a reduction in vascular intima damage from grade 5 without coating to grade 3, confirming the coating's effectiveness in minimizing friction-induced damage. The coating thickness was approximately 150 nm, and superhydrophilicity was achieved at 16 layers. These findings indicate that the CC/DOHA LbL coating offers a promising solution for improving catheter safety and performance.
Journal of Semiconductors (半导体学报 - 中国科学院半导体研究所)•2026•DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/25060003
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is indispensable for global planarization in semiconductor manufacturing, particularly as integrated circuit technology advances to sub-7 nm nodes where atomic-level surface flatness is critical. Silica abrasives constitute over 90% of the abrasive market in advanced CMP processes, operating via a chemical-mechanical synergistic mechanism: chemical softening of the wafer surface followed by mechanical removal of the softened layer, repeated to achieve planarization. Despite their prevalence, conventional silica abrasives face persistent challenges: relatively low material removal rate (MRR), agglomeration leading to poor dispersion and surface defects, and limitations in achieving ultimate surface uniformity. This review systematically summarizes six decades of progress in silica abrasives for CMP, tracing development from simple spherical particles to complex structural designs (mesoporous, hollow, raspberry-shaped) that enhance slurry transport and mechanical action. Surface chemical modifications (amino or polymer groups) improve dispersion stability and reduce scratching. Composites with ceria or polymers and precise control of particle size distribution are key to performance enhancement. State-of-the-art slurries achieve surface roughness below 0.1 nm RMS. Emerging directions emphasize sustainability and smart manufacturing, notably biodegradable abrasives that disintegrate after use, simplifying post-CMP cleanup and minimizing environmental impact, aligning with green manufacturing principles. This review provides theoretical insights and forward-looking strategies to overcome current limitations and advance CMP abrasives toward next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
Journal of Semiconductors (半导体学报 - 中国科学院半导体研究所)•2026•DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/25070023
Prolonged exposure to n-butanol, a hazardous volatile organic compound (VOC), necessitates sensitive detection at low concentrations for environmental and health monitoring. This study presents a novel Eu/Ce-codoped MOF-ZnO gas sensor for n-butanol detection under ultraviolet (UV) activation at ambient temperature. A series of Eu/Ce-ZnO nanomaterials were synthesized via a simple co-precipitation route by varying the mass ratios of Eu and Ce incorporated into pristine ZnO derived from MOF precursors. Gas testing results revealed that introducing an appropriate amount of Eu and Ce enlarged the specific surface area and enriched the oxygen vacancy content compared to pristine MOF-ZnO. Upon UV irradiation, the 0.03 wt% Eu 0.04 wt% Ce-ZnO sensor achieved a superior response of 611 for 100 ppm n-butanol at room temperature, 15.28 times higher than that of pristine MOF-ZnO (40). Furthermore, the sensor presented rapid response/recovery times (15 s/28 s) and excellent selectivity. The doped rare earth elements Eu and Ce simultaneously suppress the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, greatly improving response, stability, and selectivity. These findings demonstrate the potential of Eu/Ce-codoped ZnO nanoparticles for efficient, cost-effective n-butanol detection, offering a promising avenue for highly sensitive, UV-enhanced gas sensors for ambient temperature VOC monitoring.
New Carbon Materials (新型炭材料)•2025•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(NCM2024-39-02-06)
Graphene and its derivatives are often preferentially oriented horizontally during processing because of their two-dimensional (2D) layer structure. As a result, thermal interface materials (TIMs) composed of a polymer matrix and graphene-derived fillers often have a high in-plane (IP) thermal conductivity (K), however, the low through-plane (TP) K makes them unsuitable for practical use. We report the development of high-quality polyimide/graphite nanosheets (PG) perpendicular to the plane using a directional freezing technique that increase the TP K of polymer-based composites. Graphene-derived nanosheets (GNs) were obtained by the crushing of scraps of highly thermally conductive graphene films. A water-soluble polyamic acid salt solution was used to disperse the hydrophobic GNs filler to achieve directional freezing. The polyimide, which facilitated the directional alignment of the GNs, was then graphitized. The introduction of the GNs increases the order and density of the PG, thus improving the strength and heat transfer performance of its polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite. The obtained PG/PDMS composite (21.1% PG, mass fraction) has an impressive TP K of 14.56 W·m−1·K−1, 81 times that of pure PDMS. This simple polyimide-assisted 2D hydrophobic fillers alignment method provides ideas for the widespread fabrication of anisotropic TIMs and enables the reuse of scraps of graphene films.
New Carbon Materials (新型炭材料)•2025•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(NCM2024-39-02-02)
Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are among the most promising next-generation electrochemical energy-storage systems due to their exceptional theoretical specific capacity, inexpensive production cost and environmental friendliness. However, the poor conductivity of S and Li2S, severe lithium polysulfide (LiPS) shuttling and the sluggish redox kinetics of the phase transformation greatly hinder their commercialization. Carbonaceous materials could be potentially useful in Li-S batteries to tackle these problems with their high specific surface area to host LiPSs and sulfur and excellent electrical conductivity to increase electron transfer rate. However, non-polar carbon materials are unable to interact closely with the highly polar polysulfides, resulting in a low sulfur utilization and a serious shuttle effect. Because of their advantages of strong polarity and a large number of adsorption sites, integrating transition metal oxides (TMOs) with carbon-based materials (CMs) increases the chemical adsorption of LiPSs and electrochemical reaction activity for LiPSs. The working principles and main challenges of Li-S batteries are discussed followed by a review of recent research on the ex-situ and in-situ synthesis of TMO/CM composites. The formation of TMO/CMs with the dimensionalities of CMs from 1D to 3D are then reviewed together with ways of changing their structure, including heterostructure design, vacancy engineering and facet manipulation. Finally, the outlook for using TMO/CMs in Li-S batteries is considered.
Journal of Semiconductors (半导体学报 - 中国科学院半导体研究所)•2025•DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/25040037
Isolated power converters have emerged as an active research topic in power integrated circuit (IC) design, enabling safe and reliable power delivery across voltage domains in applications such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and telecommunications. This mini review highlights recent advances and trends in isolated power converter technologies, focusing on efficiency improvement and EMI suppression. Efficiency enhancement techniques include on-chip transformer integration with high-frequency LC-tank oscillators, specialized fabrication methods to improve transformer Q-factor, and transformer-in-package designs using thick copper traces or magnetic cores. Advanced packaging techniques like fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) are also explored to reduce form factor and enhance performance. Additionally, rectifier architecture innovations, such as active rectifiers and dual-LC-resonant structures, are discussed to overcome efficiency limitations. EMI reduction techniques address both conducted and radiated emissions, which are critical for compliance with standards like CISPR-32 and EN-55032 Class B. The review summarizes representative implementations and outlines future directions for achieving higher efficiency, higher power density, and better EMI performance in isolated power converters.
Journal of Semiconductors (半导体学报 - 中国科学院半导体研究所)•2024•DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/24120034
This paper presents the design of a low-power multi-channel analog front-end (AFE) for bio-potential recording. By using time division multiplexing (TDM), a successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC) is shared among all 20 channels. A charge-sharing multiplexer (MUX) is proposed to transmit the output signals from the respective channels to the ADC. By separately pre-sampling the output of each channel, the sampling time of each channel is greatly extended and additional active buffers are avoided. The AFE is fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process, and the whole system consumes 28.2 μW under 1 V supply. Each analog acquisition channel consumes 1.25 μW and occupies a chip area of 0.14 mm2. Measurement results show that the AFE achieves an input referred noise of 1.8 μV∙rms in a 350 Hz bandwidth and a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 4.1. The 12-bit SAR ADC achieves an ENOB of 9.8 bit operating at 25 kS/s. The AFE is experimented on real-world applications by measuring human ECG and a clear ECG waveform is captured.