Surface Technology (表面技术)•2026•DOI: 10.16490/j.cnki.issn.1001-3660.2026.11.002
Silicon carbide mechanical seal rings in marine rotary equipment suffer severe wear, demanding coatings that simultaneously deliver high hardness, low friction, and corrosion resistance. This study fabricates diamond/diamond-like carbon (DLC) duplex coatings via hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) followed by magnetron-sputter-assisted ion-beam deposition. Microcrystalline diamond (MCD) and ultra-nanocrystalline diamond (UNCD) underlayers are grown on SiC, then capped with a hydrogenated DLC lubricating topcoat, forming a rigid-underlayer/lubricating-top-layer architecture. Tribological tests in simulated seawater reveal that DLC reduces MCD surface roughness from 155.33 nm to 123.77 nm and UNCD roughness from 92.43 nm to 81.90 nm. The MCD/DLC coating lowers steady-state friction coefficient and specific wear rate by 32.08% and 12.22%, respectively; UNCD/DLC achieves 26.67% and 20.92% improvements. SEM, Raman, and XPS analyses of worn surfaces indicate that the DLC top layer mitigates interfacial shear stress, enhances boundary lubrication, and accelerates friction-induced graphitization. The composite coating also reduces counterface ball damage and debris accumulation, extending the service life of mating components. These findings demonstrate that the duplex architecture overcomes the inherent limitations of monolithic diamond coatings, offering a viable route for durable marine seal applications.
New Carbon Materials (新型炭材料)•2025•DOI: 10.1016/S1872-5805(NCM2025-40-01-02)
With the development of electronics and portable devices, there is a significant drive to develop electrode materials for supercapacitors that are lightweight, economical, and provide high energy and power densities. Lignin-based porous carbons have recently been extensively studied for energy storage applications because of their characteristics of large specific surface area, easy doping, and high conductivity. Significant progress in the synthesis of porous carbons derived from lignin, using different strategies for their preparation and modification with heteroatoms, metal oxides, metal sulfides, and conductive polymers is considered and their electrochemical performances and ion storage mechanisms are discussed. Considerable focus is directed towards the challenges encountered in using lignin-based porous carbons and the ways to optimize specific capacity and energy density for supercapacitor applications. Finally, the limitations of existing technologies and research directions for improving the performance of lignin-based carbons are discussed.
Journal of Semiconductors (半导体学报 - 中国科学院半导体研究所)•2025•DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/25010027
Doping plays a pivotal role in enhancing the performance of organic semiconductors (OSCs) for advanced optoelectronic and thermoelectric applications. In this study, we systematically investigated the doping performance and applicability of the ionic dopant 4-isopropyl-4′-methyldiphenyliodonium tetrakis(penta-fluorophenyl-borate) (DPI-TPFB) as a p-dopant for OSCs. Using the p-type OSC PBBT-2T as a model system, we demonstrated that DPI-TPFB shows significant doping effect, as confirmed by ESR spectra, ultraviolet−visible−near-infrared (UV−vis−NIR) absorption, and work function analysis, and enhances the electronic conductivity of PBBT-2T films by over four orders of magnitude. Furthermore, DPI-TPFB exhibited broad doping applicability, effectively doping various p-type OSCs and even imparting p-type characteristics to the n-type OSC N2200, transforming its intrinsic n-type behavior into p-type. The application of DPI-TPFB-doped PBBT-2T films in organic thermoelectric devices (OTEs) was also explored, achieving a power factor of approximately 10 μW∙m−1∙K−2. These findings highlight the potential of DPI-TPFB as a versatile and efficient dopant for integration into organic optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices.
Nano-Micro Letters•2025•DOI: 10.1007/s40820-024-01577-0
Harvesting the immense and renewable osmotic energy with reverse electrodialysis (RED) technology shows great promise in dealing with the ever-growing energy crisis. One key challenge is to improve the output power density with improved trade-off between membrane permeability and selectivity. Herein, polyelectrolyte hydrogels (channel width, 2.2 nm) with inherent high ion conductivity have been demonstrated to enable excellent selective ion transfer when confined in cylindrical anodized aluminum pore with lateral size even up to the submillimeter scale (radius, 0.1 mm). The membrane permeability of the anti-swelling hydrogel can also be further increased with cellulose nanofibers. With real seawater and river water, the output power density of a three-chamber cell on behalf of repeat unit of RED system can reach up to 8.99 W m−2 (per unit total membrane area), much better than state-of-the-art membranes. This work provides a new strategy for the preparation of polyelectrolyte hydrogel-based ion-selective membranes, owning broad application prospects in the fields of osmotic energy collection, electrodialysis, flow battery and so on.