Zircon

Integration of thin-film oxide piezoelectrics on glass is imperative for the next generation of transparent electronics to attain sensing and actuating functions. However, their crystallization temperature (above 650 °C) is incompatible with most glasses. We developed a flash lamp process for the growth of piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate films. The process enables crystallization on various types of glasses in a few seconds only. The functional properties of these films are comparable to the films processed with standard rapid thermal annealing at 700 °C...

The Late Devonian magmatism of the Dananhu arc belt in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt provides a critical geological record. This study provides new comprehensive geochronological, geochemical, and Sr-Nd isotopic data of granodioritic and dioritic intrusions in the Dananhu belt. These findings contribute to unraveling the regional tectonic history and constraining the geodynamic processes involved. Zircon U-Pb dating indicates that the granodiorites and diorites were formed at 382.7 ± 3.8Ma and 363...

Yttrium-doped barium zirconate (BZY) has garnered attention as a protonic conductor in intermediate-temperature electrolysis and fuel cells due to its high bulk proton conductivity and excellent chemical stability. However, the performance of BZY can be further enhanced by reducing the concentration and resistance of grain boundaries. In this study, we investigate the impact of manganese (Mn) additives on the sinterability and proton conductivity of Y-doped BaZrO3 (BZY). By employing a combinatorial pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, we synthesized BZY thin films with varying Mn concentrations and sintering temperatures...

This work is mainly concerned with the effect of anthropogenic activities and natural radioactivity due to the presence of highly radioactive black sand spots, factory construction, and shipping, in addition to other activities like agriculture on human beings. Forty samples were collected along Baltim-El Burullus coastal plain to detect the effect of these problems and determine the suggested solutions. The black sand of the Baltim-El Burullus coastal plain exhibits a considerable amount of economically heavy minerals, their ratio relative to the bulk composition in the investigated samples ranges from 3...

PURPOSE: This in-vitro study aims to investigate whether the wettability of two zirconia implant disk surfaces is affected by glycine and erythritol air-polishing, using saline, bovine serum albumin, bovine thrombin, and bovine artificial blood as the testing mediums. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Zirconia disks were provided by two implant companies: SDS. (Swiss Dental Solutions, Plymouth, MA, USA) (n=6) and Patent. (Zircon Medical AG, Altendorf, Switzerland) (n=6). Surface parameters (Sa, Sz, Sdr, Ssk, Sku, and Spd) were measured to determine their initial surface roughness...

Communication with hand gestures plays a significant role in human-computer interaction by providing an intuitive and natural way for humans to communicate with machines. Ultrasound-based devices have shown promising results in contactless hand gesture recognition without requiring physical contact. However, it is challenging to fabricate a densely packed wearable ultrasound array. Here, a stretchable ultrasound array is demonstrated with closely packed transducer elements fabricated using surface charge engineering between pre-charged 1-3 Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) composite and thin polyimide film without using a microscope...

In CT imaging of the head, multiple image series are routinely reconstructed with different kernels and slice thicknesses. Reviewing the redundant information is an inefficient process for radiologists. We address this issue with a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based technique, synthesiZed Improved Resolution and Concurrent nOise reductioN (ZIRCON), that creates a single, thin, low-noise series that combines the favorable features from smooth and sharp head kernels. ZIRCON uses a CNN model with an autoencoder U-Net architecture that accepts two input channels (smooth- and sharp-kernel CT images) and combines their salient features to produce a single CT image...

The increasing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) is encouraging extensive research in CO2 utilisation. Dry reforming of methane (DRM) depicts a viable strategy to convert both CO2 and CH4 into syngas, a worthwhile chemical intermediate. Among the different active phases for DRM, the use of nickel as catalyst is economically favourable, but typically deactivates due to sintering and carbon deposition. The stabilisation of Ni at different loadings in cerium zirconate inorganic complex structures is investigated in this work as strategy to develop robust Ni-based DRM catalysts...

Thin-walled metallic structures produced by the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) Additive Manufacturing (AM) process are prone to various fabrication defects, which hinder the wider applications of the technique in practice. In-situ inspection and monitoring methodologies are in high demand for improved quality control of printed parts. This paper presents an ultrasonic guided-wave-based method and a prototype that can potentially be used for in-situ inspection of thin-walled structures produced by DED. Lamb waves are excited by a Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric transducer bonded on the DED substrate remotely from the thin wall...

Piezoceramics with global porosity and local compaction are highly desired to exploit the combination of mechanical and electrical properties. However, achieving such a functional combination is challenging because of the lack of techniques for applying uniform pressure inside porous ceramic green parts. Nature provides many examples of generating strong forces inside the macro and micro channels via the state transformation of water. Inspired by these phenomena, we present a technique of "ice and fire", that is, water freezing (ice pressing) and high-temperature sintering (fire), to produce ideal porous piezoceramics...

Piezoelectric composite fibers have various applications such as energy harvesting and human body monitor devices. Therefore, the construction of fibers that have the highest piezoelectric efficiency while using materials with the least toxicity is of great importance for health. Consequently, in the research a head PZT/PVDF (Lead Zirconate Titanate/Polyvinylidene fluoride) and Lead free BaTiO3 /PVDF (Barium Titanate/Polyvinylidene fluoride) 0-3 connection type composites nanofibers were fabricated by Electrospinning method...

The Nyainqentanglha Metallogenic Belt (NMB) is an economically important lead-zinc ore province located in the Central and Southern Lhasa subterrane, Tibet. The NMB consists mainly of skarn-type lead-zinc polymetallic deposits that form at the contact between Late Cretaceous-Eocene intrusive rocks and carbonatite/volcanic-sedimentary strata. These deposits are generally considered to be related to S-type granites formed by the Indo-Asian continental collision. However, the ε Hf (t) (ave. -1.6) of zircons from the mineralization-related granitoids indicates that it is crust-mantle mixing products...

Lissajous micro scanners are very attractive in compact laser scanning applications for biomedical endoscopic imaging, such as confocal microscopy, endomicroscopy or optical coherence tomography. The scanning frequencies have a very important effect on the quality of the resulting Lissajous scanning imaging. In this paper, we propose a frequency selection rule for high definition and high frame-rate (HDHF) Lissajous scanning imaging, by deriving the relationship among the scanning field of view (FOV), actuation frequencies and pixel size based on the characteristics of the scanning trajectory...

Tactile devices are often used in the field of robotics; however, the development of compact high-resolution tactile devices remains challenging. In this study, we developed a haptic device for force presentation using a DC motor and a tactile sensation device to simultaneously present haptic and tactile stimuli. A microelectromechanical system was selected to maintain the compactness of the tactile device. Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers are known for high-power stimulation, and we selected lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate as the high-power amplified actuator...

The end-Permian mass extinction was the most severe ecological event during the Phanerozoic and has long been presumed contemporaneous across terrestrial and marine realms with global environmental deterioration triggered by the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province. We present high-precision zircon U-Pb geochronology by the chemical abrasion-isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry technique on tuffs from terrestrial to transitional coastal settings in Southwest China, which reveals a protracted collapse of the Cathaysian rainforest beginning after the onset of the end-Permian marine extinction...

Zircons are found in extraterrestrial rocks from the Moon, Mars, and some differentiated meteorite parent-bodies. These zircons are rare, often of small size, and have been affected by neutron capture induced by cosmic ray exposure. The application of the 176 Lu-176 Hf decay system to zircons from planetary bodies such as the Moon can help establish the chronology of large-scale differentiation processes such as the crystallization of the lunar magma ocean. Here, we present methods to measure the isotopic composition of Hf of extraterrestrial zircons dated using ID-TIMS U-Pb after chemical abrasion...

This study introduces a novel image capture and lighting techniques using a cutting-edge hybrid MEMS scanner system designed for compact microscopic imaging. The scanner comprises a tapered optical fiber waveguide and innovative aerosol-jet printed PZT (lead zirconate titanate) bimorph push-pull actuators on a stainless-steel substrate, effectively addressing issues that are commonly associated with PZT on silicon substrates such as fracture and layer separation. By leveraging nonlinear vibration, the scanner achieves a spiral scan pattern from a single signal input, in addition to the expected two-dimensional scanning and target illumination from two phase-shifted inputs...

Ultrasonic flowmeter is one of the most widely used devices in flow measurement. Traditional bulk piezoelectric ceramic transducers restrict their application to small pipe diameters. In this paper, we propose an ultrasonic gas flowmeter based on a PZT piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) array. Two PMUT arrays with a resonant frequency of 125 kHz are used as the sensitive elements of the ultrasonic gas flowmeter to realize alternate transmission and reception of ultrasonic signals. The sensor contains 5 × 5 circular elements with a size of 3...

Effective damage identification is paramount to evaluating safety conditions and preventing catastrophic failures of concrete structures. Although various methods have been introduced in the literature, developing robust and reliable structural health monitoring (SHM) procedures remains an open research challenge. This study proposes a new approach utilizing a 1-D convolution neural network to identify the formation of cracks from the raw electromechanical impedance (EMI) signature of externally bonded piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) transducers...

High-quality global isotopic databases provide Earth scientists with robust means for developing and testing a variety of geological hypotheses. Database design establishes the range of questions that can be addressed, and validation techniques can enhance data quality. Here, six validated global isotopic databases provide extensive records of analyses from U-Pb in detrital zircon, Lu-Hf in zircon, Sm-Nd from whole rocks, and δ18 O in zircon. The U-Pb detrital zircon records are segregated into three independently sampled databases...