Extended defects, including exposed surfaces and grain boundaries (GBs), are critical to the properties of polycrystalline solid electrolytes in all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). These defects can alter the mechanical and electronic properties of solid electrolytes, with direct manifestations in the performance of ASSBs. Here, by building a library of 590 surfaces and grain boundaries of 11 relevant solid electrolytes—including halides, oxides, and sulfides— their electronic, mechanical, and thermodynamic characteristics are linked to the functional properties of polycrystalline solid electrolytes. It is found that the energy required to mechanically “separate” grain boundaries can be significantly lower than in the bulk region of materials, which can trigger preferential cracking of solid electrolyte particles in the grain boundary regions. The brittleness of ceramic solid electrolytes, inferred from the predicted low fracture toughness at the grain boundaries, contributes to their cracking under local pressure imparted by lithium (sodium) penetration in the grain boundaries. Extended defects of solid electrolytes introduce new electronic interfacial states within bandgaps of solid electrolytes. These states alter and possibly increase locally the availability of free electrons and holes in solid electrolytes. Factoring effects arising from extended defects appear crucial to explain electrochemical and mechanical observations in ASSBs.

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Low-lying coastal cities are vulnerable to compound floods caused by many factors including river flows, tides and local rainfall. Many previous studies focus on the impacts of rainfall and tidal levels (two driving factors) on estuaries or regions near the main single river, while research about the three influencing factors on the floods for complex urban river networks remain relatively scarce. This paper proposes a framework to simulate the coastal compound flooding process, with a series of scenarios designed to explore the main flooding drivers and their worst possible combination. The approach is used to quantify the induced flooding consequences, in which a two-dimensional model is employed to conduct a case study for a city with complex river networks. The Qianshan River basin in Zhuhai City, located in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China is used as the case study. Application results show that: (i) the occurrence and properties of flooding in this coastal area are jointly affected by upstream river flows, downstream tidal levels and local rainfall intensity with different contribution levels, (ii) compared to tidal levels, local rainfall intensity has a larger impact on the flooding levels of the study region, and (iii) the worst scenario where a 50-year return period upstream river flow co-occurring with high tide and a 100-year return period rainfall can produce a flooding area up to 50 km2 for the study region, with an average of 1.3 m flooded depth. The proposed framework with its findings offers an in-depth understanding and quantification of coastal urban flood characteristics within the GBA of China.@en

In a high-power white light emitting diode (LED) package, the phosphor/silicone composite is typically used for photometric and colorimetric conversions, ultimately producing the white light. However, the phosphor/silicone composite is always exposed under harsh environments with high temperature, high blue light irradiation and high moisture when the LED operates. Therefore, its reliability issue has become one of the critical bottlenecks to improve the lifetime of a high-power white LED package. As the curing process and mechanical behavior of phosphor/silicone composite essentially determine its reliability, this paper firstly uses an in situ viscosity monitoring approach combined with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis to explain the curing mechanism of a phosphor/silicone composite by taking the effects of temperature and phosphor mass fraction into consideration. Then, the mechanical properties of phosphor/silicone composites aged under a long-term high moisture condition are evaluated by using the tensile test. Meanwhile, the finite element (FE) simulations, the Mori-Tanaka theoretical estimations and the microstructure analysis are applied to investigate the high moisture induced degradation mechanisms. The results show that: (1) the in situ measured isothermal viscosity curves of both pristine silicone and phosphor/silicone composites follow the Arrhenius empirical model, and high temperature and high phosphor mass fraction can increase the curing rate; (2) the hydrosilylation reaction between silicones determines the curing mechanism of phosphor/silicone composite; (3) the tensile test, FE simulation and Mori-Tanaka theoretical prediction results confirm that the Young's modulus of phosphor/silicone composite increases by gradually adding phosphors; and (4) the Young's modulus of phosphor/silicone composite increases after the high moisture ageing test, which can be attributed to the oxidation and cross-linking reaction of silicone and the hydrolysis of phosphor powders.

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