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Aerogel fibers garner tremendous scientific interest due to their unique properties such as ultrahigh porosity, large specific surface area, and ultralow thermal conductivity, enabling diverse potential applications in textile, environment, energy conversion and storage, and high‐tech areas. Here, the fabrication methodologies to construct the aerogel fibers starting from nanoscale building blocks are overviewed, and the spinning thermodynamics and spinning kinetics associated with each technology are revealed. The huge pool of material choices that can be assembled into aerogel fibers is discussed. Furthermore, the fascinating properties of aerogel fibers, including mechanical, thermal, sorptive, optical, and fire‐retardant properties are elaborated on. Next, the nano‐confining functionalization strategy for aerogel fibers is particularly highlighted, touching upon the driving force for liquid encapsulation, solid–liquid interface adhesion, and interfacial stability. In addition, emerging applications in thermal management, smart wearable fabrics, water harvest, shielding, heat transfer devices, artificial muscles, and information storage, are discussed. Last, the existing challenges in the development of aerogel fibers are pointed out and light is shed on the opportunities in this burgeoning field. Aerogel fibers emerge as rising stars in diverse fields of thermal management, smart wearable fabrics, water harvest, shielding, heat‐transfer devices, artificial muscles, and information storage. Starting from nanoscale building blocks, spinning thermodynamics and spinning kinetics associated with a variety of technologies are revealed. Aerogel fibers will earn an irreplaceable place with the advances in materials and fabrication methodologies.

Accurate characterisation of the three-dimensional (3D) fracture network of coal is of vital significance to enhancing coal seam permeability during simultaneous extraction of deep coal and methane resources. The limitations of traditional experimental methods prevent direct in situ observation and characterisation of the 3D fracture network and its evolution during loading processes. This study presents a novel approach that incorporates computed tomography and servo-controlled triaxial loading techniques to accomplish the laboratory in situ observation of the continuous evolution of 3D fracture networks inside coal samples which were subject to confining pressures and axial compressive loads. Spatial growth and morphologies of the interior fractures at various loading stages were captured in situ and extracted using imaging processing algorithms. The 3D fracture networks observed at different loading stages were quantitatively characterised using fractal theory and compared to evaluate the influences of confining pressures and vertical loads on their evolution. The results indicated that the original existing fractures of coal closed when the specimens were subject to confining pressures and vertical compressive deformation were in the linear elastic stage. Load-induced fractures expanded notably only when the axial compressive load reached the maximum value. The fractal dimension of the 3D fracture network tended to decrease initially and subsequently increased during the loading process, which reflects the evolutionary characteristics of coal fractures from a closed to an expanded state.

In recent years, many studies have shown that it is meaningful to place rocks under stress paths corresponding to various loading and unloading conditions. However, the deformation evolution of rock under cyclic loading with consideration of the mechanical behavior and characteristics has rarely been studied under triaxial cyclic unloading and loading conditions. In practical engineering, particularly in underground or mining engineering, the stress increase in the rock mass in areas affected by mining is mainly caused by crack initiation and development when the rock is subjected to the effects of cyclic unloading and loading. In this study, variations in the stress–strain curves, irreversible strain, elastic modulus, and Poisson’s ratio are discussed and explained. The test results demonstrate that in comparison with a lower initial confining stress, increasing the initial confining pressure restrains the radial deformation of sandstone samples, and the degree of compaction of the sandstone samples rapidly increases in the failure stage. This results in the loss of the failure buffering process of the sandstone sample. Changes in the degree of compaction of the rock samples lead to obvious differences in the irreversible strain of the rock under different initial confining pressures and different limit unloading and loading cyclic confining stresses. The scanning electron microscopy and analysis results demonstrate that the macroscopic mechanical and microscopic physical properties of sandstone show different characteristics under different initial confining stresses.

A detailed understanding of damage evolution in rock after high-temperature treatment in unloading conditions is extremely important in underground engineering applications, such as the disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste, underground coal gasification, and post-disaster reconstruction. We have studied the effects of temperature (200, 400, 600 and 800 °C) and confining pressure (20, 30 and 40 MPa) on the mechanical properties of sandstone. Scanning electron microscopy studies revealed that at temperatures exceeding 400 °C, new cracks formed, and original cracks extended substantially. When the confining pressure was 20 MPa, a temperature increase from 400 to 800 °C resulted in a 75.2% increase in peak strain, a decrease in Young’s modulus and peak strength of 62.5 and 35.8 %, respectively, and transition of the failure mechanism from brittleness to ductility. In the triaxial compression tests, the specimen deformed in a more obvious ductile failure manner at higher confining pressure, whereas in the unloading confining pressure experiments, brittle failure was more obvious when the initial confining pressure was higher. We focused on the effects of temperature and initial confining pressure on peak effective loading stress and peak ductile deformation during unloading. At temperatures of >400 °C, the peak ductile deformation increased rapidly with increases in the high temperature treatment or initial confining pressure. The peak effective loading stress decreased sharply with increased temperature but barely changed when the initial confining pressure was varied.

This work aims at investigating the fracture evolution and energy characteristics of marble subjected to fatigue cyclic loading and confining pressure unloading (FC-CPU) conditions. Although rocks under separated fatigue cyclic loading and triaxial unloading conditions have been well studied, little is known about the dependence of the fatigue damage accumulation on the subsequent confining pressure unloading condition that influences the rock fracture behaviors. In this work, the servo-controlled GCTS 2000 rock mechanical system combined with the post-test X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning technique were used to reveal the fracture behaviors of the marble samples. The samples were tested at three stages: the static loading stage, the fatigue cyclic loading stage, and the confining pressure unloading stage. Results show that the damage index-cycle number curve shows a different pattern—the damage increasing rate is different for the samples experiencing different fatigue damage. The damage accumulation at the fatigue cyclic stage influences the final failure mode and energy conversion. In addition, post-test CT scanning further reveals the effects of fatigue cycles on the crack pattern, as well as the stimulated crack scale and density after FC-CPU testing depending on the fatigue cycle. Furthermore, the stored elastic energy decreases and the dissipated energy increases with increasing fatigue cycle at the fatigue loading stage, and the energy conversion is consistent with the crack pattern analysis. By investigating the failure mechanism of marble under FC-CPU conditions, a theoretical basis for rock dynamic disaster prediction can be created.

High geostress is a prominent condition in deep excavations and affects the cuttability of deep hard rock. This study aims to determine the influence of confining stress on hard rock fragmentation as applied by a conical pick. Using a true triaxial test apparatus, static and coupled static and dynamic loadings from pick forces were applied to end faces of cubic rock specimens to break them under biaxial, uniaxial and stress-free confining stress conditions. The cuttability indices (peak pick force, insertion depth and disturbance duration), failure patterns and fragment sizes were measured and compared to estimate the effects of confining stress. The results show that the rock cuttabilities decreased in order from rock breakages under stress-free conditions to uniaxial confining stress and then to biaxial confining stress. Under biaxial confining stress, only flake-shaped fragments were stripped from the rock surfaces under the requirements of large pick forces or disturbance durations. As the level of uniaxial confining stress increased, the peak pick force and the insertion depth initially increased and then decreased, and the failure patterns varied from splitting to partial splitting and then to rock bursts with decreasing average fragment sizes. Rock bursts will occur under elastic compression via ultra-high uniaxial confining stresses. There are two critical uniaxial confining stress levels, namely stress values at which peak pick forces begin to decrease and improve rock cuttability, and those at which rock bursts initially occur and cutting safety decreases. In particular, hard rock is easiest to split safely and efficiently under stress-free conditions. Moreover, coupled static preloading and dynamic disturbance can increase the efficiency of rock fragmentation with increasing preloading levels and disturbance amplitudes. The concluding remarks confirm hard rock cuttability using conical pick, which can improve the applicability of mechanical excavation in deep hard rock masses.

Quantum communications promise to revolutionize the way information is exchanged and protected. Unlike their classical counterpart, they are based on dim optical pulses that cannot be amplified by conventional optical repeaters. Consequently, they are heavily impaired by propagation channel losses, confining their transmission rate and range below a theoretical limit known as repeaterless secret key capacity. Overcoming this limit with today’s technology was believed to be impossible until the recent proposal of a scheme that uses phase-coherent optical signals and an auxiliary measuring station to distribute quantum information. Here, we experimentally demonstrate such a scheme for the first time and over significant channel losses, in excess of 90 dB. In the high loss regime, the resulting secure key rate exceeds the repeaterless secret key capacity, a result never achieved before. This represents a major step in promoting quantum communications as a dependable resource in today’s world.A proof-of-principle experiment on twin-field quantum key distribution is demonstrated. The key rate overcomes the repeaterless secret key capacity bound limit at channel losses of 85 dB, corresponding to 530 km of ultralow-loss optical fibre.

The deformation and failure of rocks result from the dissipation and release of their internal energy. The energy evolution throughout the processes of deformation and failure in rock is a critical research topic. The triaxial cyclic loading and unloading tests under five confining pressures were carried out on high-temperature rock samples to investigate the influences of the confining pressure (σ3) and temperature (T) on their energy evolution and distribution characteristics. The energy densities of rock samples under various confining pressures were calculated by determining the area between the loading and unloading curves, including axial energy densities (u10, u1e, u1d) and circumferential strain energy density (u30). The energy accumulation and dissipation and the effect of σ3 and T on the energy distribution laws of loaded rock samples were analysed. The characteristic energy density (u1t) was used to analyse the accumulation, dissipation and release of energy of the loaded rock sample. u1t increased with the increase in σ3 and decreased with the increase in T. Furthermore, u30 increased with the increase in σ3, which effectively limited the energy dissipation and release due to fracture or failure of the rock sample. With the increase in T, the circumferential strain of the rock sample increased, which led to an increase in u30. At the pre-peak stage, energy accumulation characterised the energy behaviour of the loaded rock sample, and the proportion of the elastic energy density (k1e) was large. At the post-peak stage, energy release and dissipation characterised the energy behaviour of the loaded rock sample, the dissipated energy density proportion (k1d) increased gradually, and the change law for k1e and k1d was considerably affected by the confining pressure and temperature effect. The dissipated energy density of the loaded rock sample was used to establish the energy damage variable and analyse the evolution law of the dissipated energy damage variable of the high-temperature rock sample with σ3 and T. The results of this study can provide guidance for the research on high-temperature rock damage mechanisms and prevention of dynamic disasters of rock underground engineering.

Selective partial oxidation of methane to methanol suffers from low efficiency. Here, we report a heterogeneous catalyst system for enhanced methanol productivity in methane oxidation by in situ generated hydrogen peroxide at mild temperature (70°C). The catalyst was synthesized by fixation of AuPd alloy nanoparticles within aluminosilicate zeolite crystals, followed by modification of the external surface of the zeolite with organosilanes. The silanes appear to allow diffusion of hydrogen, oxygen, and methane to the catalyst active sites, while confining the generated peroxide there to enhance its reaction probability. At 17.3% conversion of methane, methanol selectivity reached 92%, corresponding to methanol productivity up to 91.6 millimoles per gram of AuPd per hour.

It is extremely difficult to accurately predict the rock damage evolution during the underground space development or the deep excavation activity. In this paper, based on the statistical damage mechanics, a plastic strain-induced damage model of porous rock was established to describe the damage evolution and the constitutive behavior of porous rock under different stress paths. In the proposed model, the modified porosity was introduced which considered the effect of the generalized plastic shear strain. Besides, the proposed damage evolution function was also controlled by the generalized plastic shear strain. To validate the proposed damage model, the sandstone is selected as the experimental specimen due to it is a typical porous rock, and a series of conventional tri-axial compressive experiments (CTC) and confining pressure unloading experiments under constant deviatoric stress (UCP-CDS) were carried out. Furthermore, the confining pressure unloading experimental data under increscent deviatoric stress (UCP-IDS) was referenced to further validate the applicability of the proposed model. The results showed that the deviatoric strain-damage curves were an “S” shape, moreover, the relationship between the damage variable with the unloading ratio was exponential function. The proposed damage model could better reflect the void volume change and the radial dilation during the unloading process. Moreover, the model could successfully capture the damage evolution law and the mechanical behavior of sandstone by matching a set of tri-axial compressive experiments under different stress paths. Finally, it is found that the strength, strain-hardening and strain-softening characteristics were controlled by the Weibull distributed parameters m0 and F0.HighlightsThe modified porosity was introduced which considered the effect of the generalized plastic shear strain.The relationship between the damage variable with the unloading ratio was exponential function.The proposed model could reflect the void volume and the radial dilation.The proposed model could reflect the stress-strain behavior under different stress paths.