scholarly journals Moisture-induced autonomous surface potential oscillations for energy harvesting

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Long ◽  
Peisheng He ◽  
Zhichun Shao ◽  
Zhaoyang Li ◽  
Han Kim ◽  
...  

AbstractA variety of autonomous oscillations in nature such as heartbeats and some biochemical reactions have been widely studied and utilized for applications in the fields of bioscience and engineering. Here, we report a unique phenomenon of moisture-induced electrical potential oscillations on polymers, poly([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl] dimethyl-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium hydroxide-co-acrylic acid), during the diffusion of water molecules. Chemical reactions are modeled by kinetic simulations while system dynamic equations and the stability matrix are analyzed to show the chaotic nature of the system which oscillates with hidden attractors to induce the autonomous surface potential oscillation. Using moisture in the ambient environment as the activation source, this self-excited chemoelectrical reaction could have broad influences and usages in surface-reaction based devices and systems. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, an energy harvester is constructed and achieved the continuous energy production for more than 15,000 seconds with an energy density of 16.8 mJ/cm2. A 2-Volts output voltage has been produced to power a liquid crystal display toward practical applications with five energy harvesters connected in series.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Long ◽  
Peisheng He ◽  
Zhichun Shao ◽  
Han Kim ◽  
Archie Yao ◽  
...  

Abstract A variety of autonomous oscillations in nature such as heartbeats and biochemical reactions have been widely studied and utilized for applications in the fields of bioscience and energy technology, etc. Here, we report a unique phenomenon of moisture-induced electrical potential oscillations on P(MEDSAH-co-AA) polymers during the diffusion of water molecules. Using the moisture in the ambient environment as the activation source, this self-excited chemoelectrical reaction could have broad influences and usages in surface-reaction based devices and systems. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, an energy harvester is constructed to demonstrate the continuous energy production for more than 15000 seconds with an energy density of 16.8 mJ/cm2. A 2-Volts output voltage has been produced to power a liquid crystal display (LCD) with five energy harvesters connected in series toward practical applications.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 2838
Author(s):  
Xiaoxing Zhang ◽  
Haoyuan Yi ◽  
Junjun Liu ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Xin Luo

There has been a rising interest in compliant legged locomotion to improve the adaptability and energy efficiency of robots. However, few approaches can be generalized to soft ground due to the lack of consideration of the ground surface. When a robot locomotes on soft ground, the elastic robot legs and compressible ground surface are connected in series. The combined compliance of the leg and surface determines the natural dynamics of the whole system and affects the stability and efficiency of the robot. This paper proposes a bio-inspired leg compliance planning and implementation method with consideration of the ground surface. The ground stiffness is estimated based on analysis of ground reaction forces in the frequency domain, and the leg compliance is actively regulated during locomotion, adapting them to achieve harmonic oscillation. The leg compliance is planned on the condition of resonant movement which agrees with natural dynamics and facilitates rhythmicity and efficiency. The proposed method has been implemented on a hydraulic quadruped robot. The simulations and experimental results verified the effectiveness of our method.


Author(s):  
David Quéré ◽  
Mathilde Reyssat

Superhydrophobic materials recently attracted a lot of attention, owing to the potential practical applications of such surfaces—they literally repel water, which hardly sticks to them, bounces off after an impact and slips on them. In this short review, we describe how water repellency arises from the presence of hydrophobic microstructures at the solid surface. A drop deposited on such a substrate can float above the textures, mimicking at room temperature what happens on very hot plates; then, a vapour layer comes between the solid and the volatile liquid, as described long ago by Leidenfrost. We present several examples of superhydrophobic materials (either natural or synthetic), and stress more particularly the stability of the air cushion—the liquid could also penetrate the textures, inducing a very different wetting state, much more sticky, due to the possibility of pinning on the numerous defects. This description allows us to discuss (in quite a preliminary way) the optimal design to be given to a solid surface to make it robustly water repellent.


Author(s):  
Justyna Sulej ◽  
Magdalena Jaszek ◽  
Monika Osińska-Jaroszuk ◽  
Anna Matuszewska ◽  
Renata Bancerz ◽  
...  

AbstractPolysaccharides are biopolymers composed of simple sugars like glucose, galactose, mannose, fructose, etc. The major natural sources for the production of polysaccharides include plants and microorganisms. In the present work, four bacterial and two fungal polysaccharides (PS or EPS) were used for the modification and preservation of Pycnoporus sanguineus cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH) activity. It was found that the presence of polysaccharide preparations clearly enhanced the stability of cellobiose dehydrogenase compared to the control value (4 °C). The highest stabilization effect was observed for CDH modified with Rh110EPS. Changes in the optimum pH in the samples of CDH incubated with the chosen polysaccharide modifiers were evidenced as well. The most significant effect was observed for Rh24EPS and Cu139PS (pH 3.5). Cyclic voltammetry used for the analysis of electrochemical parameters of modified CDH showed the highest peak values after 30 days of incubation with polysaccharides at 4 °C. In summary, natural polysaccharides seem to be an effective biotechnological tool for the modification of CDH activity to increase the possibilities of its practical applications in many fields of industry.


Author(s):  
Lyndsie M. Koon ◽  
Robert J. Brustad ◽  
Megan Babkes Stellino

Physical activity participation is a non-pharmaceutical intervention that can be utilized to maintain and improve cognitive function in aging adults. Although simple physical activities yield positive results in regards to cognitive function, cognitively and motorically complex physical activities may have an even greater benefit on neuroplasticity for older adults. Commercially available products such as physical activity apps or exergames offer this population a means to engage in regular physical activity on their own. However, a taxonomy is necessary to help distinguish simpler physical activities from more complex physical activities. The taxonomy proposed in this paper carefully considers the following characteristics: the stability or transport of the body, object manipulation, intertrial variability, the environmental context and the reaction or to others. The dimensions of the taxonomy are operationally defined and practical applications are provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianmei Wang ◽  
Zhixiong Li ◽  
Sadoughi Mohammadkazem ◽  
Min Cai ◽  
Jianfeng Kang ◽  
...  

Purpose The stability characteristics of an oil film directly influence the safety and service life of mill oil-film bearings. However, very limited work has been done to address the stability characteristics of mill oil-film bearings. To this end, this paper aims to investigate the stability characteristics of mill oil-film bearings through theoretical and experimental analysis. Design/methodology/approach For the first time, a special designed experiment platform was developed to investigate the stability characteristics of mill oil-film bearings. In addition, a theoretical model of lubricating film of the tested bearings was established to analyze the oil-film stability. The theoretical results were compared with the experimental results. Findings The comparison results demonstrate that the critical influential factors on the bearing stability were the eccentricity ratio and the ratio of bearing length to diameter. The mill bearing was likely to be unstable under a small load and at a high rotational speed. Practical implications The paper includes implications for suitable operation conditions in practical use of mill oil-film bearings. Originality/value This paper fulfills an identified need to investigate oil-film stability of mill bearings for practical applications.


Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1380
Author(s):  
Binfeng Yin ◽  
Xinhua Wan ◽  
Changcheng Qian ◽  
A. S. M. Muhtasim Fuad Sohan ◽  
Teng Zhou ◽  
...  

Metal ions in high concentrations can pollute the marine environment. Human activities and industrial pollution are the causes of Cu2+ contamination. Here, we report our discovery of an enzyme method-based microfluidic that can be used to rapidly detect Cu2+ in seawater. In this method, Cu2+ is reduced to Cu+ to inhibit horseradish peroxidase (HRP) activity, which then results in the color distortion of the reaction solution. The chip provides both naked eye and spectrophotometer modalities. Cu2+ concentrations have an ideal linear relationship, with absorbance values ranging from 3.91 nM to 256 μM. The proposed enzyme method-based microfluidic chip detects Cu2+ with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.87 nM. Other common metal ions do not affect the operation of the chip. The successful detection of Cu2+ was achieved using three real seawater samples, verifying the ability of the chip in practical applications. Furthermore, the chip realizes the functions of two AND gates in series and has potential practical implementations in biochemical detection and biological computing.


Author(s):  
Chin An Tan ◽  
Heather L. Lai

Extensive research has been conducted on vibration energy harvesting utilizing a distributed piezoelectric beam structure. A fundamental issue in the design of these harvesters is the understanding of the response of the beam to arbitrary external excitations (boundary excitations in most models). The modal analysis method has been the primary tool for evaluating the system response. However, a change in the model boundary conditions requires a reevaluation of the eigenfunctions in the series and information of higher-order dynamics may be lost in the truncation. In this paper, a frequency domain modeling approach based in the system transfer functions is proposed. The transfer function of a distributed parameter system contains all of the information required to predict the system spectrum, the system response under any initial and external disturbances, and the stability of the system response. The methodology proposed in this paper is valid for both self-adjoint and non-self-adjoint systems, and is useful for numerical computer coding and energy harvester design investigations. Examples will be discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach for designs of vibration energy harvesters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 190078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Adamatzky ◽  
Claire Fullarton ◽  
Neil Phillips ◽  
Ben De Lacy Costello ◽  
Thomas C. Draper

External control of oscillation dynamics in the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction is important for many applications including encoding computing schemes. When considering the BZ reaction, there are limited studies dealing with thermal cycling, particularly cooling, for external control. Recently, liquid marbles (LMs) have been demonstrated as a means of confining the BZ reaction in a system containing a solid–liquid interface. BZ LMs were prepared by rolling 50 μl droplets in polyethylene (PE) powder. Oscillations of electrical potential differences within the marble were recorded by inserting a pair of electrodes through the LM powder coating into the BZ solution core. Electrical potential differences of up to 100 mV were observed with an average period of oscillation ca 44 s. BZ LMs were subsequently frozen to −1°C to observe changes in the frequency of electrical potential oscillations. The frequency of oscillations reduced upon freezing to 11 mHz cf. 23 mHz at ambient temperature. The oscillation frequency of the frozen BZ LM returned to 23 mHz upon warming to ambient temperature. Several cycles of frequency fluctuations were able to be achieved.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (04) ◽  
pp. 1950068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian-Bo Deng

This paper proposes a novel method for the design of a recursive second-order (biquadratic) all-pass phase compensator with controllable stability margin. The design idea stems from the generalized stability triangle (GST) derived by the author for the second-order biquadratic digital filter. Based on the GST, a parameter-transformation method is proposed on the transformations of the denominator coefficients of the transfer function of the biquadratic phase compensator. The transformations convert the original denominator coefficients to other new parameters, and any values of those new parameters can guarantee that the GST condition is always satisfied. Optimizing the new parameters yields a biquadratic phase compensator that definitely meets a prespecified stability margin. That is, a biquadratic all-pass phase compensator can be designed to have an arbitrarily specified stability margin. This in turn avoids the occurrence that a recursive phase compensator may become unstable in the practical applications. Thus, the resulting biquadratic phase compensator has robust stability, which is extremely important during the practical filtering operations. A design example is given to show the stability margin guarantee as well as the approximation accuracy.


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