scholarly journals Local and correlated studies of humidity-mediated ferroelectric thin film surface charge dynamics

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iaroslav Gaponenko ◽  
Loïc Musy ◽  
Neus Domingo ◽  
Nicolas Stucki ◽  
Albert Verdaguer ◽  
...  

AbstractElectrochemical phenomena in ferroelectrics are of particular interest for catalysis and sensing applications, with recent studies highlighting the combined role of the ferroelectric polarisation, applied surface voltage and overall switching history. Here, we present a systematic Kelvin probe microscopy study of the effect of relative humidity and polarisation switching history on the surface charge dissipation in ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films. We analyse the interaction of surface charges with ferroelectric domains through the framework of physically constrained unsupervised machine learning matrix factorisation, Dictionary Learning, and reveal a complex interplay of voltage-mediated physical processes underlying the observed signal decays. Additional insight into the observed behaviours is given by a Fitzhugh–Nagumo reaction–diffusion model, highlighting the lateral spread and charge passivation process contributors within the Dictionary Learning analysis.

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Palermo ◽  
G. Ridolfi ◽  
A. M. Talarico ◽  
L. Favaretto ◽  
G. Barbarella ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadi Rahmaninejad ◽  
Tom Pace ◽  
Peter Kekenes-Huskey

Synapsed cells can communicate using exocytosed nucleotides like adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Ectonucleotidases localized to a synaptic junction degradesuch nucleotides into metabolites like adenosine monophosphate (AMP) or adenosine, oftentimes in a sequential manner. CD39 and CD73 are a representativeset of coupled ectonucleotidases, where CD39 first converts ATP and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into AMP, after which the AMP product is dephosphorylated into adenosine by CD73. Hence, CD39/CD73 help shape cellular responses to extracellular ATP. In a previous study [1] we demonstrated that the rates of coupled CD39/CD73 activity within synapse-like junctions are strongly controlled by the enzymes' co-localization, their surface charge densities, and the electrostatic potential of the surrounding cell membranes. In this study, we demonstrate that crowders within a synaptic junction, which can include globular proteins like cytokines and membrane-bound proteins, impact coupled CD39/CD73 electronucleotidase activity and in turn, the availability of intrasynapse ATP. Specifically, we simulated a spatially-explicit, reaction-diffusion model for the coupled conversion of ATP -> AMP and AMP -> adenosine in a model synaptic junction with crowders via the finite element method. Our modeling results suggest that the association rate for ATP to CD39 is strongly influenced by the density of intrasynaptic protein crowders, as increasing crowder density suppressed ATP association kinetics. Much of this suppression can be rationalized based on a loss of configurational entropy. The surface charges of crowders can further influence the association rate, with the surprising result that favorable crowder/nucleotide electrostatic interactions can yield CD39 association rates that are faster than crowder-free configurations. However, attractive crowder/nucleotide interactions decrease the rate and efficiency of adenosine production, which in turn increases the availability of ATP and AMP within the synapse relative to crowder-free configurations. These findings highlight how CD39/CD73 ectonucleotidase activity, electrostatics and crowding within synapses influence the availability of nucleotides for intercellular communication.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Kyungrim Kim ◽  
Jinwook Kim ◽  
Xiaoning Jiang ◽  
Taeyang Kim

In force measurement applications, a piezoelectric force sensor is one of the most popular sensors due to its advantages of low cost, linear response, and high sensitivity. Piezoelectric sensors effectively convert dynamic forces to electrical signals by the direct piezoelectric effect, but their use has been limited in measuring static forces due to the easily neutralized surface charge. To overcome this shortcoming, several static (either pure static or quasistatic) force sensing techniques using piezoelectric materials have been developed utilizing several unique parameters rather than just the surface charge produced by an applied force. The parameters for static force measurement include the resonance frequency, electrical impedance, decay time constant, and capacitance. In this review, we discuss the detailed mechanism of these piezoelectric-type, static force sensing methods that use more than the direct piezoelectric effect. We also highlight the challenges and potentials of each method for static force sensing applications.


Author(s):  
Shun Yu ◽  
Valentina Guccini ◽  
Franz Demmel ◽  
Germán Salazar-Alvarez

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) are a class of materials with good mechanical properties, surface functionality and bio-/environmental friendliness. They have been used in many applications as loading material or function materials, where water-cellulose interaction determines the materials performance. Especially, CNF with carboxylated groups can be used as the separation membrane in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. The water dynamics is closely related to the proton conductivity. The Non-destructive quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) is used to characterized water movement in hydrated membrane made of CNF prepared by TEMPO-oxidation with different surface charges. However, neither surface charge nor the nanoconfinement due to membrane swelling has large impact on water dynamics mechanism. A slow diffusive motion is found with the diffusion coefficient close to bulk water and that in hydrated Nafion membrane regardless the surface charge, while a fast motion is rather localized with a correlation time increasing as temperature increase, which might related to the hydrogen bond network formation between water and CNF.


Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1165
Author(s):  
Emilio Paz Alpuche ◽  
Pascal Gröger ◽  
Xuetao Wang ◽  
Thomas Kroyer ◽  
Stefanos Fasoulas

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thin films were deposited using direct current (reactive and metallic) and radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The effect of the deposition technique and annealing treatment on the microstructure and crystallinity of the thin films was assessed. Using the films produced in this work, oxygen gas sensors were built and their performance under vacuum conditions was evaluated. All the films exhibited a cubic crystalline structure after a post-deposition thermal treatment, regardless of the sputtering technique. When the annealing treatment surpassed 1000 °C, impurities were detected on the thin film surface. The oxygen gas sensors employing the reactive and oxide-sputtered YSZ thin films displayed a proportional increase in the sensor current as the oxygen partial pressure was increased in the evaluated pressure range (5 × 10−6 to 2 × 10−3 mbar). The sensors which employed the metallic-deposited YSZ films suffered from electronic conductivity at low partial pressures.


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 193-200
Author(s):  
Ralf-Peter Herber ◽  
Gerold A. Schneider

Ba2CuWO6 (BCW) was first synthesized in the mid 1960s, and it was predicted to be a ferroelectric material with a very high Curie temperature of 1200 °C [N. Venevtsev and A.G. Kapyshev: New ferroelectrics. Proc. Int. Meet. Ferroelectr.1, 261 (1966)]. Since then, crystallographic studies were performed on the compound with the result that its crystal structure is centrosymmetric. Thus for principal reason, BCW cannot be ferroelectric. That obvious contradiction was examined in this study. Disk-shaped ceramic samples of BCW and Ba2Cu0.5Zn0.5WO6 (BCZW) were prepared. Because of the low electrical resistivity of the ceramics, it was not possible to perform a typical polariszation hysteresis loop for characterization of ferroelectric properties. Scanning electron microscopy investigations strongly suggest that the reason for the conductivity is found in the impurities/precipitations within the microstructure of the samples. With atomic force microscopy (AFM) in piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) mode, it is possible to characterize local piezoelectricity by imaging the ferroelectric domains. Neither BCW nor BCZW showed any domain structure. Nevertheless, when local electric fields were applied to the surfaces of the ceramics topographic displacements, imaged with AFM, and surface charges, imaged with Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM) and PFM, were measured and remained stable on the surface for the time of the experiment. Therefore BCW and BCZW are considered to be electrets and possibly relaxor ferroelectrics.


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