scholarly journals Oxidation-induced thermopower inversion in nanocrystalline SnSe thin film

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunao Shimizu ◽  
Kazumoto Miwa ◽  
Takeshi Kobayashi ◽  
Yujiro Tazawa ◽  
Shimpei Ono

AbstractGiven the growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources, thermoelectric energy conversion has attracted increased interest as a promising CO2-free technology. SnSe single crystals have attracted attention as a next generation thermoelectric material due to outstanding thermoelectric properties arising from ultralow thermal conductivity. For practical applications, on the other hand, polycrystalline SnSe should be also focused because the production cost and the flexibility for applications are important factors, which requires the systematic investigation of the stability of thermoelectric performance under a pseudo operating environment. Here, we report that the physical properties of SnSe crystals with nano to submicron scale are drastically modified by atmospheric annealing. We measured the Seebeck effect while changing the annealing time and found that the large positive thermopower, + 757 μV K−1, was completely suppressed by annealing for only a few minutes and was eventually inverted to be the large negative value, − 427 μV K−1. This result would further accelerate intensive studies on SnSe nanostructures, especially focusing on the realistic device structures and sealing technologies for energy harvesting applications.

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (a1) ◽  
pp. C20-C20
Author(s):  
Evgeny Antipov ◽  
Nellie Khasanova

Ninety percent of the energy produced today come from fossil fuels, making dramatically negative impact on our future due to rapid consumption of these energy sources, ecological damage and climate change. This justifies development of the renewable energy sources and concurrently efficient large storage devices capable to replace fossil fuels. Li-ion batteries have originally been developed for portable electronic devices, but nowadays new application niches are envisaged in electric vehicles and stationary energy storages. However, to satisfy the needs of these rapidly growing applications, Li-ion batteries require further significant improvement of their properties: capacity and power, cyclability, safety and cost. Cathode is the key part of the Li-ion batteries largely determining their performance. Severe requirements are imposed on a cathode material, which should provide fast reversible intercalation of Li-ions at redox potential close to the upper boundary of electrolyte stability window, possess relatively low molecular weight and exhibit small volume variation upon changing Li-concentration. First generation of the cathode materials for the Li-ion batteries based on the spinel (LiM2O4, M – transition metal) or rock-salt derivatives (LiMO2) has already been widely commercialised. However, the potential to further improve the performance of these materials is almost exhausted. The compounds, containing lithium and transition metal cations together with different polyanions (XmOn)p- (X=B, P, S, Si), are now considered as the most promising cathode materials for the next generation of the Li-ion batteries. Covalently-bonded structural frameworks in these compounds offer long-term structural stability, which is essential for good cyclability and safety. Further advantages are expected from combining different anions (such as (XO4)p- and F- ) in the anion sublattice, with the hope to enhance the specific energy and power of these materials. Various fluoride-phosphates and fluoride-sulphates have been recently discovered, and some of them exhibit attractive electrochemical performance. An overview of the research on the cathode materials for the Li-ion batteries will be presented with special emphasis on crystallography as a guide towards improved properties important for practical applications.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 01070
Author(s):  
Ayani Nandi ◽  
Vikram Kumar Kamboj

Daily load demand for industrial, residential and commercial sectors are changing day by day. Also, inclusion of e-mobility has totally effected the operations of realistic power sector. Hence, to meet this time varying load demand with minimum production cost is very challenging. The proposed research work focuses on the mathematical formulation of profit based unit commitment problem of realistic power system considering the impact of battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles and plug in electric vehicles and its solution using Intensify Harris Hawks Optimizer (IHHO). The coordination of plants with each other is named as Unit commitment of plants in which the most economical patterns of the generating station is taken so as to gain low production cost with higher reliability. But with the increase in industrialization has affected the environment badly so to maintain the balance between the generation and environment a new thinking of generating low cost power with high reliability by causing less harm to environment i.e. less emission of flue gases is adopted by considering renewable energy sources.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
pp. 2146-2159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivona Capjak ◽  
Maja Zebić Avdičević ◽  
Maja Dutour Sikirić ◽  
Darija Domazet Jurašin ◽  
Amela Hozić ◽  
...  

pH, electrolytes and surfactants affected the stability of AgNPs in artificial test water system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (08) ◽  
pp. 2050123
Author(s):  
Zahra Faghani ◽  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Fatemeh Parastesh ◽  
Sajad Jafari ◽  
Matjaž Perc

Synchronization in complex networks is an evergreen subject with many practical applications across the natural and social sciences. The stability of synchronization is thereby crucial for determining whether the dynamical behavior is stable or not. The master stability function is commonly used to that effect. In this paper, we study whether there is a relation between the stability of synchronization and the proximity to certain bifurcation types. We consider four different nonlinear dynamical systems, and we determine their master stability functions in dependence on key bifurcation parameters. We also calculate the corresponding bifurcation diagrams. By means of systematic comparisons, we show that, although there are some variations in the master stability functions in dependence on bifurcation proximity and type, there is in fact no general relation between synchronization stability and bifurcation type. This has important implication for the restrained generalizability of findings concerning synchronization in complex networks for one type of node dynamics to others.


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