μCHILL: a lightweight, modular system for handling crystalline samples at low temperatures under inert conditions

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 541-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Solar ◽  
Nils Trapp

A procedure for preparing and mounting crystals under inert conditions is demonstrated, using a specialized apparatus (μCHILL) to provide a cold gas stream fed from a liquid nitrogen (LN2) reservoir or an open bath heat exchanger. A second, dry gas stream at room temperature enwraps the cold gas, protecting the sample preparation zone from ambient moisture. The technique is extremely flexible, requiring only a single operator, little practice and almost no preparation time. The device enables operation in a wide temperature range (at least 213 K to room temperature), providing temperature control and very stable conditions with no icing for extended time periods. The flexible, modular and low-cost design is based on three-dimensional-printed parts and readily available standard components, potentially making the device available to a wide range of users and applications not limited to single-crystal studies.

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Brewin ◽  
Thomas Brewin ◽  
Joseph Phillips ◽  
Sophie Rose ◽  
Anas Abdulaziz ◽  
...  

Two expanding areas of science and technology are citizen science and three-dimensional (3D) printing. Citizen science has a proven capability to generate reliable data and contribute to unexpected scientific discovery. It can put science into the hands of the citizens, increasing understanding, promoting environmental stewardship, and leading to the production of large databases for use in environmental monitoring. 3D printing has the potential to create cheap, bespoke scientific instruments that have formerly required dedicated facilities to assemble. It can put instrument manufacturing into the hands of any citizen who has access to a 3D printer. In this paper, we present a simple hand-held device designed to measure the Secchi depth and water colour (Forel Ule scale) of lake, estuarine and nearshore regions. The device is manufactured with marine resistant materials (mostly biodegradable) using a 3D printer and basic workshop tools. It is inexpensive to manufacture, lightweight, easy to use, and accessible to a wide range of users. It builds on a long tradition in optical limnology and oceanography, but is modified for ease of operation in smaller water bodies, and from small watercraft and platforms. We provide detailed instructions on how to build the device and highlight examples of its use for scientific education, citizen science, satellite validation of ocean colour data, and low-cost monitoring of water clarity, colour and temperature.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
FK Janiak ◽  
P Bartel ◽  
MR Bale ◽  
T Yoshimatsu ◽  
E Komulainen ◽  
...  

ABSTACTIn neuroscience, diffraction limited two-photon (2P) microscopy is a cornerstone technique that permits minimally invasive optical monitoring of neuronal activity. However, most conventional 2P microscopes impose significant constraints on the size of the imaging field-of-view and the specific shape of the effective excitation volume, thus limiting the scope of biological questions that can be addressed and the information obtainable. Here, employing ‘divergent beam optics’ (DBO), we present an ultra-low-cost, easily implemented and flexible solution to address these limitations, offering a several-fold expanded three-dimensional field of view that also maintains single-cell resolution. We show that this implementation increases both the space-bandwidth product and effective excitation power, and allows for straight-forward tailoring of the point-spread-function. Moreover, rapid laser-focus control via an electrically tunable lens now allows near-simultaneous imaging of remote regions separated in three dimensions and permits the bending of imaging planes to follow natural curvatures in biological structures. Crucially, our core design is readily implemented (and reversed) within a matter of hours, and fully compatible with a wide range of existing 2P customizations, making it highly suitable as a base platform for further development. We demonstrate the application of our system for imaging neuronal activity in a variety of examples in mice, zebrafish and fruit flies.


Author(s):  
J. Chen ◽  
O. E. Mora ◽  
K. C. Clarke

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In recent years, growing public interest in three-dimensional technology has led to the emergence of affordable platforms that can capture 3D scenes for use in a wide range of consumer applications. These platforms are often widely available, inexpensive, and can potentially find dual use in taking measurements of indoor spaces for creating indoor maps. Their affordability, however, usually comes at the cost of reduced accuracy and precision, which becomes more apparent when these instruments are pushed to their limits to scan an entire room. The point cloud measurements they produce often exhibit systematic drift and random noise that can make performing comparisons with accurate data difficult, akin to trying to compare a fuzzy trapezoid to a perfect square with sharp edges. This paper outlines a process for assessing the accuracy and precision of these imperfect point clouds in the context of indoor mapping by integrating techniques such as the extended Gaussian image, iterative closest point registration, and histogram thresholding. A case study is provided at the end to demonstrate use of this process for evaluating the performance of the Scanse Sweep 3D, an ultra-low cost panoramic laser scanner.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seeun Woo ◽  
Hong Ryul Park ◽  
Jinyoung Park ◽  
Johan Yi ◽  
Woonbong Hwang

AbstractWe report a robust and continuous oil/water separation with nanostructured glass microfiber (GMF) membranes modified by oxygen plasma treatment and self-assembled monolayer coating with vertical polymerization. The modified GMF membrane had a nanostructured surface and showed excellent superhydrophobicity. With an appropriate membrane thickness, a high water intrusion pressure (< 62.7 kPa) was achieved for continuous pressure-driven separation of oil/water mixtures with high flux (< 4418 L h−1 m−2) and high oil purity (> 99%). Under simulated industrial conditions, the modified GMF membrane exhibited robust chemical stability against strong acidic/alkaline solutions and corrosive environments. The proposed superhydrophobic composite coating technique is simple, low cost, environmentally friendly, and suitable for the mass production of scalable three-dimensional surfaces. Moreover, its stability and customizable functionality offers considerable potential for a wide range of novel applications.


RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (63) ◽  
pp. 50655-50659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishwajit Saikia ◽  
Preeti Rekha Boruah ◽  
Abdul Aziz Ali ◽  
Diganta Sarma

The PdCl2/sucrose/K2CO3/H2O system showed the superb catalytic activity towards the Suzuki reaction of a wide range of aryl/heteroaryl halides with diverse phenylboronic acids at room temperature with operational simplicity and shorter reaction time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 5319-5328
Author(s):  
Sha-Sha Luo ◽  
Yu-Meng Ma ◽  
Peng-Wei Li ◽  
Ming-Hua Tian ◽  
Qiao-Xia Li

Transition metal and nitrogen co-doped carbon-based catalysts (TM-N-C) have become the most promising catalysts for Pt/C due to their wide range of sources, low cost, high catalytic activity, excellent stability and strong resistance to poisoning, especially Fe–N–C metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are some of the most promising precursors for the preparation of Fe–N–C catalysts due to their inherent properties, such as their highly ordered three-dimensional framework structure, controlled porosity, and tuneable chemistry. Based on these, in this paper, different iron sources were added to synthesis a sort of zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIF-8). Then the imidazole salt in ZIF-8 was rearranged into high N-doped carbon by high-temperature pyrolysis to prepare the Fe–N–C catalyst. We studied the physical characteristics of the catalysts by different iron sources and their effects on the catalytic properties of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). From the point of morphology, various iron sources have a positive influence on maintaining the morphology of ZIF-8 polyhedron. Fe–N/C–Fe(NO3)3 has the same anion as zinc nitrate, and can maintain a polyhedral morphology after high-temperature calcination. It had the highest ORR catalytic activity compared to the other four catalyst materials, which proved that there is a certain relationship between morphology and performance. This paper will provide a useful reference and new models for the development of high-performance ORR catalysts without precious metals.


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 24-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Green ◽  
Lloyd White

This paper describes the design and implementation of a low-cost projective immersive display (PID), called the Cave-let. A PID immerses the user in a computer-generated three-dimensional environment that responds to the user's movements. Current devices of this nature are very expensive, so that fewer than 100 units have been installed around the world. A low-cost PID will enable a wide range of applications in areas such as telehealth, visualization, education and collaborative systems. To produce a low-cost PID, we identified the components of the design that represented the major costs. These were then redesigned with the aim of reducing cost as much as possible while preserving most of the functionality. The resulting device is suitable for a wide range of applications and is an order of magnitude less expensive than similar devices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 12347
Author(s):  
Ashlee F. Harris ◽  
Jerome Lacombe ◽  
Frederic Zenhausern

The decellularization of plant-based biomaterials to generate tissue-engineered substitutes or in vitro cellular models has significantly increased in recent years. These vegetal tissues can be sourced from plant leaves and stems or fruits and vegetables, making them a low-cost, accessible, and sustainable resource from which to generate three-dimensional scaffolds. Each construct is distinct, representing a wide range of architectural and mechanical properties as well as innate vasculature networks. Based on the rapid rise in interest, this review aims to detail the current state of the art and presents the future challenges and perspectives of these unique biomaterials. First, we consider the different existing decellularization techniques, including chemical, detergent-free, enzymatic, and supercritical fluid approaches that are used to generate such scaffolds and examine how these protocols can be selected based on plant cellularity. We next examine strategies for cell seeding onto the plant-derived constructs and the importance of the different functionalization methods used to assist in cell adhesion and promote cell viability. Finally, we discuss how their structural features, such as inherent vasculature, porosity, morphology, and mechanical properties (i.e., stiffness, elasticity, etc.) position plant-based scaffolds as a unique biomaterial and drive their use for specific downstream applications. The main challenges in the field are presented throughout the discussion, and future directions are proposed to help improve the development and use of vegetal constructs in biomedical research.


Nanoscale ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (37) ◽  
pp. 17638-17646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajia Zhang ◽  
Xiaoli Zhao ◽  
Mengxiong Li ◽  
Hongbin Lu

In this study, we report a room-temperature and low-cost strategy for the construction of 3D graphene directly from graphite flakes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeşeren Saylan ◽  
Adil Denizli

Introduction: A molecular imprinting is one of the fascinating modification methods that employ molecules as targets to create geometric cavities for recognition of targets in the polymeric matrix. This method provides a broad versatility to imprint target molecules with different size, three-dimensional structure and physicochemical features. In contrast to the complex and timeconsuming laboratory surface modification procedures, this method offers a rapid, sensitive, inexpensive, easy-to-use, and selective approach for the diagnosis, screening and monitoring disorders. Owing to their unique features such as high selectivity, physical and chemical robustness, high stability, low-cost and reusability of this method, molecularly imprinted polymers have become very attractive materials and been applied in various applications from separation to detection. Background: The aims of this review are structured according to the fundamentals of molecularly imprinted polymers involving essential elements, preparation procedures and also the analytical applications platforms. Finally, the future perspectives to increase the development of molecularly imprinted platforms. Methods: A molecular imprinting is one of the commonly used modification methods that apply target as a recognition element itself and provide a wide range of versatility to replica other targets with a different structure, size, and physicochemical features. A rapid, easy, cheap and specific recognition approach has become one of the investigation areas on, especially biochemistry, biomedicine and biotechnology. In recent years, several technologies of molecular imprinting method have gained prompt development according to continuous use and improvement of traditional polymerization techniques. Results: The molecularly imprinted polymers with excellent performances have been prepared and also more exciting and universal applications have been recognized. In contrast to the conventional methods, the imprinted systems have superior advantages including high stability, relative ease and low cost of preparation, resistance to elevated temperature, and pressure and potential application to various target molecules. In view of these considerations, molecularly imprinted systems have found application in various fields of analytical chemistry including separation, purification, detection and spectrophotometric systems. Conclusion: Recent analytical methods are reported to develop the binding kinetics of imprinted systems by using the development of other technologies. The combined platforms are among the most encouraging systems to detect and recognize several molecules. The diversity of molecular imprinting methods was overviewed for different analytical application platforms. There is still a requirement of more knowledge on the molecular features of these polymers. A next step would further be the optimization of different systems with more homogeneous and easily reachable recognition sites to reduce the laborious in the accessibility in the three-dimensional polymeric materials in sufficient recognition features and also better selectivity and sensitivity for a wide range of molecules.


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