Enhancement of Planar Orientation of Reactive Mesogen Molecules for Optical Retarder Film by Anisotropic Surface Plasma Treatment

We proposed a method for enhancing the planar orientation of reactive mesogen (RM) molecules by means of anisotropic plasma treatment. Anisotropic surface plasma, of which energy density is dependent on the azimuthal angle, was generated by column-shaped ceramic electrodes. The anisotropic plasma was discharged on the surface of a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) alignment layer before the rubbing process began. The contact angle of the surface was increased from 12° to 83° after plasma treatment, indicating a hydrophobic property of the surface. From the atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement, it was found that the grain size of the PVA layer was reduced and that the grooved patterns were formed provided that the plasma direction was parallel to the rubbing direction of the surface. Consequently, the planar orientation was enhanced, and the in-plane retardation of the photo-polymerized RM films increased when the parallel plasma was treated on the surface.

On the question of using solid electrodes in the electrolysis of cryolite-alumina melts. Part 1.

This article is aimed at identifying issues associated with the use of solid cathodes in the electrolysis of cryolitealumina melts in order to determine conditions for their practical application. The contemporary technology of using solid anodes and cathodes is reviewed from its inception to the present time. The problems of stable electrolysis are discussed, such as effects of the electrode surface on the technological process. It is shown that all attempts undertaken over the recent 100 years to use solid electrodes, both reactive and inert, have been challenged with the emergence of electrolysis instability, formation of precipitates of varying intensity on the electrodes and impossibility of maintaining a prolonged process at current densities of above 0.4–0.5 A/cm2. Information is provided on the attempts to use purified electrolyte components with different ratios, metal-like and ceramic electrodes with a high purity and a smooth surface in order to approach real industrial conditions. However, to the best of our current knowledge, these experiments have not found commercial application. The authors believe that the most probable reason for the decreased current efficiency and passivation of solid electrodes consists in the chemical inhomogeneity and micro-defects of the bulk and surface structure of polycrystalline cathodes and anodes. It was the physical inhomogeneity of carbon electrodes that directed the development of the nascent electrolytic production of aluminium towards the use of electrolytic cells with a horizontal arrangement of electrodes and liquid aluminium as a cathode. This reason is assumed to limit the progress of electrolytic aluminium production based on the use of inert anodes and wettable cathodes in the designs of new generation electrolytic cells implying vertically arranged drained cathodes. The theoretical and experimental examination of this assumption will be presented in the following parts of the article.

Self-supporting carbon-rich SiOC ceramic electrodes for lithium-ion batteries and aqueous supercapacitors

Fabrication of precursor-derived ceramic fibers as electrodes for energy storage applications remains largely unexplored.

Cylindrical Shell Vibration Gyroscope Excited and Detected by High-Temperature-Sintered Piezoelectric Ceramic Electrodes

A cylindrical shell piezoelectric vibration gyroscope is a kind of Coriolis vibration gyroscope. Its core components are the cylindrical quartz resonator (CQR) and the piezoelectric ceramic electrodes (PCEs). In order to develop a high-precision Cylindrical shell piezoelectric vibration gyroscope, it is very important to reduce the influence of the PCEs and obtain a high-quality-factor CQR. To achieve this goal, a novel high-temperature sintering method is proposed to combine the CQR and the PCEs, and the corresponding sintered resonators are fabricated. After sintering, results of the acoustic excitation experiment and piezoelectric excitation experiment are tested, and the influence of the sintered PCEs on the CQR is determined. A complete gyroscope is obtained by vacuum packaging the sintered resonator. Through the open-loop and closed-loop tests, the performance parameters of gyroscope are obtained. The feasibility of the high-temperature sintering method is proved by experiments.