Resistivity Testing of Palladium Dilution Limits in CoPd Alloys for Hydrogen Storage

Palladium satisfies most of the requirements for an effective hydrogen storage material with two major drawbacks: it has a relatively low gravimetric hydrogen density and is prohibitively expensive for large scale applications. Pd-based alloys should be considered as possible alternatives to a pure Pd. The question is how much one can dilute the Pd concentration in a variety of candidate materials while preserving the hydrogen absorption capability. We demonstrate that the resistivity measurements of thin film alloy samples can be used for a qualitative high-throughput screening and study of the hydrogen absorbing properties over the entire range of palladium concentrations. Contrary to palladium-rich alloys where additional hydrogen scattering indicates a degree of hydrogen content, the diluted alloy films respond by a decrease in resistance due to their thickness expansion. Evidence of significant hydrogen absorption was found in thin CoPd films diluted to just 20% of Pd.

Printability and Properties of Conductive Inks on Primer-Coated Surfaces

Conductive inks’ performance is affected by the printing conditions and the substrate’s properties. In this study, one graphite-, one polymer-, and two silver-based conductive inks were printed on four primer-coated metal substrates by screen printing. The compatibility and wettability between the inks and the primers were evaluated by infrared spectroscopy and surface energy measurements. The printed structures were characterized by laser confocal microscopy, peel-off tape testing, and four-point probe electrical resistivity testing. In general, silver inks exhibited the best performance in terms of printability and electrical conductivity. The graphite ink presented the worst printing, adhesion, and functional properties. The polymer-based ink revealed poor wettability but good adhesion and functionality. The surface roughness, energy, and polarity of the primer coating had no significant influence on the electrical conductivity of the printed inks.

Preparation and Characterization of PA6-PEG/Li High Performance Static Dissipation Composites

A copolymer of PA6 (polyamide 6) and PEG (polyethylene glycol) was synthesized by a condensation reaction. The optimal reaction conditions were determined as the following: a reaction temperature of 255°C, –0.04 MPa vacuum, and a condensation time of 40 min. A series of novel PA6-PEG/Li composites were developed by melt blending the PA6-PEG copolymer (10 wt-% PEG) with three different kinds of colourless lithium salts (LiCl, C18H35LiO2, LiAc). FT-IR, NMR, thermogravimetric (TGA), electronic universal testing, and resistivity analyses were employed to investigate the comprehensive properties of the copolymers and composites. The results of FT-IR and 1H NMR analyses revealed that the PEG was copolymerized with PA6 successfully. TGA results indicated that the decomposition temperature of the PA6-PEG copolymer was above 350°C. Resistivity testing revealed that the surface resistivity (Rs) of the copolymer decreased from 1 × 1014 to 5.67 × 109 Ω square–1 with an increase of the content of PEG. The PA6-PEG/LiCl composite showed an excellent static dissipation performance of 2.71 × 108 Ω square–1.

A REVIEW OF APPLICATION ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE TOMOGRAPHY FOR ROOTED HERB TREE DETECTION

This paper presents the measurement strategy of Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) for a system using underground investigation and comparison with other application such as conducting vessel pipe and concrete. Measurement of electrical strategy commonly used are adjacent strategy, opposite strategy, diagonal strategy and bounding conducting. This paper also discussed in measurement strategy for underground such as the Wenner-alpha configuration, Pole-Dipole array, cross bore-hole ERT and pseudo-section. This paper focuses on the principle and advantages measurement strategy for underground investigation and for other system such as conducting vessel pipe. The soil resistivity testing was described for related with rooted tree detection in soil.

Effect of Nanoparticle Surface Modification and Filling Concentration on Space Charge Characteristics in TiO2/XLPE Nanocomposites

This paper focuses on the space charge characteristics in TiO2/cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) nanocomposites; the unmodified and modified by dimethyloctylsilane (MDOS) TiO2 nanoparticles were added to XLPE matrix with different mass concentrations (1 wt%, 3 wt%, and 5 wt%). The scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that the MDOS coupling agent could improve the compatibility between TiO2 nanoparticles and XLPE matrix to some extent and reduce the agglomeration of TiO2 nanoparticles compared with unmodified TiO2 nanoparticles; the volume resistivity testing indicated that the volume resistivity of TiO2/XLPE nanocomposites was higher than Pure-XLPE and increased with the increase of filling concentrations. According to the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) measurements, it was concluded that the space charge accumulation was suppressed by filling TiO2 nanoparticles and the distribution of electric field in samples was improved greatly. In addition, it was found that the injection of homocharge was more obvious in MDOS-TiO2/XLPE than that in UN-TiO2/XLPE and the homocharge injection decreased with the increase of filling concentration.