Headspace solid phase microextraction of volatile aromatic hydrocarbons using a steel wire coated with an electrochemically prepared nanocomposite consisting of polypyrrole,carbon nanotubes,and titanium oxide

Microchimica Acta - We have prepared a new material for solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of volatile aromatic hydrocarbons by electropolymerization of pyrrole, carbon nanotubes, and titanium...     

Evaluation of new 99mTc-labeled HYNIC-bombesin analogue for prostate cancer imaging

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - In this study, we introduce a new 99mTc-radiolabeled bombesin derivative for imaging of prostate cancer (PC). We used 6-hydrazinonicotinamide...     

Low temperature pyrolysis of carboxymethylcellulose

Unlike the common high temperature pyrolysis of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) targeting activated carbon, this study investigates the pyrolytic behaviour of plain CMC at low temperatures ranging between 260 and 300 °C. Preliminary experiments were conducted using differential scanning calorimetry to define the temperature range necessary for the process. Low-temperature pyrolysis was then simulated using thermogravimetric analysis under inert atmosphere. Investigations reveal that a minimum holding temperature of 260 °C is required for an isothermal process, at which pyrolysis is terminated after around 26 min. Increasing exposure temperature reduces pyrolysis time. Within the range of the investigated sample and CMC particle size, no significant effects could be measured regarding the decomposition behaviour. The resulting char was further analysed using X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Visual inspection was conducted using scanning electron microscopy. Upon pyrolysis, originally longitudinally shaped CMC was found to be converted into spherical particles of functionalised amorphous carbon with an average particle size of 41 µm.     

Electrochemical study of Cu2O/CuO composite coating produced by annealing and electrochemical methods

The electrochemical behavior of a copper oxide electrode produced by annealing and electrochemical methods was studied in an acetonitrile solvent by means of the cyclic voltammetry method. The presence of different peaks of oxidation and reduction produced by repeating the potential scans, numerous variations in the current, and shifts of peak potentials in consecutive cycles have been justified. Voltammograms proved that various oxidation species can be produced in solid-deposited forms of Cu₂O_s and CuO_s and dissolved forms of Cu(II)_sol and Cu(I)_sol ions. The experimental results indicated that higher amounts of Cu₂O_s than CuO_s can be produced in the process of copper electrode annealing. Also, the nature of copper species is responsible for different peak currents in the cyclic voltammograms, characterized by UV–Vis and XRD spectrometric methods.

     

A review to recent developments in modification of carbon fiber electrodes

The unique properties of carbon fiber electrodes (CFEs) offer a number of particular advantages for their use in analytical applications. However, some pretreatment is usually necessary for the modification of the carbon surface. One of these methods is enzyme modification, that enzyme reactions in the surface of the electrode can be useful for the certain determinations. Also application of nanoparticles is very useful for modification and gives very interesting responses for the electrode in the determination of various analytes. Electrochemical oxidation of a carbon surface is one of the other methods for modification. With this work the morphology of the surface changes as well as increasing the coverage by various oxygen-containing functional groups. These groups can then interact and bind with other species introduced to the surface. The modification of the surface of carbon fiber electrodes is an interesting topic with many applications in the fields of analytical chemistry, environmental and health science, fuel cell and biofuel cell and many others. In this review article we discussed about the various modification methods for carbon fiber electrodes and applications of these CFEs.     

Novel optical polarizer design based on metasurface nano aperture for biological sensing in mid-infrared regime

Since Metasurfaces are playing important roles in optical devices such as optical polarizers and detectors, in this article, we have proposed a novel shape of nano aperture antenna for mid-infrared applications such as bio-sensing and other potential optical applications based on plasmonic characteristic of the gold layer over the SiN substrate. The transmittance tensor is obtained for vertical and horizontal linear polarization and base on boundary condition of the metasurface, the circular polarizations are extracted which are confirmed by the electric field distributions. We have shown by the parametric studies that the phase difference is altered by the gap and slot width and so with the dimension modification, we are able to achieve circular polarizer in the optical range. The biological materials with a thickness of 80 nm have then been placed over the metasurface layer and the figures of merits have been obtained. We have revealed that when the circular polarization is osculated to the metasurface at a special frequency the linear polarization is obtained in the other side of the metasurface. The nano aperture has been modeled and the finite difference time domain calculations are performed in CST Microwave Studio as a commercial full wave simulation software.     

A 3D-CMOS compatible silicon photo-sensor with a large vertical photosensitive area

This paper introduces design and simulation of a three-dimensional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor CMOS compatible photo-sensor based on a silicon substrate. In the structure of photo-sensor, a vertical n+/p junction as a photosensitive area is formed on one side of a U-groove, and perpendicular to a lateral n-i-p structure on top-side of the silicon surface. This configuration enables a direct butt-coupling of a fiber-optic to the photosensitive area, which is a privilege for many remote monitoring applications. The device analysis is carried out by a two-dimensional simulation using SILVACO TCAD simulator. The thickness of the photo-sensitive area is investigated by considering the figures of merit for the two different thicknesses of 30 and 50 µm. The simulated results (according to the parameters defined for the Si substrate) show a very low dark current of 70 and 100 (fA/μm) for the 30 and 50 µm thicknesses, respectively. In addition, a high photo-current to dark current ratio of ~3000 is achieved under an intensity of 2 mW/cm² at 633 nm wavelength, according to the wavelength of red He–Ne laser. The sensor demonstrates a responsivity of 0.33 A/W corresponding to 65% external quantum efficiency and a ?3 dB frequency response of 0.2 GHz under a small signal of 2 mW/cm² at 633 nm wavelength for 10 V reverse bias.     

The effect of material properties on the performance of a new geometry PEM fuel cell

In this paper a computational dynamics model for duct-shaped geometry proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell was used to investigate the effect of changing gas diffusion layer and membrane properties on the performances, current density and gas concentration. The proposed model is a full cell model, which includes all the parts of the PEM fuel cell, flow channels, gas diffusion electrodes, catalyst layers and the membrane. Coupled transport and electrochemical kinetics equations are solved in a single domain; therefore no interfacial boundary condition is required at the internal boundaries between cell components. This computational fluid dynamics code is used as the direct problem solver, which is used to simulate the 2-dimensional mass, momentum and species transport phenomena as well as the electron- and proton-transfer process taking place in a PEMFC that cannot be investigated experimentally. The results show that by increasing the thickness and decreasing the porosity of GDL the performance of the cell enhances that it is different with planner PEM fuel cell. Also the results show that by increasing the thermal conductivity of the GDL and membrane, the overall cell performance increases.     

Interaction of longitudinal phonons with discrete breather in strained graphene

We numerically analyze the interaction of small-amplitude phonon waves with standing gap discrete breather (DB) in strained graphene. To make the system support gap DB, strain is applied to create a gap in the phonon spectrum. We only focus on the in-plane phonons and DB, so the issue is investigated under a quasi-one-dimensional setup. It is found that, for the longitudinal sound waves having frequencies below 6 THz, DB is transparent and thus no radiation of energy from DB takes place; whereas for those sound waves with higher frequencies within the acoustic (optical) phonon band, phonon is mainly transmitted (reflected) by DB, and concomitantly, DB radiates its energy when interacting with phonons. The latter case is supported by the fact that, the sum of the transmitted and reflected phonon energy densities is noticeably higher than that of the incident wave. Our results here may provide insight into energy transport in graphene when the spatially localized nonlinear vibration modes are presented.