直接甲醇燃料电池动态行为的交流阻抗研究

采用交流阻抗法(EIS)研究了直接甲醇燃料电池(DMFC)放电状态下的动态电化学行为及内部作用机理. 通过L1R1[QR2(L2R3)]形式的等效电路对其阻抗图谱进行了较好的模拟解析, 研究结果表明, 高频电感(L1)相关于EIS的测量过程; 系统电阻(R1)和电荷转移电阻(R2)随工作电流的升高均呈下降趋势, 但传质状况对其具有一定干扰; 低频电感(L2)和低频电阻(R3)随电流的升高均逐渐降低, 这共同反映出阳极甲醇的电氧化行为; 电极反应驱动力和内部传质共同决定常相位角元件Q的变化规律, 随着放电电流的升高, 电池内部表现出了由理想电容到浓差极化的中间过渡过程.     

Efficient strategy for quality control of screen-printed carbon ink disposable sensor electrodes based on simultaneous evaluation of resistance,capacitance and Faradaic current by Fourier transform AC voltammetry

Two types of mass-produced, screen-printed carbon ink-based macrodisc electrodes suitable for routine sensing applications have been fabricated. Microscopic examination of these carbon ink electrode surfaces reveals that their surfaces are both rough and highly heterogeneous, consisting of random arrays of carbon particles of different sizes, as well as binder. Consequently, they may suffer from a lack of reproducibility in their performance because of variable resistance, capacitance or electroactive area. Use of a Fourier transform AC voltammetric protocol involving application of periodic waveform obtained from summation of five sine waves of variable frequency enabled resistance and capacitance, as well as DC and AC Faradaic currents associated with the model processes or (where FcMeOH is ferrocene methanol) to be assessed from a single experiment. Such data, which may be obtained rapidly via this approach, are highly suitable for quality control assessment.     

Numerical investigation of microchannel geometry for effective on-chip biofluid delivery by AC electrothermal effect

Although there exist tremendous needs for on-chip biofluid delivery, research in this field has yielded limited numbers of devices for real-world applications. One challenge is the difficulty for micropumps to meet the requirements of being low cost to fabricate, easy to integrate and effective for intended applications at the same time. This research focuses on AC electrothermal (ACET) micropumps based on planar interdigitated electrodes, due to their practicality in fabrication and operation, and compatibility with biochemical fluids. Our prior work has optimized the design of electrode dimensions for a fixed microchannel design. This work finds that microchannel dimensions can also affect ACET micropumps significantly, with respect to flow rate and electric impedance loading. This work first considers the constraints arising from impedance loading by ACET micropumps on power supplies, then the investigation describes several key parameters (threshold height, saturation thickness), to arrive at an appropriate microchannel geometry for the effective delivery of biofluids. The optimized microchannel is expected to incorporate well into a multifunctional lab-chip system to transport biofluids efficiently.     

Dielectric Spectroscopy Can Predict the Effect of External AC Fields on the Dynamic Adsorption of Lysozyme

This report describes the application of dielectric spectroscopy as a simple and fast way to guide protein adsorption experiments. Specifically, the polarization behavior of a layer of adsorbed lysozyme was investigated using a triangular-wave signal with frequencies varying from 0.5 to 2 Hz. The basic experiment, which can be performed in less than 5 min and with a single sample, not only allowed confirming the susceptibility of the selected protein towards the electric signal but also identified that this protein would respond more efficiently to signals with lower frequencies. To verify the validity of these observations, the adsorption behavior of lysozyme onto optically transparent carbon electrodes was also investigated under the influence of an applied alternating potential. In these experiments, the applied signal was defined by a sinusoidal wave with an amplitude of 100 mV and superimposed to +800 mV (applied as a working potential) and varying the frequency in the 0.1–10000 Hz range. The experimental data showed that the greatest adsorbed amounts of lysozyme were obtained at the lowest tested frequencies (0.1–1.0 Hz), results that are in line with the corresponding dielectric features of the protein.     

AC electrokinetic isolation and detection of extracellular vesicles from dental pulp stem cells: Theoretical simulation incorporating fluid mechanics

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived nanoscale vesicles involved in intracellular communication and the transportation of biomarkers. EVs released by mesenchymal stem cells have been recently reported to play a role in cell-free therapy of many diseases. However, the demand for better research tools to replace the tedious conventional methods used to study EVs is getting stronger. EVs' manipulation using alternating current (AC) electrokinetic forces in a microfluidic device has appeared to be a reliable and sensitive diagnosis and trapping technique. Given that different AC electrokinetic forces may contribute to the overall motion of particles and fluids in a microfluidic device, EVs' electrokinetic trapping must be examined considering all dominant forces involved depending on the experimental conditions. In this paper, AC electrokinetic trapping of EVs using an interdigitated electrode arrays is investigated. A 2D numerical simulation incorporating the two significant AC electrokinetic phenomena (Dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmosis) has been performed. Theoretical predictions are then compared with experimental results and allow for a plausible explanation of observations inconsistent with DEP theory. It is demonstrated that the inconsistencies can be attributed to a significant extent to the contribution of the AC electroosmotic effect.     

Automatic microcircuit formation based on gold-coated SU-8 microrods via dielectrophoresis

To explore the application of the characteristics of metallic microparticles, alternating current electric trapping of the SU-8 microrods coated with a thin gold layer by the chemical approach is investigated. Positive dielectrophoresis is used to absorb the gold-coated SU-8 microrods at the edge of the parallel electrodes, thereby forming chains to connect the electrodes. This is a fast automatic microcircuit formation process. Moreover, a non-charged molecule is modified on the surface of the gold-coated SU-8 microrod, and the modified microrods are controlled by the alternating electric field to form a number of chains. The different chains between the parallel electrodes consist of various parallel circuits. In order to compare these chains with different electric surfaces, the impedances of the metallic and modified microrods are measured and compared, and the results show that the gold-coated microrods act as pure resistors, while the microrods functionalized by a non-charged molecule behave as good capacitors.     

Structural and magnetic properties of zinc- and aluminum-substituted cobalt ferrite prepared by co-precipitation method

Spinal ferrites having the general formula Co_{1 − x} Zn _x Fe_{2 − x} Al _x O₄ (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6) were prepared using the wet chemical co-operation technique. The samples were annealed at 800°C for 12 h and were studied by means of X-ray diffraction, magnetization and low field AC susceptibility measurements. The X-ray analysis showed that all the samples had single-phase cubic spinel structure. The variation of lattice constant with Zn and Al concentration deviates from Vegard’s law. The saturation magnetization σ _s and magneton number n _B measured at 300 K using high field hysteresis loop technique decreases with increasing x, suggesting decrease in ferrimagnetic behaviour. Curie temperature T _C deduced from AC susceptibility data decreases with x, suggesting a decrease in ferrimagnetic behaviour.      

基于室温离子液体的电导型气体传感器

本文利用室温离子液体对水或有机蒸气吸收后其离子导电性的改变,研制了以离子液体BmimPF6为敏感材料的电导型气体传感器.考查了BmimPF6用量对传感器响应的影响,测定了传感器对不同浓度的水蒸汽及乙醇、二氯甲烷等饱和有机蒸气的响应.实验结果显示,该传感器具有制作方便、结构简单、稳定性高及线性范围宽等优点,可被用于不同浓度的水或有机蒸气/氮气混合气氛中,水蒸汽或有机蒸气浓度的测定.此外,还针对该传感器对乙醇等不同饱和有机蒸气响应信号与这些有机溶剂的理化性质参数间的定量关系,采用化学计量学方法进行了建模分析.     

The effect of gamma irradiation on electrical and dielectric properties of organic-based Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) at room temperature

The effect of ⁶⁰Co (γ-ray) irradiation on the electrical and dielectric properties of Au/Polyvinyl Alcohol (Ni,Zn-doped)/n-Si Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) has been investigated by using capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance-voltage (G/ω-V) measurements at room temperature and 1 MHz. The real capacitance and conductance values were obtained by eliminating series resistance (R_s) effect in the measured capacitance (C_m) and conductance (G_m) values through correction. The experimental values of the dielectric constant (ε′), dielectric loss (ε″), loss tangent (tanδ), ac electrical conductivity (σ_ac) and the real (M′) and imaginary (M″) parts of the electrical modulus were found to be strong functions of radiation and applied bias voltage, especially in the depletion and accumulation regions. In addition, the density distribution of interface states (N_ss) profile was obtained using the high-low frequency capacitance (C_HF-C_LF) method for before and after irradiation. The N_ss-V plots give two distinct peaks for both cases, namely before radiation and after radiation, and those peaks correspond to two different localized interface states regions at M/S interface. The changes in the dielectric properties in the depletion and accumulation regions stem especially from the restructuring and reordering of the charges at interface states and surface polarization whereas those in the accumulation region are caused by series resistance effect.     

高温超导YBCO带材的交流损耗的FEM仿真分析

对高温超导带材YBCO的交流损耗进行了仿真分析。运用有限元FEM方法,基于Maxwell方程组的数值建模,引入了基于实验数据的power-law对交流损耗进行计算。首先对自场下的交流损耗值进行了仿真计算并分析了带材的电流密度与磁场分布情况,并通过与实验测量数据做比较验证仿真方法的有效性。其次分别对不同幅值下的平行场与垂直场下的交流损耗进行了计算,将自场、平行场以及垂直场下的电流密度与磁场强度的分布以及交流损耗值进行了对比分析。