Development and application of chip calorimeter as an X-ray detector

Radiotherapy for cancer patients requires accurate measurement of the absorbed dose of radiation in a treatment planning step. Various types of radiation detectors are currently utilized for dose measurement. Among them, calorimeters are known to be the most precise detector for measuring absorbed dose, but their on-site application is limited by the large size of the equipment. We developed a miniaturized chip calorimeter for application as a radiation detector. The calorimetric radiation detector was built using micro/nano fabrication techniques, and consists of an SU-8 photoresist absorber and high-sensitivity vanadium oxide (VO_x) thermistors. The thermistors had a temperature resolution of 135 μK, and the calorimeter showed a thermal conductance of 11 μW/K. The detector was irradiated with various X-ray dose rates from a linear accelerator, and the absorbed dose to SU-8 was measured. The detector responses showed high linearity with dose rates, demonstrating the feasibility of the radiation detector for practical uses.     

One-step mild hydrothermal method to prepare low valent sodium vanadium(III) monohydrogenphosphate: NaV(HPO4)2

Green colored single crystals of a reduced sodium vanadium(III) monohydrogenphosphate, NaV(HPO₄)₂, were grown using a one-step mild hydrothermal method. The in situ reduction of V⁵⁺ to V³⁺ was performed using copper acetate as the reducing agent. The title compound crystalizes in the monoclinic space group Cc and exhibits a three-dimensional crystal structure that consists of distorted VO₆ octahedra connected to PO₃(OH) tetrahedra that are further connected via Na cations. The compound exhibits simple paramagnetic behavior at high temperatures and a discontinuity near 5 K is likely due to the onset of magnetic coupling. The compound was also characterized by TGA, IR and UV–vis spectroscopies.     

Multilayer Porous Vanadium Nitride Microsheets Anodes for Highly Stable Na-ion Batteries

Sodiumion batteries(SIBs)have attracted intensive attention as promising alternative to lithium-ionbatteries(LIBs)for large scale energy storage systems because of low cost of sodium,similar energy storage mechanism and the reasonable performance.However,it is still a great challenge to search and design a robust structure of anode materials with excellent cycling stability and high rate capability for SIBs.Herein,multilayer porous vanadium nitride(VN)microsheets are synthesized through a facile and scalable hydrothermal synthesis-nitrogenization strategy as an effective anode material for SIBs.The multilayer porous VN microsheets not only offer more active sites for fast Na+insertion/extraction process and short diffusion pathway,but also effectively buffer the volume change of anode due to more space in the multilayer porous structure.The large proportions of capacitive behavior imply that the Na+charge storage depends on the intercalation pseudocapacitive mechanism.The multilayer porous VN microsheets electrodes manifest excellent cycling stability and rate capability,delivering a discharge capacity of 156.1 mA·h/g at 200 mA/g after 100 cycles,and a discharge capacity of 111.9 mA·h/g at 1.0 A/g even after 2300 cycles with the Coulombic efficiency of nearly 100%.     

V2O5/MO-Al2O3（M = Mg，Ca，Sr，Ba）催化剂用于正丁烷催化氧化脱氢反应

采用浸渍法制备了不同V2O5担载量的V2O5/MO-Al2O3(M = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba)催化剂,钒物种的前驱体为偏钒酸铵.对制备的催化剂进行了一系列表征,并对催化剂上正丁烷选择性氧化脱氢制取丁烯进行了反应研究.表征结果(包括比表面积、X射线衍射、傅里叶红外光谱、氢气程序升温还原和拉曼光谱)显示,不同碱土金属元素掺杂的催化剂显示不同的钒价态信息和催化性能.其中掺杂Ca, Sr, Ba的催化剂,正钒酸盐相很难被还原,因此催化剂的氧化还原循环难以建立,导致以上三种催化剂在正丁烷氧化脱氢反应中活性较低.然而, Mg掺杂的催化剂却显示出较高的催化活性和选择性.实验结果表明：在Mg掺杂的载体上担载5% V2O5的催化剂上600°C时可获得高达30.3%的正丁烷转化率和64.3%的烯烃总选择性.这与V2O5担载量为5%时,在获得高度分散的钒氧化合物物种时可使MgO晶相稳定存在密切相关.     

V/P复合氧化物上C-H键活化的密度泛函研究

选择氧化催化剂通常为多组分复合氧化物.一般认为,高价过渡金属的端末双键氧(M=O)是烷烃活化的中心,而非金属端氧(NM=O)与烷烃活化无关.但近期的理论研究发现,复合氧化物中非金属端氧也可能参与烷烃活化.本文采用密度泛函方法(B3LYP)对比V=O和P=O的脱氢活性,并深入揭示二者的差异. H脱除反应可以视为是质子偶联电子传递的过程.对于V/P复合氧化物, V5+充当电子的受体,而V=O和P=O均可接受质子.由于P=O具有更强的质子化能力,导致PO–H键能比VO–H有利6–10 kcal/mol.对于烷烃活化, V=O和P=O脱氢的能垒均可与反应焓变很好地关联,但二者线性回归的截距相差6.2 kcal/mol,说明在相同的焓驱动下, P=O脱氢需要克服更高的能垒.根据Marcus模型,反应的能垒不仅取决去反应焓变,还与内部重组能有关.计算表明,在脱氢过程中, P=O需克服的重组能为128–140 kcal/mol,比V=O过程高出21–23 kcal/mol.这很好地解释了前面的计算结果.应该指出的是,除了反应热力学驱动和重组能外,在势能曲线相交处的电子耦合作用(?HAB?)亦对能量有一定的影响.丁烷选择氧化制顺酐可能经过2-丁烯,丁二烯,2,5-二氢呋喃和丁烯酸内酯等一系列中间体,共有8个H原子在反应过程中需要脱除.对于丁烷的脱氢, P=O的能垒仅比V=O低1.3 kcal/mol,说明初始反应时二者是竞争的.但对于2-丁烯和2,5-二氢呋喃,二者活化能的差距增加为6–7 kcal/mol,说明这时P=O脱氢将占主导.而对丁烯酸内酯活化,二者活化能的差异又缩小到2.5 kcal/mol,表明V=O又具有一定的竞争力.事实上,这种能垒的差异与端氧的亲核性密切相关.P=O更具亲核性,因此有利于被更具酸性的C–H键进攻.根据Evens的估计,烷烃C–H键的pKa为50左右,而烯丙基性C–H为43.这就很好地解释了为什么2-丁烯和2,5-二氢呋喃更容易和P=O发生反应,而丁烷脱氢二者差异不大的原因.这些理论研究可以加深我们对复合氧化物催化剂上活性位点的认识,并为催化剂的理性设计提供理论支撑.     

Prototype electrochromic device and dye sensitized solar cell using spray deposited undoped and ‘Li’ doped V2O5 thin film electrodes

Lithium (Li) (0–5 wt%) doped V₂O₅ thin films were spray deposited at 450 °C onto ITO substrates. Structural analysis using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy revealed orthorhombic phase of the films. In addition to the V₂O₅ phase, presence of VO₂ peaks due to high deposition temperature is also evident from structural and optical characterization. The non-stoichiometric nature of the films due to loss of the terminal O atom was confirmed from Raman spectroscopy. The direct band gap, indirect bandgap, and phonon energies were also calculated from optical studies. Different charge states of vanadium ions present in the film were identified from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study. Results from cyclic voltammetry experiments reflected significant differences between the undoped and Li doped V₂O₅ samples. Transport properties by Hall-effect measured at room temperature indicated significant increase in conductivity, carrier concentration and mobility of V₂O₅ thin films on doping with Li. A Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) was fabricated using mobility enhanced 5 wt% Li doped V₂O₅ film as photoanode and its efficiency was found to be 2.7%. A simple electrochromic cell is fabricated using undoped V₂O₅ thin film to demonstrate the colour change.     

Photothermally controlled 50 mA gating in VO2-based planar device using NIR laser diode

By utilizing a near infrared laser diode as an excitation light source, we demonstrated a photothermally controlled current gating of 50 mA in a two-terminal planar device based on a vanadium dioxide (VO₂) thin film grown by a pulsed laser deposition method. The photothermally controlled on/off triggering of the device current was accomplished by controlling the output power of the laser beam that illuminated the VO₂ film. The transient responses of photothermally triggered currents were analyzed when periodical laser pulses from the laser diode stimulated the VO₂ device at a variety of pulse widths and repetition rates. A switching contrast between off-state and on-state currents was evaluated as ∼11905, and average rising and falling times were measured as ∼45 and ∼19 ms, respectively.