Dual mechanism of hydrogen desorption from palladium alloys postulated on the basis of cyclic voltammetric studies

The process of hydrogen absorption/desorption in Pd-Pt and Pd-Pt-Rh alloys has been investigated using cyclic voltammetry. Hydrogen absorbed at constant potential was electrooxidized at various scan rates. The charge of hydrogen oxidation has been found to be dependent on the scan rate. The decrease in the oxidation charge observed for low scan rates indicates that, under these conditions, some amount of hydrogen may be removed via a non-electrochemical recombination reaction. The results suggest that the dual mechanism of hydrogen desorption, involving electrochemical oxidation and non-electrochemical recombination, confirmed for pure palladium, is valid also for palladium alloys.Contribution to the 3rd Baltic Conference on Electrochemistry, GDASK-SOBIESZEWO, 23–26 APRIL 2003.Dedicated to the memory of Harry B. Mark, Jr. (February 28, 1934–March 3rd, 2003)     

存储器用铁电薄膜及电极材料的研究

铁电体独特的自发电极化双稳性质和非线性光学性质使其在光电子器件中得到广泛应用．为了实现器件的小型化和与微电子、光电子工艺兼容，铁电薄膜已成为一个研究热点．自发电极化的大小和取向以及外电场、缺陷和铁电薄膜／电极界面与自发电极化的交互作用决定了铁电薄膜的性质和服役行为．文章以铁电存储器和光电子器件应用为背景，选择了具有重大应用前景的Bi4-xLaxTi3O12（BLT）、SrBi2Ta2O9（SBT）、PbZrxTi1-xO3（PET）和LiNbO3（LN）铁电薄膜以及相关的La（Sr，Co）O3（LSCO）和LaNiO3（LNO）等电极材料为研究对象，研究了缺陷电荷和电畴的交互作用和它们在交变外电场中的动力学行为，探明了铁电薄膜疲劳现象的物理本质；从晶格结构与缺陷的观察研究入手，探索了材料铁电性质的起源和优化材料铁电性质的途径；从铁电薄膜／电极界面结构与性质的研究入手，寻找更有效、更稳定的电极材料与结构，从而为器件应用打下了基础；在研究外电场对铁电薄膜生长机制影响的基础上，找到了利用外电场调控铁电薄膜结构的新途径，发展了新的、与半导体器件和光电子器件工艺兼容的制膜方法．     

Chemically Treated Silver Electrodes for the Determination of Cysteine

 This paper describes the use of Ag/Ag₂S and Ag/AgI ion-selective electrodes by means of chemical pretreatment of a silver wire or tube for the determination of cysteine (RSH) in batch and flow injection analysis (FIA). Received December 15, 2000. Revision July 11, 2001.     

Lead Sensor Using Gold Nanostructured Screen‐Printed Carbon Electrodes as Transducers

Gold nanostructured screen‐printed carbon electrodes are demonstrated to be suitable transducers for the determination of lead using square‐wave voltammetry. Reproducible gold nanostructures have been obtained by direct electrochemical deposition. A calibration plot from 2.5 to 250 μg/L was obtained in acidic solutions of Pb(II) with a reproducibility of 4% (n=10). The detection limit was 0.09 μg/L of lead. The method is then applied to perform a blood lead analysis by adjusting square‐wave parameters in capillary or venous blood with a minimum sample pretreatment and excellent accuracy and reproducibility.     

Application of a coated-wire electrode to an acetylcholine sensor

An acetylcholine sensor was constructed with acetylcholinesterase which was immobilized on a hydrogen ion-selective coated-wire electrode and fundamental properties of this sensor were investigated. Acetylcholine could be determined in the range 0.1–10 rum with response times of 3–10 min. The effects of pH and concentration of buffer solution on the determination and fluctuations in the data obtained with this sensor were also investigated. Possibilities for the practical use of this acetylcholine micro-sensor are suggested.     

Determination of lactate in human saliva with an electrochemical enzyme probe

Electrochemical biosensors for lactate were assembled and used for the determination of lactic acid in saliva. Saliva was collected from healthy subjects and immediately screened for its lactate content. The electrochemical and biological interferences from saliva were discriminated by using a dual platinum electrode and blocking membranes. The stability, reproducibility and lifetime of the probe were studied. Lactate was measured in eight subjects in fasting conditions and after eating, showing an increase in lactate for each subject after meals. Correlation with a spectrophotometric lactate measurement is reported. Subjects before, during and after physical exercise showed consistent variations of lactate in saliva.     

Metal grid technologies for flexible transparent conductors in large-area optoelectronics

Mechanically flexible optoelectronic devices such as flexible displays, touch-screens, wearable electronics and solar cells are attracting significant commercial interest. In these devices, a transparent conductor is an essential element that delivers or collects the electrical current to the active material while it allows light to enter or exit from the device. The transparent conductor is composed of a transparent conductive film and a metallic grid providing electrical conduction over the large area. In this article, we review the established processes used by the industry as well as emerging solution-based methods for processing metal grids. Furthermore, we review the issues and potentials of these emerging processes facing for large-area deployment. In the final section, we evaluate three applications of flexible transparent conductors in: perovskite-based solar cells, organic light emitting diodes and electrochromic windows.     

Characterization of the Reduction of Oxygen at Anthraquinone-Modified Glassy Carbon and Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite Electrodes

1-(N-Boc-aminomethyl)-4-(aminomethyl)benzene, bearing a protected amine group, was electrochemically grafted to glassy carbon and edge plane and basal plane highly oriented pyrolytic graphite electrodes by the oxidation of the corresponding linker. Following the removal of tert-butyloxycarbonyl protecting group, anthraquinone-2-carboxylic acid was coupled to the amine-terminated linker using solid-phase synthesis. The surface coverage of the immobilized anthraquinone redox centers was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and found to be the highest at edge plane and the lowest at the basal plane electrodes. The electrocatalytic activity of the anthraquinone-modified electrodes toward oxygen reduction was explored by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and chronocoulometry at the unmodified and modified graphite electrodes. The immobilized anthraquinone was shown to catalyze the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide and the number of electrons transferred was two for all modified electrodes.     

Influence of metal electrodes on c‐axis orientation of AlN thin films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Nanocrystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films were deposited on two types of metallic seed layers on silicon substrates, (111) textured Pt and (110) Mo, by reactive DC magnetron sputtering at low temperature (200 °C). Both textured films of Pt and Mo promote nucleation, thereby improving the crystallinity and epitaxial growth condition for AlN thin films. The deposited films were examined by X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy techniques. The results indicated that the preferred orientation of crystallites greatly depends upon the kinetic energy of the sputtered species (target power) and seed layers used. Furthermore, AlN thin films with c‐axis perpendicular to the substrate grew on both types of metal electrodes at all power levels larger than 100 W. By comparing the structural properties and compressive stresses at perfect c‐axis orientation conditions, it is evident that AlN films deposited on (110) oriented Mo substrates exhibited superior properties as compared with Pt/Ti seed layers. Furthermore, less values of compressive stresses (?3 GPa) as compared with Pt/Ti substrates (?7.08 GPa) make Mo preferentially better candidate to be employed in the field of suspended Micro/Nano ‐ electromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) for piezoelectric devices. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.