A polyfluoroalkyl imidazolium ionic liquid as iodide ion source in dye sensitized solar cells

We report on the use of a fluorinated imidazolium ionic liquid as a source of iodide ions in solvent-based electrolytes for DSSCs. Efficient dye regeneration and fast charge transport in the fluorinated electrolyte result in an overall improvement of the device performances compared to conventional hydrogenated ionic liquids.     

An improved common-mode feedback loop for the differential-difference amplifier

Unconditional stability of the high-gain amplifiers is a mandatory requirement for a reliable steady-state condition of time-discrete systems, especially for all blocks designed to sample-and-hold (S/H) circuits. Compared to differential path, the common-mode feedback loop is often affected by poles and zeros shifting that degrades the large signal response of the amplifiers. This drawback is made worse in some well-known topologies as the difference-differential amplifier (DDA) that shows non-constant transconductance and poor linearity. This work proposes a body-driven positive-feedback frequency compensation technique (BD-PFFC) to improve the linearity for precision DDA-based S/H applications. Theoretical calculations and circuit simulations carried out in a 0.13 μm process are also given to demonstrate its validity.     

Contact effects in organic thin-film transistor sensors

Contact effects in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) sensors are here investigated specifically respect to the gate field-induced sensitivity enhancement of more than three orders of magnitude seen in a DHα6T OTFT sensor exposed to 1-butanol vapors. This study shows that such a sensitivity enhancement effect is largely ascribable to changes occurring to the transistor channel resistance. Effects, such as the changes in contact resistance, are seen to influence the low gate voltage regime where the sensitivity is much lower.     

Ultrathin Polydopamine Films with Phospholipid Nanodiscs Containing a Glycophorin A Domain

Cellular membranes have long served as an inspiration for nanomaterial research. The preparation of ultrathin polydopamine (PDA) films with integrated protein pores containing phospholipids and an embedded domain of a membrane protein glycophorin A as simplified cell membrane mimics is reported. Large area, ultrathin PDA films are obtained by electropolymerization on gold surfaces with 10–18 nm thickness and dimensions of up to 2.5 cm². The films are transferred from gold to various other substrates such as nylon mesh, silicon, or substrates containing holes in the micrometer range, and they remain intact even after transfer. The novel transfer technique gives access to freestanding PDA films that remain stable even at the air interfaces with elastic moduli of ≈6–12 GPa, which are higher than any other PDA films reported before. As the PDA film thickness is within the range of cellular membranes, monodisperse protein nanopores, so‐called “nanodiscs,” are integrated as functional entities. These nanodisc‐containing PDA films can serve as semi‐permeable films, in which the embedded pores control material transport. In the future, these simplified cell membrane mimics may offer structural investigations of the embedded membrane proteins to receive an improved understanding of protein‐mediated transport processes in cellular membranes.     

自动清洗的变速控制方法

全自动划片机是融合精密机械、电子、软件、材料、自控、光电、元器件等多学科技术为一体的IC装备。高速清洗系统作为全自动划片产品的重要组成部分,直接影响着设备整体工作的质量和效率。本文对清洗系统的变速控制和精确回零技术做了初步的探讨。伺服系统采用内部速度模式的变速控制方法,解决了大转动惯量下位置控制无法稳定的问题。清洗完成后,系统寻址高精度传感器,完成清洗台上下料的回零定位。     

Effect of lithium intercalation on the photovoltaic performances of photovoltachromic cells

In the last few years, a new class of smart multifunctional photoelectrochemical devices has been attracting the interest of several academic institutions and industrial companies: photovoltachromic cells, combining the features of photoelectrochromic cells with those of dye‐sensitized solar cells. Here, we report the results of a detailed electrochemical analysis aiming at investigating the electrochemical behavior of these complex photoelectrochemical devices. In particular, we have been focused on the effect of Li⁺ ions displacement during the coloration of the electrochromic tungsten oxide on the performances of the photovoltaic unit. As we had previously observed striking differences between the performances of the barely photovoltaic mode (with the tungsten oxide in the bleached state) and the photovoltachromic mode (with the tungsten oxide in the colored state), we thus attempted to provide a reasonable physical interpretation to the observed phenomena. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resilient BBU placement in 5G C-RAN over optical aggregation networks

Photonic Network Communications - The huge data demand envisioned for the 5G requires radical changes in the mobile network architecture and technology. Centralized radio access network (C-RAN) is...     

A Bio-Conjugated Fullerene as a Subcellular-Targeted and Multifaceted Phototheranostic Agent

Fullerenes are candidates for theranostic applications because of their high photodynamic activity and intrinsic multimodal imaging contrast. However, fullerenes suffer from low solubility in aqueous media, poor biocompatibility, cell toxicity, and a tendency to aggregate. C₇₀@lysozyme is introduced herein as a novel bioconjugate that is harmless to a cellular environment, yet is also photoactive and has excellent optical and optoacoustic contrast for tracking cellular uptake and intracellular localization. The formation, water-solubility, photoactivity, and unperturbed structure of C₇₀@lysozyme are confirmed using UV-visible and 2D ¹H, ¹⁵N NMR spectroscopy. The excellent imaging contrast of C₇₀@lysozyme in optoacoustic and third harmonic generation microscopy is exploited to monitor its uptake in HeLa cells and lysosomal trafficking. Last, the photoactivity of C₇₀@lysozyme and its ability to initiate cell death by means of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) production upon exposure to low levels of white light irradiation is demonstrated. This study introduces C₇₀@lysozyme and other fullerene-protein conjugates as potential candidates for theranostic applications.     

Hybrid Photonic Nanostructures by In Vivo Incorporation of an Organic Fluorophore into Diatom Algae

Biotechnological processes harnessing living organisms' metabolism are low‐cost routes to nanostructured materials for applications in photonics, electronics, and nanomedicine. In the pursuit of photonic biohybrids, diatoms microalgae are attractive given the properties of the porous micro‐to‐nanoscale structures of the biosilica shells (frustules) they produce. The investigations have focused on in vivo incorporation of tailored molecular fluorophores into the frustules of Thalassiosira weissflogii diatoms, using a procedure that paves the way for easy biotechnological production of photonic nanostructures. The procedure ensures uniform staining of shells in the treated culture and permits the resulting biohybrid photonic nanostructures to be isolated with no damage to the dye and periodic biosilica network. Significantly, this approach ensures that light emission from the dye embedded in the isolated biohybrid silica is modulated by the silica's nanostructure, whereas no modulation of photoluminescence is observed upon grafting the fluorophore onto frustules by an in vitro approach based on surface chemistry. These results pave the way to the possibility of easy production of photonic nanostructures with tunable properties by simple feeding the diatoms algae with tailored photoactive molecules.