Batch-mode micropatterning of carbon nanotube forests using UV-LIGA assisted micro-electro-discharge machining

This paper reports batch-mode, three-dimensional micropatterning for arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, also known as CNT forests, based on dry micro-electro-discharge machining (μEDM). The process employs an array of copper electrodes microfabricated through an advanced UV-LIGA process enabled with a new photoresist system in combination with electroplating, providing a low-cost path to constructing high-density arrays of μEDM electrodes for high-throughput parallel processing. The fabricated arrays of 85-μm-tall electrodes are utilized to demonstrate and characterize planar dry μEDM for post-growth patterning of CNT forests in air. Die sinking and scanning processes are tested to show pattern transfers with a 4-μm tolerance and an average surface roughness of 230 nm. An elemental analysis suggests that contamination of the electrode material on the produced patterns is minimal. Key characteristics in the use of planar electrodes for batch processing of CNT forests are revealed through experimental analysis and discussed in detail. The results suggest that the investigated process is a promising approach toward offering a cost-effective manufacturing technology for future products functionalized with custom-designed microstructures of CNT forests.     

Laboratory and In Situ Tests for Long-Term Hydraulic Conductivity of a Cement-Bentonite Cutoff Wall

Slurry trench cutoff walls, constructed using self-hardening slag-cement-bentonite (Slag-CB), are the most common form of in-ground vertical contaminant barrier in the U.K., Europe, and Japan, and are increasingly being used in the United States. This paper presents a case study of the hydraulic conductivity evaluation of an 11-year-old Slag-CB wall material at a sulfate-contaminated site, using different in situ techniques and laboratory tests. The laboratory results suggest that the hydraulic conductivity of the samples, which vary in age from 4 weeks to 11 years, decreases with time for the first 3 years but then remains constant. The results indicate that the long-term performance of these containment walls is influenced by various parameters such as aging, the type/duration of contaminant exposure, mixing of surrounding soil during construction, and wall depth. Piezocone tests, packer tests, and self-boring permeameter tests were carried out in the field to determine the suitability of different in situ techniques and compare with the laboratory results. The hydraulic conductivity is affected by the type of in situ technique used and the geometric scale of the test section.     

Arylamine polymers prepared via facile paraldehyde addition condensation: an effective hole‐transporting material for perovskite solar cells

Arylamine polymers were prepared via the facile one‐step addition condensation of N,N′‐diphenyl‐N,N′‐bis(4‐methylphenyl)‐1,4‐phenylenediamine and 4‐methoxytriphenylamine with paraldehyde. The polymers were highly soluble in common organic solvents. The non‐conjugated arylamine polymer structure was characterized and found to form tough, homogeneous, amorphous layers with a glass transition temperature above 200 °C on a substrate by a simple spin‐coating process. The polymer layers exhibited a hole mobility of the order of 10^?5 cm² V^?1 s^?1, which was comparable with those of previously reported arylamine polymers, and a highest occupied molecular orbital level of ?5.38 eV appropriate for the hole‐transporting layer of perovskite solar cells. The perovskite cells fabricated with the polymers gave a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 16.0%. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

BODIPY-Sensitized Photocharging of Anthraquinone-Populated Polymer Layers for Organic Photorechargeable Air Battery

Photocharging of anthraquinone (AQ)-populated polymers was accomplished by incorporating chromophores with redox potentials suitable for the 2e^? reduction of the AQ pendants near ?1 V versus Ag/AgCl in aqueous basic electrolytes. The photoactive polymers were designed to exhibit redox-isolated behaviors and reversible charge–discharge responses, either by employing a polyacetylene main chain with the π–π* absorption bands in a visible region, or with an aliphatic chain incorporating a BODIPY dye in the form of a multilayer. The charge storage density was maximized by minimizing the molecular weight of the compact repeating units, thus reducing the redox site-to-site distance to allow redox gradient-driven electron self-exchange reactions to proceed throughout the slab of the polymer layer. Homogeneous layers of poly(2-ethynylanthraquinone) and poly(2-vinylanthraquinone) were both sufficiently robust for charge storage application, swellable, and yet insoluble in aqueous basic electrolyte solutions. Such properties allowed the accommodation of external cations from the electrolyte to permeate through the layer for electroneutralization of the negative charge produced by the electroreduction, which led to the repeatable charging and discharging cycles of the photoanodes without degradation of the charge storage capabilities. By virtue of the swelling properties of the polymer layers in the basic aqueous electrolyte, exploration of the aqueous electrochemistry and photochemistry of AQ that had been inaccessible by the lack of the solubility in H₂O became feasible. A striking feature of the photoanodes was the capability of employing a hydroxide ion (OH^?) as the sacrificial reducing agent, which enabled the use of the O₂/OH^? redox couple for the cathode reaction during discharging. Combination of the photoanodes with the MnO₂/carbon composite cathode, sandwiching the electrolyte layer of aqueous KOH, gave rise to photorechargeable battery effect under irradiation and repeatable discharging with the consumption of O₂ at the cathode.     

Incident energy dependence of the scattering dynamics of water molecules on silicon and graphite surfaces: the effect on tangential momentum accommodation

The scattering dynamics of water molecules on solid surfaces was investigated using the molecular beam technique. In contrast to the experiments previously reported in the literature, the range of incident energy was chosen to cover the typical kinetic energies of gas molecules in equilibrium at room temperature (35–130 meV). Even in such a narrow energy range, the angular distribution of scattered molecules is heavily affected by the incident energy, exhibiting both a nearly cosine distribution and a lobular distribution, which has a clear peak close to the specular direction. Interestingly, the tangential momentum accommodation coefficients (TMACs) estimated from the scattering experiments show opposite energy dependences on graphite (0001) and silicon (100) surfaces. As the incident energy increases, the TMAC decreases on the graphite surface, whereas it increases on the silicon surface. These trends can be attributed to the relatively large adsorption energy of water molecules on these surfaces and the atomic-scale surface corrugation, although a rigorous understanding requires further analysis by molecular dynamics simulations. Our findings suggest the need for an elaborate slip-flow model that takes account of the incident energy effect to accurately analyze water vapor flow in micro/nanostructures, which is ubiquitous in nature and engineering applications.     

Improvement of heating characteristics of molybdenum silicide thin film electric heaters

Molybdenum silicide (MoSi₂) has an electrical conductivity as high as that of a metal, and greater chemical stability than that of, for example, SiC, in various atmospheres. Therefore, many kinds of MoSi₂ bulk‐type heaters are used in practical operations up to 1800^°C, which is higher than the temperature of SiC heaters. However, MoSi₂ is fragile at room temperature and has low creep resistance at high temperature. The purpose of this study is to fabricate heaters using thin films of MoSi₂ deposited on alumina substrates and crucibles by RF magnetron sputtering and to evaluate their characteristics. MoSi₂ thin film was deposited on the outside of an alumina crucible without heating the substrate and then Pt wire was attached using a Pt paste with sintering in a vacuum. This MoSi₂ thin film heater showed almost linear resistance–temperature (R–T) characteristics and a uniform heating state. It also showed good controllability of voltage and stability in the power–T characteristics for operations up to 1000^°C. However, at a heating temperature of 1300^°C, the heating area of MoSi₂ thin film decreased because of the reaction between Pt and MoSi₂ in the case of long‐term heating. Thus, Mo thin film was deposited as a buffer layer between Pt and MoSi₂ thin film to prevent such a reaction. This thin film heater showed good linear R–T characteristics up to 1200^°C. However, the temperature coefficient of resistance changed with repeated heating operation as a result of the diffusion of Mo atoms into MoSi₂. Thus, a thin film heater was fabricated with Mo₃Si, having a higher Mo content than MoSi₂. This heater showed a low degree of diffusion of Mo or Pt atoms into the thin film and had excellent practical characteristics up to 1000^°C. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 168(2): 11–19, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20806     

Computerized design of modified helical gears finished by plunge shaving

Among the several types of gear shaving operations, plunge shaving is used for finishing gears in mass-production due to the low cost and short machining time. Plunge shaving may be used to apply surface modifications with the purpose of reducing noise and vibration by the predesign of favorable functions of transmission errors, and modify gear tooth surfaces to avoid edge contacts and increase gear endurance, safety, and service life. A new geometry for helical gear tooth surfaces that combine the advantages of gear drives with lineal and localized contacts is proposed and obtained by plunge shaving. The shaver tooth surfaces are conjugated to those of an ideal helical gear with surface modifications. In this way, the to-be-shaved gear and the shaving cutter will be in line contact, and only a radial feed motion of the shaver is needed to generate the required pressure for the shaver to cut the excess of material on the gear tooth surfaces. A numerical example of design illustrates the advantages of the proposed geometry.     

The Purity and Thermal Stability in Air of Metal-Encapsulating Carbon Nanocapsules (MECNCs)

Rare earth elements (Y, La, Ce, Nd, Gd and Dy) encapsulated by carbon nanocapsules (CNCs) were synthesized and their purity and air oxidation stability were estimated. The purity was estimated as the rare earth carbide content. Gd- and Dy-encapsulating CNCs had higher than 30 wt% and others 15 to 20 wt%. Encapsulated rare earth carbide was oxidized by heating in air at 400°C or higher. This suggested oxidation damage to the graphene capsules of CNCs.     

Self-organized dye particles: Role of dewetting process in molecular ordering

Self-organized rhodamine 6G particles prepared by wetting/dewetting process of an ethanol solution on a hydrophilic glass surface exhibited fluorescence without quenching, showing a sharp linewidth of 2 nm with a large redshift, which indicates an existence of dye aggregates, similar to J aggregates, inside the particle. Polarized evanescent field excitation showed that the dye molecule's transition moment along the π-conjugation was oriented unidirectionally within particles and parallel to the substrate surface. This deduced dye orientation showed correlation between adjacent, however separated, particles, and pointed roughly 45° off the dewetting direction. In contrast, another π-conjugated NK1420 dye, J aggregates of which grow easily from an oversaturated solution, yielded particles with constituent dyes oriented along the dewetting direction preferably, still indicating the effect of self-organization, however based on a different mechanism.