Extreme Two‐Phase Cooling from Laser‐Etched Diamond and Conformal,Template‐Fabricated Microporous Copper

This paper reports the first integration of laser‐etched polycrystalline diamond microchannels with template‐fabricated microporous copper for extreme convective boiling in a composite heat sink for power electronics and energy conversion. Diamond offers the highest thermal conductivity near room temperature, and enables aggressive heat spreading along triangular channel walls with 1:1 aspect ratio. Conformally coated porous copper with thickness 25 µm and 5 µm pore size optimizes fluid and heat transport for convective boiling within the diamond channels. Data reported here include 1280 W cm^?2 of heat removal from 0.7 cm² surface area with temperature rise beyond fluid saturation less than 21 K, corresponding to 6.3 × 10⁵ W m^?2 K^?1. This heat sink has the potential to dissipate much larger localized heat loads with small temperature nonuniformity (5 kW cm^?2 over 200 µm × 200 µm with <3 K temperature difference). A microfluidic manifold assures uniform distribution of liquid over the heat sink surface with negligible pumping power requirements (e.g., <1.4 × 10^?4 of the thermal power dissipated). This breakthrough integration of functional materials and the resulting experimental data set a very high bar for microfluidic heat removal.     

Characterization of micromachined silicon rectangular waveguide at 400 GHz

We present the first characterization of a micromachined silicon rectangular waveguide at 400GHz. The silicon waveguide has an average loss of 0.086dB/mm for a range of 350-460GHz. The waveguides are formed using well known microfabrication techniques and demonstrate a successful first step towards the use of silicon waveguides as a viable option for THz systems.     

Hybrid Fractal-Wavelet Method for Multi-Channel EEG Signal Compression

In this paper, a hybrid method is proposed for multi-channel electroencephalograms (EEG) signal compression. This new method takes advantage of two different compression techniques: fractal and wavelet-based coding. First, an effective decorrelation is performed through the principal component analysis of different channels to efficiently compress the multi-channel EEG data. Then, the decorrelated EEG signal is decomposed using wavelet packet transform (WPT). Finally, fractal encoding is applied to the low frequency coefficients of WPT, and a modified wavelet-based coding is used for coding the remaining high frequency coefficients. This new method provides improved compression results as compared to the wavelet and fractal compression methods.     

The effects of storage time and sunlight on microplastic pollution in bottled mineral water

The microplastic particles (MPs) and effects of storage time and direct sunlight on the MPs in bottled mineral waters were investigated by three experiments conditions. The mean MPs concentration was 63.9 ± 38.9 MPs/L. Pellet forms, white/yellow colour and sizes < 100 μm were predominant MPs, accounted for 35.3%, 51% and 60.2% of the total MPs, respectively. Storage of bottled water under darkness and sunlight caused an increase of 1.5% and 2.5% of MPs pollution, respectively. Also, the estimated daily intake (EDI) of MPs was 2.1, 6.4 and 9.6 MPs/kg BW.day for adults, children and infants, respectively. It is concluded that high storage time and direct sunlight may lead to a greater MPs pollution in mineral water and also high human intake through drinking bottled water. Therefore, it is suggested to reduce the expiry date of the bottled mineral water and avoid sunlight contact before consumption.     

Calibration of low-pressure MEMS gas sensor for detection of hydrogen gas

Detection of hydrogen by sensors are significant for improvement and safe usage of hydrogen gas as an energy source. In this paper, the application of the MEMS gas sensor for detection of hydrogen gas is numerically studied to develop the application of this device in different industrial applications. The flow feature and force generation mechanism inside a rectangular enclosure with heat and cold arms as the non-isothermal walls are inclusively discussed. In this study, the pressure of hydrogen is varied from 62 to 1500 pa correspond to Knudsen number from 0.1 to 4.5 to investigate all characteristics of the thermal-driven force inside the MEMS sensor. In order to simulate a rarefied gas inside the micro gas detector, Boltzmann equations are applied to obtain high precision results. To solve these equations, Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) approach is used as a robust method for the non-equilibrium flow field. The effects of length, thickness and temperature of arms are comprehensively investigated in different ambient pressures. In addition, the effect of various hydrogen concentrations on the Knudsen force is studied. Our findings show that maximum Knudsen force occurs at P = 387 pressure and intensifies when the length of the arms is increased from 50 μm to 150 μm. In addition, the obtained results demonstrate that the generated force is highly sensitive to hydrogen gas species and this enables device for detection of hydrogen gas.     

Study of the performance of dry methane reforming in a microchannel reactor using sputtered Ni/Al2O3 coating on stainless steel

In this study, a microchannel reactor was designed, its catalytic performance in dry methane reforming (DRM) was assessed, and the results were compared with those observed in a conventional fixed bed reactor. The catalyst was prepared in two forms, including catalyst pellets and catalyst-coated plate. The microchannel reactor had thin films of Ni/Al₂O₃ coated on stainless steel substrate via radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method in various sputtering times. The fall-off rate of the catalyst-coated plates can be neglected after putting the plates under the high-temperature DRM reaction, due to the formation of firm active catalyst coatings. The performance of the samples was evaluated at different temperatures from 700 to 800 °C, at P = 1 atm, with a CH₄:CO₂ ratio of 1. The results of XRD showed that with increasing the sputtering time, there was an increase in crystallinity. As observed in FESEM images, the sample prepared with 5 min of sputtering was dense and uniform. The results of EDX not only proved the dispersion of the samples observed in XRD and FESEM analysis, but also verified the presence of the utilized elements. The temperature of 800 °C and the sample with 5 min sputtering time were selected as the optimum condition that provided the best performance. Catalytic performance was investigated in fixed bed reactor at the same GHSV; based on the results there were no significant conversions in the fixed bed reactor. The results of the stability test in the microchannel reactor showed a good performance during 30 h on stream. Therefore, Ni/Al₂O₃ thin films had a satisfactory performance in the designed microchannel. Our study shows that this type of reactor has many advantages in terms of performance, compactness, and economic concerns.     

Zinc oxide nanoparticles: solvent-free synthesis,characterization and application as heterogeneous nanocatalyst for photodegradation of dye from aqueous phase

In present study, for the first time, ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized via a simple, novel, solvent and template free solid-state thermal decomposition of the mixed Zn(NO₃)·6H₂O and cochineal powders as a novel starting reagent at 600?°C for 3 h. The as-prepared product was analyzed by XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, FT-IR and DRS. Besides, the effect of cochineal powder on the morphology and particle size of ZnO nanoparticles was investigated. The results exhibited that cochineal powder prevents the sintering of nanoparticles and leads to formation of uniform particles. Moreover, the efficiency of ZnO nanoparticles as a photocatalyst for the decolorization of methylene orange (MO) has been evaluated and 90% degradation of MO was obtained after 120 min.     

Fabrication and characterization of microencapsulated PA with SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> shell through sol–gel synthesis via sodium silicate precursor

In the present study, the microencapsulated phase change material with palmitic acid as core and inorganic SiO₂ shell was successfully fabricated by a sol–gel method in alkaline medium via sodium silicate precursor. The chemical compositions, crystalloid phase, microstructure and morphology of PA@SiO₂ microcapsule were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis were used to determine the thermal properties and thermal stability of microcapsules, respectively. According to the XRD and FT-IR results, all the characteristic peaks of PA and SiO₂ were observed and there is no chemical reaction between them. Scanning electron microscopy images indicated that the microcapsule synthesized in pH 11 had a perfect spherical shape with smooth surfaces compared with other samples, and transmission electron microscopy images confirm that the PA have been well encapsulated by SiO₂. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that the microcapsules indicated similar phase change behaviors as those of pristine PA, which melt at 67.2?°C with a latent heat of 111.2 J/g and freezing at 56.5?°C with a latent heat of 103.2 J/g. TGA analysis indicated that the thermal stability of the PA was also improved due to the protection of SiO₂ shell toward the encapsulated PA.     

Preparation of AgO<Subscript>2</Subscript>/GrO nanocomposites by hydrothermal method and investigation of photoluminescence properties

This paper reports a novel processing route for producing AgO₂/GrO nanocomposites by hydrothermal method. AgO₂/GrO nanocomposites as semiconductor materials have been synthesized via a facile one-step process using AgNO₃ and glucose as starting reagents. We investigated the influence of the thermal decomposition temperature and reaction time, on the morphology and the particle size of AgO₂/GrO nanocomposites. The AgO₂/GrO nanocomposites were characterized by FT-IR, UV–Vis spectra, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The obtained results exhibited that the synthesized nano product by calcining for 4 h showed excellent uniformity and quality.     

The relative performance of alternative oxygen carriers for liquid chemical looping combustion and gasification

The relative performance of different potential liquid oxygen carriers within a novel system that can be configured for either chemical looping gasification or combustion is assessed. The parameters considered here are the melting temperature, the Gibbs free energy, reaction enthalpy, exergy and energy flows, syngas quality and temperature difference between the two reactors. Results show that lead, copper and antimony oxides are meritorious candidates for the proposed systems. Antimony oxide was found to offer strong potential for high quality syngas production because it has a reasonable oxygen mass ratio for gasification. A sufficiently low operating temperature to be compatible with concentrated solar thermal energy and a propensity to generate methane. In contrast, copper and lead oxides offer greater potential for liquid chemical looping combustion because they have higher oxygen mass ratio and a higher operating temperature, which enables better efficiency from a power plant. For all three metal oxides, the production of methane via the undesirable methanation reaction is less than 2% of the product gasses for all operating temperatures and an order of magnitude lower for lead.