Formation phenomena of iron oxide-silica composite in microwave plasma and DC thermal plasma

Iron oxide-silica composite was synthesized using atmospheric microwave plasma and DC thermal plasma. There has recently been increasing interest in predicting the final product during vapor phase synthesis using plasma because of difficulty obtaining desirable product. In this study, vapor phase synthesis of iron oxide-silica composite from iron pentacarbonyl (Fe(CO)₅) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (SiC₈H₂₀O₄, TEOS) was conducted using various Fe/Si ratios and different types of plasma to identify the formation mechanism in the Fe-Si-O multi-component system. The morphologies and phase compositions of the synthesized particles were analyzed and compared. The results showed that the Fe/Si ratio and the type of plasma influenced the morphologies and the phase composition. A thermodynamic consideration was introduced to investigate the particle formation phenomena, which could explain the differences induced by varying the Fe/Si ratio and type of plasma. The particle formation mechanism was divided into a condensation step and a diffusion step. At the condensation step, the Fe/Si ratio determined the condensation temperature, which is related to the morphology. At the diffusion step, the quenching rate of the plasma determined the degree of diffusion, which was related to the phase composition and formation of the external layer.     

Nanoparticle‐Enhanced Silver‐Nanowire Plasmonic Electrodes for High‐Performance Organic Optoelectronic Devices

Improved performance in plasmonic organic solar cells (OSCs) and organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) via strong plasmon‐coupling effects generated by aligned silver nanowire (AgNW) transparent electrodes decorated with core–shell silver–silica nanoparticles (Ag@SiO₂NPs) is demonstrated. NP‐enhanced plasmonic AgNW (Ag@SiO₂NP–AgNW) electrodes enable substantially enhanced radiative emission and light absorption efficiency due to strong hybridized plasmon coupling between localized surface plasmons (LSPs) and propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) modes, which leads to improved device performance in organic optoelectronic devices (OODs). The discrete dipole approximation (DDA) calculation of the electric field verifies a strongly enhanced plasmon‐coupling effect caused by decorating core–shell Ag@SiO₂NPs onto the AgNWs. Notably, an electroluminescence efficiency of 25.33 cd A^?1 (at 3.2 V) and a power efficiency of 25.14 lm W^?1 (3.0 V) in OLEDs, as well as a power conversion efficiency (PCE) value of 9.19% in OSCs are achieved using hybrid Ag@SiO₂NP–AgNW films. These are the highest values reported to date for optoelectronic devices based on AgNW electrodes. This work provides a new design platform to fabricate high‐performance OODs, which can be further explored in various plasmonic and optoelectronic devices.     

Selective toxicity of hydroxyl-rich carbon nanodots for cancer research

Nano Research - The toxicity of nanoparticles in a biological system is an integration of effects arising from surface functionality, particle size, ionic dissolution, etc. This complexity suggests...     

Superconducting Density of States from the Magnetic Penetration Depth of Electron-Doped Cuprates La2−x Ce x CuO4−y and Pr2−x Ce x CuO4−y

From measurements of the magnetic penetration depth, (T), from 1.6 K to T _c in films of electron-doped cuprates La_2–x Ce _x CuO_4–y and Pr_2–x Ce _x CuO_4–y we obtain the normalized density of states, N _s(E) at T=0 by using a simple model. In this framework, the flat behavior of ^–2(T) at low T implies N _s(E) is small, possibly gapped, at low energies. The upward curvature in ^–2(T) near T _c seen in overdoped films implies that superfluid comes from an anomalously small energy band within about 3k _B T _c of the Fermi surface.     

Evaluation of thermal contact conductance using a new experimental-numerical method in fin-tube heat exchangers

In a fin-tube heat exchanger the contact between fin collar and tube surface is obtained through mechanical expansion of tubes. Since the interfaces between the tubes and fins consist partially of metal-to-metal contact and partially of air, the features of heat transfer through the contact interfaces have not been fully investigated. The present study aims at the development of a new tool including an experiment and a numerical calculation for the estimation of the thermal contact conductance between the fin collar and tube surface, and pursues the evaluation of the factors affecting the thermal contact conductance in a fin-tube heat exchanger. Heat exchangers fabricated for the current study have been put to the test for heat balance in a vacuum chamber with water as an internal fluid. And a finite difference numerical scheme has been used for the data reduction of the experimental data to evaluate the thermal contact conductance. Fin-tube heat exchangers employed in the current research are of tube diameter of 7 mm with different tube expansion ratios, fin spacings, and fin types. The results of the present study imply that these parameters as well as hydrophilic fin coating have a significant effect on the thermal contact conductance. It has been discovered that the portion of the thermal contact resistance is not negligible compared with the total thermal resistance in a fin-tube heat exchanger, and this means that in order to reduce the thermal contact resistance thoughtful care should be taken in fabricating heat exchangers.     

Multielement synthetic transmit aperture imaging using temporal encoding

A new method to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of synthetic transmit aperture imaging is investigated. The approach utilizes multiple elements to emulate a spherical wave, and the conventional short excitation pulse is replaced by a linear frequency-modulated (FM) signal. The approach is evaluated in terms of image quality parameters in comparison to linear array imaging. Field II simulations using an 8.5-MHz linear array transducer with 128 elements show an improvement in lateral resolution of up to 30% and up to 10.75% improvement in contrast resolution for the new approach. Measurements are performed using our experimental multichannel ultrasound scanning system, RASMUS. The designed linear FM signal obtains temporal sidelobes below -55 dB, and SNR investigations show improvements of 4-12 dB. A 30 mm (approximately 45%) increase in penetration depth is obtained on a multitarget phantom with 0.5 dB/[cm MHz] attenuation. Furthermore, in vivo images of the abdomen are presented, which demonstrate the clinical application of the new approach.     

Two phase visualization by electrical impedance tomography with prior information

Numerical and experimental work was conducted to develop a visualization technique for the phase distribution in a two-phase flow field with known internal structures by electrical impedance tomography technique, which reconstructs the resistivity distribution with the electrical responses that are determined by corresponding excitations. The finite element method is employed to solve the electrical field induced by the currents through electrodes placed along the boundary and a modified Newton-Raphson iterative method is used to determine the search step minimizing the error between the calculated and the measured voltages at the electrodes. The locations and resisitivities of the known structures are considered as prior information. To mitigate the ill-posedness of inverse problem and to incorporate prior information, the modified Tikhonov regularization technique is employed. Also, with an apparatus developed for impedance imaging this study attempts to reconstruct the images of the simulated bubble distributions and the reconstructed images imply the potential possibility of the electrical impedance tomography for the two-phase flow visualization.     

Annual variation of fresh water quality in the Gachang Dam reservoir

This paper investigated the relationship between the annual variation of the algae population and the physicochemical properties of the water reservoired in the Gachang Dam in the hopes of serving as a guideline in the production of a clean water supply to regions of the city of Taegu. Summer thermal stratification was formed in the freshwater reservoired in the Gachang Dam and thus dissolved oxygen (DO) decreased according to the depth of the water. The pH of epilimnion was much higher than that of hypolimnion in summer because of the difference in the photosynthesis rate of algae. In July, at the beginning of the rainy season, the amount of total nitrogen (T-N) in the freshwater reached a maximum of 1.92 mg/L without an increase in the amount of total phosphorus (T-P). In August, the concentration of T-P in the freshwater increased steeply and reached 0.12 mg/L.Aulacoseira spp. (diatoms) were predominantly distributed in the freshwater throughout the year andSynedra andAsterionella (diatoms) predominantly populated in the spring. However,Anabaena andMicrocystis (blue-green algae), which caused malodor and a bad taste, flourished predominantly in epilimnion in August when the temperature of the water at the surface region increased to the maximum and the concentration of T-P was sufficiently high.     

Functional tuning of a salvaged green fluorescent protein variant with a new sequence space by directed evolution

We previously reported a method, designated functional salvagescreen (FSS), to generate protein lineages with new sequencespaces through the functional or structural salvage of a defectiveprotein by employing green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a modelprotein. Here, in an attempt to mimic a step in the naturalevolution process of proteins, the functionally salvaged mutantGFP-I5 with new sequence space, but showing low fluorescenceintensity and stability, was selected and fine-tuned by directedevolution. During a course of functional tuning, GFP-I5 wasfound to evolve rapidly, recovering the spectral traits to thoseof the parent GFPuv. The mutant 3E4 from the third round ofdirected evolution possessed four substitutions; three (F64L,E111V and K166Q) were at the original GFP gene and the other(K8N) at the inserted segment. The fluorescence intensity of3E4 was 28-fold stronger than GFP-I5, and other spectral propertieswere retained. Biochemical and biophysical investigations suggestedthat the fine-tuning by directed evolution led the salvagedvariant GFP-I5 to a functionally favorable structure, resultingin recovery of stability and fluorescence. Site-directed mutagenesisof the mutated amino acid residues in both GFPuv and GFP-I5revealed that each amino acid residue has a different effecton the fluorescence intensity, which implies that 3E4 adopteda new evolutionary path with respect to fluorescence characteristicscompared with the parent GFPuv. Directed evolution in conjunctionwith FSS is expected to be used for generating protein lineageswith new fitness landscapes. Received March 31, 2003; revised October 30, 2003; accepted October 31, 2003