Control of Halogen Atom in Inorganic Metal-Halide Perovskites Enables Large Piezoelectricity for Electromechanical Energy Generation

Regulating the strain of inorganic perovskites has emerged as a critical approach to control their electronic and optical properties. Here, an alternative strategy to further control the piezoelectric properties by substituting the halogen atom (I/Br) in the CsPbX₃ perovskite (X = Cl, Br) structure is adopted. A series of piezoelectric materials with excellent piezoelectric coefficients (d₃₃) are unveiled. Iodine-incorporated CsPbBr₂I demonstrates the record intrinsic piezoelectric response (d₃₃ ≈47 pC N⁻¹) among all inorganic metal halide perovskites. This leads to an excellent electrical output power of ≈ 0.375 mW (24.8 µW cm⁻² N⁻¹) in the piezoelectric energy generator (PEG) which is higher than those of the pristine/mixed perovskite references with CsPbX₃ (X = I, Br, Cl). With its structural phase remaining unchanged, the strained CsPbBr₂I retains its superior piezoelectricity in both thin film and nanocrystal powder forms, further demonstrating its repeatability and versatility of applications. The origin of high piezoelectricity is found to be due to halogen-induced anisotropic lattice strain in the unit-cell along the c-axis, and octahedral distortion. This study reveals an avenue to design new piezoelectric materials by modifying their halide constituents and paves the way to design efficient PEGs for improved electromechanical energy conversion.     

Water sensor for a nonaqueous solvent with poly(1,5-diaminonapthalene) nanofibers

A water sensor for a nonaqueous solvent was fabricated using poly(1,5-diaminonapthalene (DAN) nanofibers, which were prepared through a catalytic chemical polymerization of the DAN monomer using Fe(III) salt as the catalyst. Poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers were characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The electrochemical properties of poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The electrochemical activity of poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers was utilized for water sensing. The fabrication of water sensor was followed by placing one drop (about 2 microL) of 0.01% poly(1,5-DAN) nanofibers solution in the gap between two split gold electrodes (PBSA) and completely dried. The response of the water sensor in an acetonitrile solution was evaluated under optimized conditions. The linear dynamic range was from 0.05 to 20%, and the detection limit was determined to be 0.01%. The response of this sensor was shown to be comparable to that obtained with the Karl Fischer titration method.     

Predicting organic carbon-water partitioning of hydrophobic organic chemicals in soils and sediments based on water solubility

For predicting organic carbon-water partitioning of organic pollutants in soils and sediments, a simple empirical relationship is derived from Raoult's law and fitted to data sets of experimental organic carbon normalized partition coefficients (K(oc)) and aqueous solubilities (S(i)) of 64 hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) from literature including mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, halogenated monoaromatic and alkyl hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Although over 5 orders of magnitude are covered in sorptivity (logK(oc)), the new relationship (logK(oc)=-0.85 logS(i)-0.55) predicts K(oc) with an average absolute deviation of only 0.23 log units. The relationship between K(oc) and S(i) is inverse and slightly nonlinear. The product of K(oc) times S(i) (=K(oc)( *), which indicates the theoretical maximum contaminant loading at its solubility limit per unit mass of organic carbon) is 0.098kgkg(-1) and 0.012kgkg(-1) for compounds with water solubilities of 1gL(-1) and 1mugL(-1), respectively.     

Atrocious Impinging of COVID-19 Pandemic on Software Development Industries

COVID-19 is the contagious disease transmitted by Coronavirus. The majority of people diagnosed with COVID-19 may suffer from moderate-to- severe respiratory illnesses and stabilize without preferential treatment. Those who are most likely to experience significant infections include the elderly as well as people with a history of significant medical issues including heart disease, diabetes, or chronic breathing problems. The novel Coronavirus has affected not only the physical and mental health of the people but also had adverse impact on their emotional well-being. For months on end now, due to constant monitoring and containment measures to combat COVID-19, people have been forced to live in isolation and maintain the norms of social distancing with no community interactions. Social ties, experiences, and partnerships are not only integral part of work life but also form the basis of human evolvement. However, COVID-19 brought all such communication to a grinding halt. Digital interactions have failed to support the fervor that one enjoys in face-to-face meets. The COVID-19 disease outbreak has triggered dramatic changes in many sectors, and the main among them is the software industry. This paper aims at assessing COVID-19’s impact on Software Industries. The impact of the COVID-19 disease outbreak has been measured on the basis of some predefined criteria for the demand of different software applications in the software industry. For the stated analysis, we used an approach that involves the application of the integrated Fuzzy ANP and TOPSIS strategies for the assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the software industry. Findings of this research study indicate that Government administration based software applications were severely affected, and these applications have been the major apprehensions in the wake of the pandemic’s outbreak. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has had a considerable impact on software industry, yet the damage is not irretrievable and the world’s societies can emerge out of this setback through concerted efforts in all facets of life.     

An ergonomic shoulder for robot-aided rehabilitation with hybrid control

Microsystem Technologies - Over the past years, robot-aided rehabilitation has gained traction to regain lost mobility in upper limb due to stroke. In most cases, rehabilitative robotic devices...     

Analysis of Motion Blur on Spatial OFDM Based Pixelated Optical Communication Systems

Wireless Personal Communications - This paper, for the first time, analyses the impact of motion blur in the context of a spatial orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (spatial OFDM) based...     

An optimization based approach to enhance the throughput and energy efficiency for cognitive unmanned aerial vehicle networks

Wireless Networks - Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a promising technology to serve as a mission-critical communication, where human operation or intervention is risky, dangerous, impossible or...     

Self-adaptive query-broadcast in wireless ad-hoc networks using fuzzy best worst method

Wireless Networks - Various broadcasting schemes have been proposed for a unified routing approach in Wireless Adhoc Networks. In their efforts, the researchers mostly aim to minimize the...