Highly Transparent,Stretchable, and Self‐Healing Ionic‐Skin Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Energy Harvesting and Touch Applications

Recently developed triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) act as a promising power source for self‐powered electronic devices. However, the majority of TENGs are fabricated using metallic electrodes and cannot achieve high stretchability and transparency, simultaneously. Here, slime‐based ionic conductors are used as transparent current‐collecting layers of TENG, thus significantly enhancing their energy generation, stretchability, transparency, and instilling self‐healing characteristics. This is the first demonstration of using an ionic conductor as the current collector in a mechanical energy harvester. The resulting ionic‐skin TENG (IS‐TENG) has a transparency of 92% transmittance, and its energy‐harvesting performance is 12 times higher than that of the silver‐based electronic current collectors. In addition, they are capable of enduring a uniaxial strain up to 700%, giving the highest performance compared to all other transparent and stretchable mechanical‐energy harvesters. Additionally, this is the first demonstration of an autonomously self‐healing TENG that can recover its performance even after 300 times of complete bifurcation. The IS‐TENG represents the first prototype of a highly deformable and transparent power source that is able to autonomously self‐heal quickly and repeatedly at room temperature, and thus can be used as a power supply for digital watches, touch sensors, artificial intelligence, and biointegrated electronics.     

Design of different configurations of finite microstrip arrays of circular patches

A computer code is written to analyze different configurations of finite microstrip arrays. This code will be used as an educational and design tool for students and industrial engineers. The code will be available on PC computers in an interactive graphic mode for the NSF/IEEE Center on Computer Applications in Electromagnetics Education (CAEME). The arrays are made of circular patches with coaxial feeds and exciting different modes. Mutual coupling between the elements and surface wave effects are considered. The conventional dual feed configuration is used to generate circular polarization. Also, circular polarization is realized by sequential feeding of linearly polarized elements. Different array configurations of fixed and scanned beams are analyzed.     

Effect of Nano Particle Deposition on Mechanical Properties of Friction Stir Welded Dissimilar Aluminium Alloys by Taguchi Technique

Improving the mechanical properties while joining of dissimilar alloys by FSW has been a choice of research during the past decade. Hence, an attempt has been made in the present research to join dissimilar Al alloys (AA5052 and AA6063) by addition of Copper nanoparticles in the weld joint. A 5T NC FSW machine has been employed to perform the desired task. To achieve optimum values of the process parameters, an optimization study has been carried out using Taguchi technique. The results obtained from the optimization studies and experimental investigations match very well proving the efficacy of the study. The results from the investigation show an improvement in mechanical properties when Cu nanoparticles are deposited which are further supported by microstructure and EDX analysis.     

Pretreatment or resuscitation with a lipid infusion shifts the dose-response to bupivacaine-induced asystole in rats

BACKGROUND: The authors sought to confirm a chance observation that intravenous lipid treatment increases the dose of bupivacaine required to produce asystole in rats. The authors also measured the partitioning of bupivacaine between the lipid and aqueous phases of a plasma-lipid emulsion mixture. METHODS: Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats were used in pretreatment (protocol 1) and resuscitation (protocol 2) experiments. In protocol 1, animals were pretreated with saline or 10%, 20%, or 30% Intralipid (n = 6 for all groups), then received 0.75% bupivacaine hydrochloride at a rate of 10 ml x kg x min(-1) to asystole. In protocol 2, mortality was compared over a range of bolus doses of bupivacaine after resuscitation with either saline or 30% Intralipid (n = 6 for all groups). The lipid:aqueous partitioning of bupivacaine in a mixture of plasma and Intralipid was measured using radiolabeled bupivacaine. RESULTS: Median doses of bupivacaine (in milligrams per kilogram) producing asystole in protocol 1 were for 17.7 for saline, 27.6 for 10% Intralipid, 49.7 for 20% Intralipid, and 82.0 for 30% Intralipid (P < 0.001 for differences between all groups). Differences in mean +/- SE concentrations of bupivacaine in plasma (in micrograms per milliliter) were significant (P < 0.05) for the difference between saline (93.3 +/- 7.6) and 30% Intralipid (212 +/- 45). In protocol 2, lipid infusion increased the dose of bupivacaine required to cause death in 50% of animals by 48%, from 12.5 to 18.5 mg/kg. The mean lipid:aqueous ratio of concentrations of bupivacaine in a plasma-Intralipid mixture was 11.9 +/- 1.77 (n = 3). CONCLUSIONS: Lipid infusion shifts the dose-response to bupivacaine-induced asystole in rats. Partitioning of bupivacaine into the newly created lipid phase may partially explain this effect. These results suggest a potential application for lipid infusion in treating cardiotoxicity resulting from bupivacaine.     

Investigation on the textural characteristics of supported nickel hydrogenation catalysts

Nickel catalysts supported on a range of carriers such as kieselguhr, silica, γ-alumina, silica-alumina and mordenite were investigated in order to gain an understanding of their structural properties. The surface area and pore distribution characteristics of the carriers and unreduced catalysts obtained from nitrogen adsorption isotherms gave strong indications that the formation of the nickel salt submerged the carrier. Metallic nickel produced after reduction at high temperature was perhaps present in the macropores or on the outer surface of the carrier forming a microporous network of fine crystallites. The metal surface area of the catalyst in its reduced state, calculated from hydrogen chemisorption data, was not influenced by the specific surface area of the carrier. Among the different carriers, the nickel-carrier interaction was mainly found with kieselguhr and silica. Activity of the different catalysts in the hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acid was found to be directly related to the metal area.     

Self-powered pressure sensor for ultra-wide range pressure detection

The next generation of sensors should be self-powered,maintenance-free,precise,and have wide-ranging sensing abilities.Despite extensive research and development in the field of pressure sensors,the sensitivity of most pressure sensors declines significantly at higher pressures,such that they are not able to detect a wide range of pressures with a uniformly high sensitivity.In this work,we demonstrate a single-electrode triboelectric pressure sensor,which can detect a wide range of pressures from 0.05 to 600 kPa with a high degree of sensitivity across the entire range by utilizing the synergistic effects of the piezoelectric polarization and triboelectric surface charges of self-polarized polyvinyldifluoride-trifluoroethylene (P(VDF-TrFE)) sponge.Taking into account both this wide pressure range and the sensitivity,this device exhibits the best performance relative to that of previously reported self-powered pressure sensors.This achievement facilitates wide-range pressure detection for a broad spectrum of applications,ranging from simple human touch,sensor networks,smart robotics,and sports applications,thus paving the way forward for the realization of next-generation sensing devices.Moreover,this work addresses the critical issue of saturation pressure in triboelectric nanogenerators and provides insights into the role of the surface charge on a piezoelectric polymer when used in a triboelectric nanogenerator.