Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Loss-Free Photo-Manipulation of Droplets by Pyroelectro-Trapping on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Manipulation of tiny amounts of liquid is a fundamental technique for miniaturized diagnostic, analyzing, and synthetic processes. Among diverse maneuver methods, light-controlled liquid manipulation stands out because of its ready controllability, high spatial precision, and noncontact feature of light. As light controls the motion of liquid droplets, substantial liquid loss frequently accompanies, leading to reduced sample volume, contaminated devices, and erroneous results. Here, we report a light-controlled droplet-maneuver method based on pyroelectro-trapping on superhydrophobic surfaces. On such a platform, a light source traps and guides the droplet on a nonwetting surface remotely, offering a precise and loss-free droplet transport that eliminates intersample cross-contaminations. Our approach provides a simplified, facile, and compact platform which is suitable for repeated and multistep usages. Droplet-based microreactions and enhanced mixing inside tiny droplets are effectively demonstrated using the platform. The photocontrolled loss-free droplet maneuver is very promising for applications like chemical/bioassays, microfluidics, and liquid transfer

Using spectrum allocations to address indigenous policy obligations: the case of New Zealand

Radio spectrum is fundamental to the operation of wireless communications services. In order to allocate radio spectrum for different services, spectrum is regulated via national laws, coordinated by an international body, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). For the most part, national (state) governments undertake the legal definition and allocation of spectrum. The most common method of allocation is auction, where competing parties bid for the rights to use specific bundles of spectrum, ensuring that the spectrum goes to the users and uses where it is most commercially valuable (Crandall, 1998). Alternatively it is 'gifted' to winners of a 'beauty contest' using predetermined government-specified criteria in order to meet other policy objectives (Prat & Valletti, 2000). Sometimes, spectrum can be reserved for particular government policies or other redistributive agendas (Howell & Potgieter, 2022). In February 2022, the New Zealand Government announced that a yet-to-be-formed 'Māori Spectrum Entity' would “receive an ongoing allocation of 20 percent of future national commercial spectrum allocations, at no cost.” This is in addition to the 25 percent of spectrum designated for 5G technology (mid-band, 3.4-3.8GHz) under the Māori Spectrum Working Group agreement. The policy is novel as it creates a perpetual obligation rather than simply a one-off transfer. The Māori people are the indigenous people in New Zealand. The 1840 Treaty of Waitangi signed between the British Crown and Māori tribal leaders granted the tribes “exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries and other properties.” (Te Ara, 2022). Māori tribal leaders have asserted that since they exercised control over the air above their lands in 1840, they are entitled to a share of the spectrum within it. This controversial claim was supported by a Waitangi Tribunal (special court) hearing (Wai 776, 1999). Further support for the policy derives from New Zealand’s obligations as a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In this paper, we use comparative policy analysis to examine perpetual allocation of spectrum at no cost to tribal interests while at the same time selling spectrum at positive cost to industry parties, against the espoused objectives of both industry and other policies. While wealth and control is transferred from the Crown to the tribal entity, meeting various legal treaty obligations, it is not clear that the tribal entity faces the same incentives as the firms paying positive sums to deploy the spectrum in the most socially-useful manner. That is, meeting legal obligations may abrogate economic ones

Graphene/HgTe Quantum-Dot Photodetectors with Gate-Tunable Infrared Response

Graphene-based vertical heterostructures are of great interest as emerging electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, we report the study of photovoltaic response from graphene/HgTe quantum-dot junction. The graphene/HgTe quantum-dot junction combines the high carrier mobility of graphene and tunable infrared optical absorption of HgTe colloidal quantum dots, which offers promising route for the next-generation infrared optoelectronics. We demonstrate that both the sign and magnitude of the short-circuit photocurrents and open-circuit voltages can be controlled by the applied gate voltage, which tunes the Fermi level and the interfacial built-in potential across the junction. The interfacial energy band diagram is deduced to provide the fundamental understanding of the essential physics behind the graphene/quantum-dot film junction

V‑Shaped RuO₂ Nanotwin Complex Defect Facilitation of OER Reaction

RuO2 is one of the most active catalysts for the acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). As a first step in understanding the mechanism for V-shaped RuO2 nanotwin facilitation of the OER reaction, the relaxed atomic configuration and detailed partial density of states are determined using density-functional theory and are shown to dictate an upward shift of d- and p-band centers. The RuO2 101-nanotwin grain boundary (101-TGB), as the first ∑101 V-shaped structure constructed, reduces the distance between kinked Ru and its surrounding O atoms, which enhances p–d hybridization. The special structure properly regulates the value of ΔG*O–ΔG*OH and charge-transfer energy. In addition, with the introduction of transition-metal and oxygen vacancies, the degree of nanotwin dislocation increases, exhibiting positive effects on the improvement of surface catalytic activity. Regulating the synergistic effect of nanotwins and transition metals can thus be crucial in assisting the exploration of new, multiple, and excellent RuO2-based nanocatalyst materials