9,449 research outputs found
Chemical Power for Microscopic Robots in Capillaries
The power available to microscopic robots (nanorobots) that oxidize
bloodstream glucose while aggregated in circumferential rings on capillary
walls is evaluated with a numerical model using axial symmetry and
time-averaged release of oxygen from passing red blood cells. Robots about one
micron in size can produce up to several tens of picowatts, in steady-state, if
they fully use oxygen reaching their surface from the blood plasma. Robots with
pumps and tanks for onboard oxygen storage could collect oxygen to support
burst power demands two to three orders of magnitude larger. We evaluate
effects of oxygen depletion and local heating on surrounding tissue. These
results give the power constraints when robots rely entirely on ambient
available oxygen and identify aspects of the robot design significantly
affecting available power. More generally, our numerical model provides an
approach to evaluating robot design choices for nanomedicine treatments in and
near capillaries.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figure
Mapping energy transport networks in proteins
The response of proteins to chemical reactions or impulsive excitation that
occurs within the molecule has fascinated chemists for decades. In recent years
ultrafast X-ray studies have provided ever more detailed information about the
evolution of protein structural change following ligand photolysis, and
time-resolved IR and Raman techniques, e.g., have provided detailed pictures of
the nature and rate of energy transport in peptides and proteins, including
recent advances in identifying transport through individual amino acids of
several heme proteins. Computational tools to locate energy transport pathways
in proteins have also been advancing. Energy transport pathways in proteins
have since some time been identified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations,
and more recent efforts have focused on the development of coarse graining
approaches, some of which have exploited analogies to thermal transport in
other molecular materials. With the identification of pathways in proteins and
protein complexes, network analysis has been applied to locate residues that
control protein dynamics and possibly allostery, where chemical reactions at
one binding site mediate reactions at distance sites of the protein. In this
chapter we review approaches for locating computationally energy transport
networks in proteins. We present background into energy and thermal transport
in condensed phase and macromolecules that underlies the approaches we discuss
before turning to a description of the approaches themselves. We also
illustrate the application of the computational methods for locating energy
transport networks and simulating energy dynamics in proteins with several
examples
Chalcogenide Glass-on-Graphene Photonics
Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to integrated
photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission,
modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their
optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto
prefabricated devices via a transfer process. In this paper, we present a new
route for 2-D material integration with planar photonics. Central to this
approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can
be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can
simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a
passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides claiming improved fabrication
yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our
technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally
designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers.
Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of
high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip
polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as graphene-based
mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators
Surface Engineering for Phase Change Heat Transfer: A Review
Among numerous challenges to meet the rising global energy demand in a
sustainable manner, improving phase change heat transfer has been at the
forefront of engineering research for decades. The high heat transfer rates
associated with phase change heat transfer are essential to energy and industry
applications; but phase change is also inherently associated with poor
thermodynamic efficiencies at low heat flux, and violent instabilities at high
heat flux. Engineers have tried since the 1930's to fabricate solid surfaces
that improve phase change heat transfer. The development of micro and
nanotechnologies has made feasible the high-resolution control of surface
texture and chemistry over length scales ranging from molecular levels to
centimeters. This paper reviews the fabrication techniques available for
metallic and silicon-based surfaces, considering sintered and polymeric
coatings. The influence of such surfaces in multiphase processes of high
practical interest, e.g., boiling, condensation, freezing, and the associated
physical phenomena are reviewed. The case is made that while engineers are in
principle able to manufacture surfaces with optimum nucleation or thermofluid
transport characteristics, more theoretical and experimental efforts are needed
to guide the design and cost-effective fabrication of surfaces that not only
satisfy the existing technological needs, but also catalyze new discoveries
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