Gas recognition based on the physicochemical parameters determined by monitoring diffusion rates in microfluidic channels

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Monitoring the diffusion progress rates of different gases in a microfluidic channel affords their discrimination by the comparison of their temporal profiles in a high-dimensional feature space. Here, we demonstrate gas recognition by determination of their three important physicochemical parameters via a model-based examination of the experimentally determined diffusion rates in two different cross-section channels. The system utilized comprises two channels with respective cross-sectional diameters of 1000 μm and 50 μm. The open end of both channels are simultaneously exposed to the analyte, and the temporal profiles of the diffusion rates are recorded by continuous resistance measurements on the chemoresistive sensors spliced to the channels at their other ends. Fitting the solutions of the diffusion equation to the experimental profiles obtained from the large cross-section channel results in the diffusivity of the analyte. The results of small cross-section channel, however, fit the solutions of a modified diffusion equation which accounts for the adsorption of the analyte molecules to the channel walls, as well. The latter fitting process results in the adsorption parameter for the analyte-channel wall interactions and the population of the effective adsorption sites on the unit area of the walls. The allocation of these three meaningful parameters to an unknown gaseous analyte affords its recognition

Meson-nucleon scattering and vector mesons in nuclear matter

The properties of vector mesons in nuclear matter are discussed. I examine the constraints imposed by elementary processes on the widths of $\rho$ and $\omega$ mesons in nuclear matter. Furthermore, results for the $\rho$- and $\omega$-nucleon scattering amplitudes obtained by fitting meson-nucleon scattering data in a coupled-channel approach are presented.Comment: 7 pages, 6 EPS figures, uses appb.sty (included), talk given at Meson98, Cracow, May 98, to be published in Acta Physica Polonica

Chiral shifts in heavy-light mesons

The mass shifts of the $P$-wave $D_s$ and $B_s$ mesons due to coupling to $DK$ and $BK$ channels are calculated in the coupling channel model without fitting parameters. The strong mass shifts down for $0^+$ and ${1^+}'$ states have been obtained, while ${1^+}"$ and $2^+$ states remain almost in situ. The masses of $0^+$ and ${1^+}'$ states of $B_s$ mesons have been predicted.Comment: to be published in the Proceedings of the 14th International QCD Conference, 7th-12th July 2008, Montpellier, Franc

Very low bias stress in n-type organic single crystal transistors

Bias stress effects in n-channel organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are investigated using PDIF-CN2 single-crystal devices with Cytop gate dielectric, both under vacuum and in ambient. We find that the amount of bias stress is very small as compared to all (p-channel) OFETs reported in the literature. Stressing the PDIF-CN2 devices by applying 80 V to the gate for up to a week results in a decrease of the source drain current of only ~1% under vacuum and ~10% in air. This remarkable stability of the devices leads to characteristic time constants, extracted by fitting the data with a stretched exponential - that are \tau ~ 2\cdot10^9 s in air and \tau ~ 5\cdot10^9 s in vacuum - approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the best values reported previously for p-channel OFETs.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letters; 14 pages, 3 figure