Comprehensive understanding of cathodic and anodic polarization effects on stability of nanoscale oxygen electrode for reversible solid oxide cells

Whereas solid oxide cells (SOCs), which perform dual functions of power generation (fuel-cell mode) and energy storage (electrolysis mode) with high efficiency at high temperatures, are considered a potent candidate for future energy management systems, it is yet far from their practical use due to the fact that the stable long-term operations have not been achieved. Particularly, degradations of oxygen-electrode in the both electrolysis and fuel-cell operations are considered as the most imminent issues that should be overcome. Unfortunately, even the origins and mechanisms of degradation in the oxygen-electrode have not been clearly established due to the difficulties in precise assessments of microstructural/compositional changes of porous electrode, which is a typical form in actual solid oxide cells, and due to the diversities in operating conditions, electrode structure and material, fabrication history, and so on. We simultaneously investigated the degradation phenomena in electrolysis and fuel-cell operations for 540h using identical two half cells composed of a geometrically well-defined, nanoscale La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) dense film with a thickness of ~ 70 nm on Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ electrolyte. Owing to the benefit of well-defined geometry of LSCF thin film, the microstructural/compositional changes in LSCF films were successfully analyzed in nanoscale, and the correlation between the components of electrochemical impedance and the major origins resulting in degradations was clarified. Furthermore, we suggest the most probable degradation mechanisms, and importantly, it is newly suggested that kinetic demixing/decomposition of LSCF, which is not readily observable in the typical porous-structured electrode, are highly probable to affect the both fuel-cell and electrolysis long-term degradations

New Era of Air Quality Monitoring from Space: Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS)

GEMS will monitor air quality over Asia at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution from GEO for the first time, providing column measurements of aerosol, ozone and their precursors (nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and formaldehyde). Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) is scheduled for launch in late 2019 - early 2020 to monitor Air Quality (AQ) at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution from a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) for the first time. With the development of UV-visible spectrometers at sub-nm spectral resolution and sophisticated retrieval algorithms, estimates of the column amounts of atmospheric pollutants (O3, NO2, SO2, HCHO, CHOCHO and aerosols) can be obtained. To date, all the UV-visible satellite missions monitoring air quality have been in Low Earth orbit (LEO), allowing one to two observations per day. With UV-visible instruments on GEO platforms, the diurnal variations of these pollutants can now be determined. Details of the GEMS mission are presented, including instrumentation, scientific algorithms, predicted performance, and applications for air quality forecasts through data assimilation. GEMS will be onboard the GEO-KOMPSAT-2 satellite series, which also hosts the Advanced Meteorological Imager (AMI) and Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI)-2. These three instruments will provide synergistic science products to better understand air quality, meteorology, the long-range transport of air pollutants, emission source distributions, and chemical processes. Faster sampling rates at higher spatial resolution will increase the probability of finding cloud-free pixels, leading to more observations of aerosols and trace gases than is possible from LEO. GEMS will be joined by NASA's TEMPO and ESA's Sentinel-4 to form a GEO AQ satellite constellation in early 2020s, coordinated by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)

Implementation of a Noise-Shaped Signaling System through Software-Defined Radio

Along with the development of electromagnetic weapons, Electronic Warfare (EW) has been rising as the future form of war. Especially in the area of wireless communications, high security defense systems such as Low Probability of Detection (LPD), Low Probability of Interception (LPI), and Low Probability of Exploitation (LPE) communication algorithms are being studied to prevent military force loss. One LPD, LPI, and LPE communication algorithm, physical-layer security, has been discussed and studied. We propose a noise signaling system, a type of physical-layer security, which modifies conventionally modulated I/Q data into a noise-like shape. To suggest the possibility of realistic implementation, we use Software-Defined Radio (SDR). Since there are certain hardware limitations, we present the limitations, requirements, and preferences of practical implementation of the noise signaling system. The proposed system uses ring-shaped signaling, and we present a ring-shaped signaling system algorithm, SDR implementation methodology, and performance evaluations of the system using the metrics of Bit Error Rate (BER) and Probability of Modulation Identification (PMI), which we obtain by using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm. We conclude that the ring-shaped signaling system can perform high LPI/LPE communication functioning because an eavesdropper cannot obtain the correct modulation scheme information. However, the performance can vary with the configurations of the I/Q data-modifying factors

A Noise-Shaped Signaling Method for Vehicle-to-Everything Security

This paper presents a method to improve the Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) security. With the recent rapid development of communication technology and traffic applications, V2X is recently commercialized and has been growing as a fundamental system for future applications. Because of the high mobility of the vehicles, V2X requires a low latency and high-reliability. However, previous security methods demand a large computational burden and generate high latency owing to complex operations and long additional data bits for ensuing security. To resolve such constraints, an advanced security method ensuring lower latency and higher reliability is required. We propose a noise-shaped signaling method that provides high-level security with low latency for reliable V2X communication. The proposed method encrypts original data symbols to noise-like symbols by applying a noise envelope that consists of Chaotic Random Magnitude Sequence (CRMS) and Chaotic Random Phase Sequences (CRPS). Our method simplifies the sequence sharing process between a sender and an intended receiver by adapting the characteristics of a chaotic dynamic system. Moreover, the proposed method does not demand additional data bits and generate delay because the method only uses simple multiplication and division procedure for data encryption in the physical layer. We analyze our method in depth using extensive simulations and various viewpoints such as error rate, probability of modulation identification. From the simulations, we demonstrate that a malicious adversary cannot comprehend the transmitted symbols and always has the maximum error rate under various network environments and conditions. We also demonstrate how the adversary cannot infer the modulation scheme from the symbols applying the proposed method. After these analyses, we confirm that the noise-shaped signaling method is high-level of secure method with a low latency for V2X communication

Additional file 1 of Ink-lithographic fabrication of silver-nanocrystal-based multiaxial strain gauge sensors through the coffee-ring effect for voice recognition applications

Additional file 1: Figure S1. HRTEM images of a as-synthesized (left) and NH4Br-treated (right) Ag NCs. b UV–vis absorbance spectra, c FT-IR absorption profiles, and d XRD patterns of the as-synthesized (black) and NH4Br-treated Ag NCs with continuously (blue) and alternately printed patterns (red). Figure S2. Profile of waveform employed for inkjet printing the ligand ink. Figure S3. Plot of the AFM data corresponding to the Fig. 1c results. Figure S4. Optical image for investigating contact angle of the ligand ink on the Ag NC thin films. Figure S5. Optical images of ligand-ink-treated Ag NC line patterns. a Continuously (left) and alternately printed (right) Ag NC line patterns. b Changes in line width of the Ag NC line patterns with different micro-spacings of the jetting droplets (scale bar = 50 μm). Figure S6. a Front- and b top view optical images of the multiaxial strain gauge sensors attached to the 0.6%-strain-curved structure. Figure S7. a Schematic of films with alternately printed Ag NC patterns subjected to bending at different rotations. b Detailed schematic of alternately printed Ag NC patterns. Detailed top-view schematics of changes in the c alternately and d continuously printed Ag NC patterns with bending. Figure S8. a Gauge factor of alternately- (black dots) and continuously printed Ag NC patterns upon high bending strain. b Cycle test of alternately printed Ag NC patterns (upper = 1% strain; lower = 5% strain). Figure S9. Hysteresis plot of both Ag NC patterns with 1.0 % strain applied (filled circles or triangles) and released (vacant circles or triangles)

Magnetoresistance in copper at high frequency and high magnetic fields

In halo dark matter axion search experiments, cylindrical microwave cavities are typically employed to detect signals from the axion-photon conversion. To enhance the conversion power and reduce the noise level, cavities are placed in strong solenoid magnetic fields at sufficiently low temperatures. Exploring high mass regions in cavity-based axion search experiments requires high frequency microwave cavities and thus understanding cavity properties at high frequencies in extreme conditions is deemed necessary. We present a study of the magnetoresistance of copper using a cavity with a resonant frequency of 12.9 GHz at the liquid helium temperature in magnetic fields up to 15 T utilizing a second generation high temperature superconducting magnet. The observations are interpreted to be consistent with the anomalous skin effect and size effect. This is the first measurement of magnetoresistance at a high frequency (>10 GHz) in high magnetic fields (>10 T). © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab2

Colloidal-annealing of ZnO nanoparticles to passivate traps and improve charge extraction in colloidal quantum dot solar cells

The popularity of colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells has increased owing to their tunable bandgap, multiple exciton generation, and low-cost solution processes. ZnO nanoparticle (NP) layers are generally employed as electron transport layers in CQD solar cells to efficiently extract the electrons. However, trap sites and the unfavorable band structure of the as-synthesized ZnO NPs have hindered their potential performance. Herein, we introduce a facile method of ZnO NP annealing in the colloidal state. Electrical, structural, and optical analyses demonstrated that the colloidal-annealing of ZnO NPs effectively passivated the defects and simultaneously shifted their band diagram; therefore, colloidal-annealing is a more favorable method as compared to conventional film-annealing. These CQD solar cells based on colloidal-annealed ZnO NPs exhibited efficient charge extraction, reduced recombination and achieved an enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.29%, whereas the CQD solar cells based on ZnO NPs without annealing had a PCE of 8.05%. Moreover, the CQD solar cells using colloidal-annealed ZnO NPs exhibited an improved air stability with 98% retention after 120 days, as compared to that of CQD solar cells using non-annealed ZnO NPs with 84% retention. © The Royal Society of Chemistry.1

Strain-Induced Tailoring of Oxygen-Ion Transport in Highly Doped CeO₂ Electrolyte: Effects of Biaxial Extrinsic and Local Lattice Strain

We explored oxygen-ion transport in highly doped CeO₂ through density-functional theory calculations. By applying biaxial strain to 18.75 mol % CeO₂:Gd, we predicted the average migration-barrier energy with six different pathways, with results in good agreement with those of experiments. Additionally, we found that the migration-barrier energy could be lowered by increasing the tetrahedron volume, including the space occupied by the oxygen vacancy. Our results indicate that the tetrahedron volume can be expanded by larger codopants, as well as biaxial tensile strain. Thus, the combination of thin-film structure and codoping could offer a new approach to accelerate oxygen-ion transport

Identification of an Actual Strain-Induced Effect on Fast Ion Conduction in a Thin-Film Electrolyte

Strain-induced fast ion conduction has been a research area of interest for nanoscale energy conversion and storage systems. However, because of significant discrepancies in the interpretation of strain effects, there remains a lack of understanding of how fast ionic transport can be achieved by strain effects and how strain can be controlled in a nanoscale system. In this study, we investigated strain effects on the ionic conductivity of Gd_0.2Ce_0.8O_1.9−δ (100) thin films under well controlled experimental conditions, in which errors due to the external environment could not intervene during the conductivity measurement. In order to avoid any interference from perpendicular-to-surface defects, such as grain boundaries, the ionic conductivity was measured in the out-of-plane direction by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis. With varying film thickness, we found that a thicker film has a lower activation energy of ionic conduction. In addition, careful strain analysis using both reciprocal space mapping and strain mapping in transmission electron microscopy shows that a thicker film has a higher tensile strain than a thinner film. Furthermore, the tensile strain of thicker film was mostly developed near a grain boundary, which indicates that intrinsic strain is dominant rather than epitaxial or thermal strain during thin-film deposition and growth via the Volmer–Weber (island) growth mode