METHODOLOGY FOR AUTOMOTIVE AIR-CONDITIONING CONTROL OPTIMIZATION USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS

The transient nature of automotive air conditioning systems control is generally achieved through proportional–integral–derivative controllers (PID’s) parameters tunning. Due to the vast database available from decades of automotive manufacturers design and expertise, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) might be able to identify underlying patterns to predict and properly tune the air-conditioning PID control systems under different thermal requirements. Recently, advances in computational capability have enabled compact embarked systems to rapidly solve complex, multi-variable sets of equations, thus allowing for ANN to promptly calculate tunning parameters and act upon PID controllers. As any new application, technical literature is still scarce. On this research, a coupled PID and 6-layers perceptron ANN system was devised, programmed and used to simulate how an air-conditioning system performance can be optimized through proportional–integral–derivative controllers tuning. This proposed setup response was then compared to a conventional heuristic PID tunning method (Ziegler Nichols) to demonstrate how ANN’s can more rapidly stabilize the system output

Measuring the degree of stacking order in graphite by Raman spectroscopy

ArticleCARBON. 46(2):272-275(2008)journal articl

Direct Imaging of Graphene Edges: Atomic Structure and Electronic Scattering

We report an atomically-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigation of the edges of graphene grains synthesized on Cu foils by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Most of the edges are macroscopically parallel to the zigzag directions of graphene lattice. These edges have microscopic roughness that is found to also follow zigzag directions at atomic scale, displaying many ~120 degree turns. A prominent standing wave pattern with periodicity ~3a/4 (a being the graphene lattice constant) is observed near a rare-occurring armchair-oriented edge. Observed features of this wave pattern are consistent with the electronic intervalley backscattering predicted to occur at armchair edges but not at zigzag edges

A new Raman metric for the characterisation of graphene oxide and its derivatives

Raman spectroscopy is among the primary techniques for the characterisation of graphene materials, as it provides insights into the quality of measured graphenes including their structure and conductivity as well as the presence of dopants. However, our ability to draw conclusions based on such spectra is limited by a lack of understanding regarding the origins of the peaks. Consequently, traditional characterisation techniques, which estimate the quality of the graphene material using the intensity ratio between the D and the G peaks, are unreliable for both GO and rGO. Herein we reanalyse the Raman spectra of graphenes and show that traditional methods rely upon an apparent G peak which is in fact a superposition of the G and D’ peaks. We use this understanding to develop a new Raman characterisation method for graphenes that considers the D’ peak by using its overtone the 2D’. We demonstrate the superiority and consistency of this method for calculating the oxygen content of graphenes, and use the relationship between the D’ peak and graphene quality to define three regimes. This has important implications for purification techniques because, once GO is reduced beyond a critical threshold, further reduction offers limited gain in conductivity

On the nature of defects in liquid-phase exfoliated graphene

Liquid-phase exfoliation is one of the most promising routes for large-scale production of multilayer graphene dispersions. These dispersions, which may be used in coatings, composites, or paints, are believed to contain disorder-free graphene multilayers. Here, we address the nature of defects in such samples obtained by liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite powder in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. Our Raman spectroscopy data challenge the assumption that these multilayers are free of bulk defects, revealing that defect localization strongly depends on the sonication time. For short ultrasound times, defects are located mainly at the layer edges but they turn out to build up in the bulk for ultrasonic times above 2 h. This knowledge may help to devise better strategies to achieve high-quality graphene dispersions.submittedVersionFil: Bracamonte, María Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Bracamonte, María Victoria. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Lacconi, Gabriela Inés. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Departamento de Fisicoquímica; Argentina.Fil: Lacconi, Gabriela Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Fisicoquímica de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Urreta, Silvia Elena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Urreta, Silvia Elena. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Fil: Foa Torres, Luis Eduardo Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Física Enrique Gaviola; Argentina.Fil: Foa Torres, Luis Eduardo Francisco. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física; Argentina.Física de los Materiales Condensado

Probing the Nature of Defects in Graphene by Raman Spectroscopy

Raman Spectroscopy is able to probe disorder in graphene through defect-activated peaks. It is of great interest to link these features to the nature of disorder. Here we present a detailed analysis of the Raman spectra of graphene containing different type of defects. We found that the intensity ratio of the D and D' peak is maximum (~ 13) for sp3-defects, it decreases for vacancy-like defects (~ 7) and reaches a minimum for boundaries in graphite (~3.5).Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Nitrogen-Functionalized Graphene Nanoflakes (GNFs:N): Tunable Photoluminescence and Electronic Structures

This study investigates the strong photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray excited optical luminescence observed in nitrogen-functionalized 2D graphene nanoflakes (GNFs:N), which arise from the significantly enhanced density of states in the region of {\pi} states and the gap between {\pi} and {\pi}* states. The increase in the number of the sp2 clusters in the form of pyridine-like N-C, graphite-N-like, and the C=O bonding and the resonant energy transfer from the N and O atoms to the sp2 clusters were found to be responsible for the blue shift and the enhancement of the main PL emission feature. The enhanced PL is strongly related to the induced changes of the electronic structures and bonding properties, which were revealed by the X-ray absorption near-edge structure, X-ray emission spectroscopy, and resonance inelastic X-ray scattering. The study demonstrates that PL emission can be tailored through appropriate tuning of the nitrogen and oxygen contents in GNFs and pave the way for new optoelectronic devices.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures (including toc figure

Probing Mechanical Properties of Graphene with Raman Spectroscopy

The use of Raman scattering techniques to study the mechanical properties of graphene films is reviewed here. The determination of Gruneisen parameters of suspended graphene sheets under uni- and bi-axial strain is discussed and the values are compared to theoretical predictions. The effects of the graphene-substrate interaction on strain and to the temperature evolution of the graphene Raman spectra are discussed. Finally, the relation between mechanical and thermal properties is presented along with the characterization of thermal properties of graphene with Raman spectroscopy.Comment: To appear in the Journal of Materials Scienc