Breathing Current Domains in Globally Coupled Electrochemical Systems: A Comparison with a Semiconductor Model

Spatio-temporal bifurcations and complex dynamics in globally coupled intrinsically bistable electrochemical systems with an S-shaped current-voltage characteristic under galvanostatic control are studied theoretically on a one-dimensional domain. The results are compared with the dynamics and the bifurcation scenarios occurring in a closely related model which describes pattern formation in semiconductors. Under galvanostatic control both systems are unstable with respect to the formation of stationary large amplitude current domains. The current domains as well as the homogeneous steady state exhibit oscillatory instabilities for slow dynamics of the potential drop across the double layer, or across the semiconductor device, respectively. The interplay of the different instabilities leads to complex spatio-temporal behavior. We find breathing current domains and chaotic spatio-temporal dynamics in the electrochemical system. Comparing these findings with the results obtained earlier for the semiconductor system, we outline bifurcation scenarios leading to complex dynamics in globally coupled bistable systems with subcritical spatial bifurcations.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, 70 references, RevTex4 accepted by PRE http://pre.aps.or

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)

Au-ag core-shell nanoparticle array by block copolymer lithography for synergistic broadband plasmonic properties

Localized surface plasmon resonance of metallic nanostructures receives noticeable attention in photonics, electronics, catalysis, and so on. Core-shell nanostructures are particularly attractive due to the versatile tunability of plasmonic properties along with the independent control of core size, shell thickness, and corresponding chemical composition, but they commonly suffer from difficult synthetic procedures. We present a reliable and controllable route to a highly ordered uniform Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticle array via block copolymer lithography and subsequent seeded-shell growth. Size-tunable monodisperse Au nanodot arrays are generated by block copolymer self-assembly and are used as seed layers to grow Ag shells with variable thickness. The resultant Au@Ag core-shell nanoparticle arrays exhibit widely tunable broadband enhancement of plasmonic resonance, greatly surpassing single-element nanoparticle or homogeneous alloy nanoparticle arrays. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering of the core-shell nanoparticle arrays showed an enhancement factor greater than 270 from Au nanoparticle arrays. © 2015 American Chemical Society156581sciescopu

Sulphur-functionalized graphene towards high performance supercapacitor

10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.12.030Nano Energy12250-25