A high specific capacity membraneless aluminum-air cell operated with an inorganic/organic hybrid electrolyte

Aluminum-air cells have attracted a lot of interests because they have the highest volumetric capacity density in theory among the different metal-air systems. To overcome the self-discharge issue of aluminum, a microfluidic aluminum-air cell working with KOH methanol-based anolyte was developed in this work. A specific capacity up to 2507 mAh g¯¹ (that is, 84.1% of the theoretical value) was achieved experimentally. The KOH concentration and water content in the methanol-based anolyte were found to have direct influence on the cell performance. A possible mechanism of the aluminum reactions in KOH methanol-based electrolyte was proposed to explain the observed phenomenon

Novel Phases and Finite-Size Scaling in Two-Species Asymmetric Diffusive Processes

We study a stochastic lattice gas of particles undergoing asymmetric diffusion in two dimensions. Transitions between a low-density uniform phase and high-density non-uniform phases characterized by localized or extended structure are found. We develop a mean-field theory which relates coarse-grained parameters to microscopic ones. Detailed predictions for finite-size ($L$) scaling and density profiles agree excellently with simulations. Unusual large-$L$ behavior of the transition point parallel to that of self-organized sandpile models is found.Comment: 7 pages, plus 6 figures uuencoded, compressed and appended after source code, LATeX, to be published as a Phys. Rev. Let

Study program for encapsulation materials interface for low cost silicon solar array

An atmospheric corrosion model was developed and verified by five months of corrosion rate and climatology data acquired at the Mead, Nebraska LSA test site. Atmospheric corrosion rate monitors (ACM) show that moisture condensation probability and ionic conduction at the corroding surface or interface are controlling factors in corrosion rate. Protection of the corroding surface by encapsulant was shown by the ACM recordings to be maintained, independent of climatology, over the five months outdoor exposure period. The macroscopic corrosion processes which occur at Mead are shown to be reproduced in the climatology simulator. Controlled experiments with identical moisture and temperature aging cycles show that UV radiation causes corrosion while UV shielding inhibits LSA corrosion

Comment on ``Dynamic behavior of anisotropic non-equilibrium driving lattice gases''

In a recent Letter Albano and Saracco study the dynamic critical behavior of some anisotropic driven lattice gases by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In this Comment we point out that the Ans\"atze they use to relate the measured scaling exponents with the critical exponents analytically computed within different field-theoretical approaches do not take properly into account the strongly anisotropic nature of the phase transition, by implicitly assuming $z = z_{\bot} = z_{\parallel}$. As a consequence, at variance with the claims by the authors, their MC data are not conclusive to determine which one of the field theories proposed in the literature correctly describes the universal properties of the phase transition in these lattice gases.Comment: 1 pag

Study program for encapsulation materials interface for low-cost solar array

The service integrity of the bonded interface in solar cell modules used in solar arrays is addressed. The development of AC impedance as a nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methodology for solar arrays is reported along with development of corrosion models and materials selection criteria for corrosion resistant interfaces

Another integrable case in the Lorenz model

A scaling invariance in the Lorenz model allows one to consider the usually discarded case sigma=0. We integrate it with the third Painlev\'e function.Comment: 3 pages, no figure, to appear in J. Phys.

Dynamic behavior of anisotropic non-equilibrium driving lattice gases

It is shown that intrinsically anisotropic non-equilibrium systems relaxing by a dynamic process exhibit universal critical behavior during their evolution toward non-equilibrium stationary states. An anisotropic scaling anzats for the dynamics is proposed and tested numerically. Relevant critical exponents can be evaluated self-consistently using both the short- and long-time dynamics frameworks. The obtained results allow us to clarify a long-standing controversy about the theoretical description, the universality and the origin of the anisotropy of driven diffusive systems, showing that the standard field theory does not hold and supporting a recently proposed alternative theory.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Eigenvector Expansion and Petermann Factor for Ohmically Damped Oscillators

Correlation functions $C(t) \sim$ in ohmically damped systems such as coupled harmonic oscillators or optical resonators can be expressed as a single sum over modes $j$ (which are not power-orthogonal), with each term multiplied by the Petermann factor (PF) $C_j$, leading to "excess noise" when $|C_j| > 1$. It is shown that $|C_j| > 1$ is common rather than exceptional, that $|C_j|$ can be large even for weak damping, and that the PF appears in other processes as well: for example, a time-independent perturbation \sim\ep leads to a frequency shift \sim \ep C_j. The coalescence of $J$ ($>1$) eigenvectors gives rise to a critical point, which exhibits "giant excess noise" ($C_j \to \infty$). At critical points, the divergent parts of $J$ contributions to $C(t)$ cancel, while time-independent perturbations lead to non-analytic shifts \sim \ep^{1/J}.Comment: REVTeX4, 14 pages, 4 figures. v2: final, 20 single-col. pages, 2 figures. Streamlined with emphasis on physics over formalism; rewrote Section V E so that it refers to time-dependent (instead of non-equilibrium) effect

Polymeric templating synthesis of anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles from low-cost inorganic titanium sources

A novel facile and cost-effective synthesis method for anatase TiO₂ nanoparticles has been developed by using poly-acrylic acid hydrogel as template at room temperature. The newly developed synthesis method avoids the use of hazardous reagents and/or hydrothermal steps, and enables production of highly active TiO₂ nanoparticles from low cost inorganic titanium sources. The synthesized TiO₂ nanoparticles have been studied in several applications including dye-sensitized solar cells as a photoanode as well as in organics degradation of methyl orange in aqueous media. Good photocatalytic performances were obtained in both applications

Effect of electron-phonon interaction on spectroscopies in graphene

We calculate the effect of the electron-phonon interaction on the electronic density of states (DOS), the quasiparticle properties and on the optical conductivity of graphene. In metals with DOS constant on the scale of phonon energies, the electron-phonon renormalizations drop out of the dressed DOS, however, due to the Dirac nature of the electron dynamics in graphene, the band DOS is linear in energy and phonon structures remain, which can be emphasized by taking an energy derivative. There is a shift in the chemical potential and in the position in energy of the Dirac point. Also, the DOS can be changed from a linear dependence out of value zero at the Dirac point to quadratic out of a finite value. The optical scattering rate $1/\tau$ sets the energy scale for the rise of the optical conductivity from its universal DC value $4e^2/\pi h$ (expected in the simplest theory when chemical potential and temperature are both $\ll 1/2\tau$) to its universal AC background value $(\sigma_0=\pi e^2/2h)$. As in ordinary metals the DC conductivity remains unrenormalized while its AC value is changed. The optical spectral weight under the intraband Drude is reduced by a mass renormalization factor as is the effective scattering rate. Optical weight is transferred to an Holstein phonon-assisted side band. Due to Pauli blocking the interband transitions are sharply suppressed, but also nearly constant, below twice the value of renormalized chemical potential and also exhibit a phonon-assisted contribution. The universal background conductivity is reduced below $\sigma_0$ at large energies.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures, submitted to PR