Kinetics of Interfacial Lithium-ion Transfer between a Graphite Negative Electrode and a Li₂S-P₂S₅ Glassy Solid Electrolyte

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries that use sulfide solid electrolytes have attracted much attention due to their high safety and wide electrochemical window. In this study, highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and 75Li₂S-25P₂S₅ (mol%) glass were used as a model graphite negative electrode and a sulfide solid electrolyte, respectively. Interfacial lithium-ion transfer between 75Li₂S-25P₂S₅ glass and the HOPG electrode was studied by AC impedance spectroscopy measurements. The activation energy of the interfacial lithium-ion transfer was estimated to be around 37 kJ mol⁻¹, which was much smaller than that at the interface between organic liquid electrolytes and HOPG electrode, indicating that the lithium-ion transfer at the interface between 75Li₂S-25P₂S₅ glass and HOPG electrode proceeded quite rapidly. Furthermore, surface deposition of TiO₂ and surface oxidation on HOPG electrodes were performed using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. Interfacial lithium-ion transfer between 75Li₂S-25P₂S₅ glass and ALD-modified-HOPG electrodes was also investigated. The activation energies of the interfacial lithium-ion transfer were slightly higher than that of HOPG, but the resistance of the charge-transfer process was lower, indicating that the affinity of the HOPG electrode for the glass electrolyte was improved by surface modification

Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage with chronic thyroiditis in an advanced-age adult

AbstractIdiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis (IPH) is one of the rare causes of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (DAH), and usually occurs in children. The mechanism underlying this disease development has not been defined. During the acute phase, death due to massive alveolar hemorrhage and subsequent severe respiratory failure with multiple organ failure often occurs. We report a case of IPH which occurred in an advanced-aged adult during following thyroidectomy for chronic thyroiditis. Following surgery this 83-year-old male developed acute onset dyspnea and pulmonary hemorrhage. In a search for underlying causes, no disorders were found and the only finding was the presence of anti-thyroid antibody. Systemic corticosteroid therapy was effective and he fully recovered. To our knowledge, this is the second documentation of IPH in association with chronic thyroiditis

The Usefulness of Readout-Segmented Echo-Planar Imaging (RESOLVE) for Bio-phantom Imaging Using 3-Tesla Clinical MRI

Readout-segmented echo-planar imaging (RESOLVE) is a multi-shot echo-planar imaging (EPI) modality with k-space segmented in the readout direction. We investigated whether RESOLVE decreases the distortion and artifact in the phase direction and increases the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in phantoms image taken with 3-tesla (3T) MRI versus conventional EPI. We used a physiological saline phantom and subtraction mapping and observed that RESOLVE’s SNR was higher than EPI’s. Using RESOLVE, the combination of a special-purpose coil and a large-loop coil had a higher SNR compared to using only a head/neck coil. RESOLVE’s image distortioas less than EPI’s. We used a 120 mM polyethylene glycol phantom to examine the phase direction artifact.vThe range where the artifact appeared in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) image was shorter with RESOLVE compared to EPI. We used RESOLVE to take images of a Jurkat cell bio-phantom: the cell-region ADC was 856×10−6mm2/sec and the surrounding physiological saline-region ADC was 2,951×10−6mm2/sec. The combination of RESOLVE and the 3T clinical MRI device reduced image distortion and improved SNR and the identification of accurate ADC values due to the phase direction artifact reduction. This combination is useful for obtaining accurate ADC values of bio-phantoms