10,454 research outputs found
Strange Particles
Author Institution: Department of Physics, Ohio University, Athens, Ohi
Characterization testing of a 40 Ahr bipolar nickel hydrogen battery
In a continuing effort to develop NiH2 bipolar technology to a point where it can be used efficiently in space flight, testing of a second 40 Ahr, 10-cell bipolar battery has begun. This battery has undergone extensive characterization testing to determine the effects of such operating parameters as charge and discharge rates, temperature, and pressure. The fundamental design of this actively cooled bipolar battery is the same as the first battery. Most of the individual components, however, are from different manufacturers. Different testing procedures as well as certain unique battery characteristics make it difficult to directly compare the two sets of results. In general, the performance of this battery throughout characterization produced expected results. The main differences seen between the first and second batteries occurred during the high-rate discharge portion of the test matrix. The first battery also had poor high-rate discharge results, although better than those of the second battery. Minor changes were made to the battery frame design used for the first battery in an attempt to allow better gas access to the reaction sites for the second build and hopefully improve performance. The changes, however, did not improve the performance of the second battery and could have possibly contributed to the poorer performance that was observed. There are other component differences that could have contributed to the poorer performance of the second battery. The H2 electrode in the second battery was constructed with a Goretex backing which could have limited the high-rate current flow. The gas screen in the second battery had a larger mesh which again could have limited the high-rate current flow. Small scale 2 x 2 batteries are being tested to evaluate the effects of the component variations
Chirality in Liquid Crystals: from Microscopic Origins to Macroscopic Structure
Molecular chirality leads to a wonderful variety of equilibrium structures,
from the simple cholesteric phase to the twist-grain-boundary phases, and it is
responsible for interesting and technologically important materials like
ferroelectric liquid crystals. This paper will review some recent advances in
our understanding of the connection between the chiral geometry of individual
molecules and the important phenomenological parameters that determine
macroscopic chiral structure. It will then consider chiral structure in
columnar systems and propose a new equilibrium phase consisting of a regular
lattice of twisted ropes.Comment: 20 pages with 6 epsf figure
HRTEM study of a new non-stoichiometric BaTiO(3-δ) structure
BaTiO3-based multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) with Ni internal electrodes are co-fired in
reducing atmospheres to avoid oxidation of the electrode. Although dielectric materials are doped by
acceptor, donor and amphoteric dopants to minimize the oxygen vacancy content, there is still a
large concentration of oxygen vacancies that are accommodated in the BaTiO3 active layers. In
general, ABO3 perovskites demonstrates a strong ability to accommodate the oxygen vacancies and
maintain a regular pseudo-cubic structure. Oxygen deficient barium titanate can be transformed to a
hexagonal polymorph (h-BT) at high temperatures1,2. In this paper, we report the new modulated and
long range ordered structures of non-stoichiometric BaTiO3-δ that are observed in the electrically
degraded Ni-BaTiO3 MLCCs at low temperature
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