Effect of Synthesis Condition and Annealing on the Sensitivity and Stability of Gas Sensors Made of Zn-Doped y-Fe2O3 Particles

In this study, the effect of synthesis conditions and annealing process on the sensitivity and stability of gas sensors made of flame-synthesized Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 particles was investigated. Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 particles were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis using either H2/Air or H2/O2 coflow diffusion flames. The particles were then annealed at 325~350˚C in a tube furnace under air atmosphere. Both as-synthesized and annealed particles were used as gas sensing materials to construct gas sensors. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurement (BET), Williamson and Hall (WH) method were employed to characterize the particles. Gas sensors were fabricated by applying the as-synthesized and annealed particles on interdigitated electrodes. The response of the gas sensor to acetone vapor, H2 in dry synthetic air was measured before and after three days of aging. High-temperature flame (H2/O2) generated nanometer-sized particles; lower temperature flame (H2/Air) generated micrometer-sized particles. Fe2O3 particles doped with 15% Zn showed the highest sensitivity. The sensors made from as-synthesized particles showed a gas sensing sensitivity that was 20 times higher than the literature value. The sensors made of microparticles lost their sensing ability after three days of aging, but sensors made of nanoparticles did not show significant change after aging. Sensors made of annealed particles (either micro or nano) did not have significant gas sensing ability, but annealing process improved the stability of gas sensors. Analysis using the WH method showed that the microstrains decreased significantly in both H2/O2 and H2/Air flame particles after annealing. The results showed that sensors made of nanoparticles have higher gas sensing signal, and more resistant toward aging than sensors made of microparticles. In addition, annealing process affected on the stability favorably due to reduction of structural defects

Effect of Synthesis Condition and Annealing on the Sensitivity and Stability of Gas Sensors Made of Zn-Doped y-Fe2O3 Particles

In this study, the effect of synthesis conditions and annealing process on the sensitivity and stability of gas sensors made of flame-synthesized Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 particles was investigated. Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 particles were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis using either H2/Air or H2/O2 coflow diffusion flames. The particles were then annealed at 325~350˚C in a tube furnace under air atmosphere. Both as-synthesized and annealed particles were used as gas sensing materials to construct gas sensors. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurement (BET), Williamson and Hall (WH) method were employed to characterize the particles. Gas sensors were fabricated by applying the as-synthesized and annealed particles on interdigitated electrodes. The response of the gas sensor to acetone vapor, H2 in dry synthetic air was measured before and after three days of aging. High-temperature flame (H2/O2) generated nanometer-sized particles; lower temperature flame (H2/Air) generated micrometer-sized particles. Fe2O3 particles doped with 15% Zn showed the highest sensitivity. The sensors made from as-synthesized particles showed a gas sensing sensitivity that was 20 times higher than the literature value. The sensors made of microparticles lost their sensing ability after three days of aging, but sensors made of nanoparticles did not show significant change after aging. Sensors made of annealed particles (either micro or nano) did not have significant gas sensing ability, but annealing process improved the stability of gas sensors. Analysis using the WH method showed that the microstrains decreased significantly in both H2/O2 and H2/Air flame particles after annealing. The results showed that sensors made of nanoparticles have higher gas sensing signal, and more resistant toward aging than sensors made of microparticles. In addition, annealing process affected on the stability favorably due to reduction of structural defects

Involvement of bilateral insula in brand extension evaluation: an fMRI study

The present study aims to investigate functional involvement of brain areas in consumers' evaluation of brand extension that refers to the use of well-established brand for launching new offerings. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, participants viewed a beverage brand name followed by an extension goods name selected from the beverage or household appliance categories. They responded acceptability to given brand extension. Both acceptability responses and reaction time revealed a noticeable pattern that participants responded to acceptable stimuli more carefully. General linear model (GLM) analyses revealed the involvement of insular activity in brand extension evaluation. Especially, insular activity was lateralized according to valence. Furthermore, its activity could explain behavioral response in parametric modulation model. According to these results, we speculate that insula activity is relevant to emotional processing. Finally, we divided neural activities during brand extension into separated clusters using a hierarchical clustering-based connectivity analysis. Excluding two of them related to sensorimotor functions for behavioral responses, the remaining cluster, including bilateral insula, was likely to reflect brand extension assessment. Hence, we speculate that consumers' brand extension evaluation may involve emotional processes, shown as insular activity

Development of Formation Flying CubeSats and Operation Systems for the CANYVAL-C Mission: Launch and Lessons Learned

The CubeSat Astronomy NASA and Yonsei using Virtual telescope ALignment for Coronagraph (CANYVAL-C) is a technology demonstration mission that shows the concept of a virtual space telescope using two CubeSats in formation flying. The final goal of the mission is to obtain several images of the solar corona during an artificial solar eclipse created by the two CubeSats, Timon (1U CubeSat) and Pumbaa (2U CubeSat). To implement this mission, two CubeSats in formation flying and a ground segment have been developed. The CubeSats were constructed mainly with commercial off the shelf components, sharing the bus architecture. The payload of each CubeSat is a visible camera and an occulter to block the light from the photosphere of the Sun. The occulter is composed of tape measures and a black-colored polyimide film; the system size is smaller than 0.5U (10 × 10 × 5 cm3) while it stowed and enlarged to 0.75 × 0.75 m2 after spreading the film. The 3D-printed propulsion system is smaller than 0.5U and facilitates accurate positioning maneuvers of Pumbaa. The on-board computer has multi-task processing capabilities and a space-saving configuration which is integrated with the GNSS receiver and the UHF transceiver. The core technology for the mission implementation is the precise formation flying guidance, navigation, and control system with a cold-gas propulsion system and an inter-satellite link system. The specification of each CubeSat system was evaluated using numerical simulations and ground testing. To operate CubeSats, the ground segment was constructed with some components, including the UHF ground station (UGS), flight dynamics system (FDS), mission analysis and planning system (MAPS), and spacecraft operation system (SOS). Each component works under the environment of an integrated graphic user interface. In particular, the UGS handles the RF communication, data storage, and instrument control for tracking CubeSats. The FDS processes the navigation data to precisely estimate absolute position and velocity. Then, the MAPS determines the allowable mission schedule and parameter set for implementing maneuvers of each CubeSat. Using the MAPS, feasibility of the mission operation canbe ensured through numerical simulations based on the solutions from the FDS. Finally, the SOS is the interface system between each component, processing telemetry and generating telecommand. The CubeSats were launched on March 22, 2021, by Soyuz-2.1a with a Fregat stage

Piezoelectric Floating Element Shear Stress Sensor for the Wind Tunnel Flow Measurement

A piezoelectric sensor with a floating element was developed for direct measurement of flow induced shear stress. The piezoelectric sensor was designed to detect the pure shear stress while suppressing the effect of normal stress generated from the vortex lift-up by applying opposite poling vectors to the piezoelectric elements. During the calibration stage, the prototyped sensor showed a high sensitivity to shear stress (91.3 2.1 pC/Pa) due to the high piezoelectric coefficients (d31=1330 pC/N) of the constituent 0.67Pb(Mg13Nb23)O3-0.33PbTiO3 (PMN- 33%PT) single crystal. By contrast, the sensor showed almost no sensitivity to normal stress (less than 1.2 pC/Pa) because of the electromechanical symmetry of the sensing structure. The usable frequency range of the sensor is up to 800 Hz. In subsonic wind tunnel tests, an analytical model was proposed based on cantilever beam theory with an end-tip-mass for verifying the resonance frequency shift in static stress measurements. For dynamic stress measurements, the signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) and ambient vibration-filtered pure shear stress sensitivity were obtained through signal processing. The developed piezoelectric shear stress sensor was found to have an SNR of 15.8 2.2 dB and a sensitivity of 56.5 4.6 pC/Pa in the turbulent flow

Emergence of robust 2D skyrmions in SrRuO3 ultrathin film without the capping layer

Magnetic skyrmions have fast evolved from a novelty, as a realization of topologically protected structure with particle-like character, into a promising platform for new types of magnetic storage. Significant engineering progress was achieved with the synthesis of compounds hosting room-temperature skyrmions in magnetic heterostructures, with the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI) conducive to the skyrmion formation. Here we report findings of ultrathin skyrmion formation in a few layers of SrRuO3 grown on SrTiO3 substrate without the heavy-metal capping layer. Measurement of the topological Hall effect (THE) reveals a robust stability of skyrmions in this platform, judging from the high value of the critical field 1.57 Tesla (T) at low temperature. THE survives as the field is tilted by as much as 85 degrees at 10 Kelvin, with the in-plane magnetic field reaching up to 6.5 T. Coherent Bragg Rod Analysis, or COBRA for short, on the same film proves the rumpling of the Ru-O plane to be the source of inversion symmetry breaking and DMI. First-principles calculations based on the structure obtained from COBRA find significant magnetic anisotropy in the SrRuO3 film to be the main source of skyrmion robustness. These features promise a few-layer SRO to be an important new platform for skyrmionics, without the necessity of introducing the capping layer to boost the spin-orbit coupling strength artificially.Comment: Supplementary Information available upon reques

Emergence of robust 2D skyrmions in SrRuO3 ultrathin film without the capping layer

Magnetic skyrmions have fast evolved from a novelty, as a realization of topologically protected structure with particle-like character, into a promising platform for new types of magnetic storage. Significant engineering progress was achieved with the synthesis of compounds hosting room-temperature skyrmions in magnetic heterostructures, with the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI) conducive to the skyrmion formation. Here we report findings of ultrathin skyrmion formation in a few layers of SrRuO3 grown on SrTiO3 substrate without the heavy-metal capping layer. Measurement of the topological Hall effect (THE) reveals a robust stability of skyrmions in this platform, judging from the high value of the critical field 1.57 Tesla (T) at low temperature. THE survives as the field is tilted by as much as 85 degrees at 10 Kelvin, with the in-plane magnetic field reaching up to 6.5 T. Coherent Bragg Rod Analysis, or COBRA for short, on the same film proves the rumpling of the Ru-O plane to be the source of inversion symmetry breaking and DMI. First-principles calculations based on the structure obtained from COBRA find significant magnetic anisotropy in the SrRuO3 film to be the main source of skyrmion robustness. These features promise a few-layer SRO to be an important new platform for skyrmionics, without the necessity of introducing the capping layer to boost the spin-orbit coupling strength artificially.Comment: Supplementary Information available upon reques

Aldehyde-alcohol dehydrogenase forms a high-order spirosome architecture critical for its activity

Aldehyde-alcohol dehydrogenase (AdhE) is a key enzyme in bacterial fermentation, converting acetyl-CoA to ethanol, via two consecutive catalytic reactions. Here, we present a 3.5 Å resolution cryo-EM structure of full-length AdhE revealing a high-order spirosome architecture. The structure shows that the aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) active sites reside at the outer surface and the inner surface of the spirosome respectively, thus topologically separating these two activities. Furthermore, mutations disrupting the helical structure abrogate enzymatic activity, implying that formation of the spirosome structure is critical for AdhE activity. In addition, we show that this spirosome structure undergoes conformational change in the presence of cofactors. This work presents the atomic resolution structure of AdhE and suggests that the high-order helical structure regulates its enzymatic activity

Shear Stress Sensing with Elastic Microfence Structures

In this work, elastic microfences were generated for the purpose of measuring shear forces acting on a wind tunnel model. The microfences were fabricated in a two part process involving laser ablation patterning to generate a template in a polymer film followed by soft lithography with a two-part silicone. Incorporation of a fluorescent dye was demonstrated as a method to enhance contrast between the sensing elements and the substrate. Sensing elements consisted of multiple microfences prepared at different orientations to enable determination of both shear force and directionality. Microfence arrays were integrated into an optical microscope with sub-micrometer resolution. Initial experiments were conducted on a flat plate wind tunnel model. Both image stabilization algorithms and digital image correlation were utilized to determine the amount of fence deflection as a result of airflow. Initial free jet experiments indicated that the microfences could be readily displaced and this displacement was recorded through the microscope