Search

Ultra-high temperature thin-film sensors（UTTSs）have drawn enormous attention due to their wide application prospect in multiple physical parameters monitoring in harsh environment. As an important part of UTTSs, the insulation film between workpiece and sensors plays a crucial role to ensure the accuracy of UTTSs. High insulation resistance (IR) is essential for the reliability improvement of the UTTSs and the reduction of their testing error. However, the defects in the insulation film will form the conductive path between the sensors and their mounting surface at high temperature, leading to a rapid IR drop and stability deterioration of the insulation film. In this work, 10 μm thick alumina film was prepared with suspension made out of alumina gel and alumina nano-powder using layer-by-layer electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) deposition (LLED). By adopting this technique, the process defects in one layer can be remedied in situ by the next deposition layer. The prepared film shows satisfactory insulation performance at elevated temperature, and IR of the film can reach 80 MΩ, 3 MΩ and 38 kΩ at 500 °C, 800 °C and 1200 °C, respectively. The thickness-normalized IR of the alumina film at 800 °C in this work is at least 7.8 times that obtained by other methods reported in the literatures. Moreover, after subjected to three thermal cycles from room temperature to 1200 °C, the IR of the film can still remain at 14 kΩ. The high performance of the alumina insulation film in this work can be attributed to the effective reduction of the minor defects in the LLED deposition process.

This paper proposes a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thick-film piezoelectric microstator based on a high-performance PZT thick film fabricated by electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing. The PZT thick film element was printed directly on the elastic body from a PZT composite slurry to form the piezoelectric microstator. This fabrication process does not require conventional machining techniques such as thinning, bonding, and etching, and can be compatible with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The printed PZT thick-film element exhibited compact and uniform features. The thick-film microstator produced a travelling wave with an amplitude of 345 nm, and the mechanical quality factor was found to be 736. The combination of E-jet printing and PZT thick-film technology simplified the manufacturing process and enhanced the performance of the piezoelectric stator, enabling the fabrication of a unique MEMS rotary ultrasonic motor device.

This paper reports the preparation of dense and substrate-free PZT thick films. Electrohydrodynamic jet deposition and sol infiltration were utilized to produce dense PZT thick film, then wet chemical etching was employed to successfully remove the silicon substrate. Subsequently, a pure PZT thick film having a thickness of 14 µm without substrate was produced. The piezoresponse force microscopy technique was used to examine the piezoelectric constant (d33, f), it was found that the d33 was increased from 71 pm V−1 to 140 pm V−1, having a double increase. It was also observed that the remnant polarization (Pr) and relative permittivity (εr) of PZT film were distinctly improved after the removal of silicon substrate. The experimental result shows that the substrate clamping had great effects on the electrical properties of PZT films and its effect value was evaluated. In addition, the systematic theoretical analysis of the substrate clamping on film was deeply studied. The theoretical analysis agrees well with the experiment results, which can be used to estimate the effect value caused by the substrate clamping.

Oxygen starvation caused by water flooding in cathode is a key performance bottleneck for air-breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). To solve this problem, we present a new water management system consists of superhydrophilic capillary network and evaporation wings in this work. The cathode flow field (CFF) with water management system (WMCFF) is obtained by fabricating capillary network on titanium substrates with micromachining techniques. A pair of evaporating wings made of carbon papers are used to collect water from the capillary network and further evaporate them into the air quickly. Results show that, before a long-term discharge test, the initial peak power density (Pmax) of WMCFF-DMFC is 38.9% higher than that of the conventional cathode flow field DMFC (CCFF-DMFC). After 2 and 4 h discharge, the performance gaps between the two DMFCs become larger, and the Pmax of WMCFF-DMFC increases by 55.6% and 74.3% compared with that of the CCFF-DMFC, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding Pmax decline rate in the WMCFF-DMFC is only about 12% and 27% of that in the CCFF-DMFC. This suggests that the new water management system can effectively prevent water flooding in cathode and significantly improve the performance and stability of the air-breathing DMFCs.

Capillary blocking caused by CO2 bubbles in anode flow field (AFF) is one of the bottlenecks for performance improvement of a micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC). In this work, we present a novel AFF structure with nested layout of hydrophilic fuel channels and superhydrophobic degassing channels which can remove most of CO2 from AFF before it is released to the fuel channels. The new AFFs are fabricated on Ti substrates by using micro photochemical etching combined with anodization and fluorination treatments. Performance of the μDMFCs with and without superhydrophobic degassing channels in their AFF is comparatively studied. Results show that the superhydrophobic degassing channels can significantly speed up the exhaust of CO2 from the AFF. CO2 clogging is not observed in the new AFFs even when their comparison AFFs have been seriously blocked by CO2 slugs under the same operating conditions. 55% and 60% of total CO2 produced in μDMFCs with N-serpentine and N-spiral AFF can be respectively removed by the superhydrophobic degassing channels. The power densities of the μDMFCs equipped with new serpentine and spiral AFFs are respectively improved by 30% and 90% compared with those using conventional AFFs. This means that the new AFFs developed in this work can effectively prevent CO2-induced capillary blocking in the fuel channels, and finally significantly improve the performance of the μDMFCs.

This study aimed to regulate the stability of electrohydrodynamic cone-jet morphology by modifying the needle structure and conical point electrode by drawing upon high AC voltage and low flow velocity values. Accordingly, stability is achieved by the electrohydrodynamic jet (E-Jet) printing, considered an effective tool in micro and nanofabrication for flexible electronic systems. In the present study, 2-phase-field method was employed to draw a comparison of the volume of fraction method to optimize parameters for stable cone-jet on a PET substrate surface by exploiting a range of copper control electrodes. With COMSOL Multiphysics software, the equations of electric potential and electrical body forces were successfully solved. The validation study was compared with ensure the optimization parameters of cone-jet morphology, as retained in the boundaries of Melcher-leaky dielectric model. Moreover, the simulation parameters were directly adopted to print continuous line patterns on the PET substrate, which are considered prominent and promising E-Jet printing methods for flexible electronic systems.

Electrospinning technique was used to prepare high performance fibrous electrodes with tunable microstructure for all-solid-state electrochemical supercapacitor. Symmetrically sandwiched supercapacitors consisting of flexible electrospun polyaniline (PANI)/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) gel electrolyte were assembled. Tunable microstructure of the fibrous electrode was obtained by changing the electrospinning parameters including the collector–needle distance (CND) and the suspension flow rate (SFR). Results show that, higher CND combining with lower SFR can result in a smaller average diameter of the electrospun fibers and hence improve the electrode performance. When the CND changes from 80 to 140 mm, the average fiber diameter will decrease from 2.89 to 1.21 μm, and the specific surface area of the electrode can increase from 57 to 83 m 2 ·g −1 . The corresponding specific capacitance of the electrospun electrode will therefore increase from 129.5 to 180 F·g −1 , leading to a synchronous improvement of the energy density of the supercapacitor from 18 to 25 Wh·kg −1 . On the other hand, the supercapacitors using fibrous electrodes in this work also show good rate capability and cycling stability. Using the electrode with an average fiber diameter of 1.21 μm, the specific capacitances can maintain 131 F·g −1 at a current density of 4 A·g −1 , which is 73% of the specific capacitance of the same sample at a current density of 0.5 A·g −1 . And the specific capacitance of the electrode can retain 89% after 1500 charge/discharge cycles.

In this work, electrohydrodynamic atomization deposition, combined with mechanical polishing, was used for the fabrication of dense and even PZT thick films. The PZT slurry was ball-milled and the effect of milling time on the characteristics of the deposited films was examined. A time of 50 h was found to be the optimum milling time to produce dense films. It was found that the PZT thick films presented rough surface after deposition. In order to overcome this drawback the mechanical polishing process was employed on the deposited films. After the mechanical polishing the roughness (Ra) and peak-to-peak height (Rz) of the film surface were decreased from 422 nm to 23 nm and from 5 µm to 150 nm, respectively. Subsequently, an increase of ~10 pC N −1 on piezoelectric constant (d 33, f ) was obtained. In addition, it was observed that the d 33 was increased from 57 pC N −1 to 89 pC N −1 when the thickness was increased from 10 µm to 80 µm.

Controlled printing of biodegradable and bioresorbable polymers at desired 3D scaffold is of great importance for cell growth and tissue regeneration. In this work, a novel electrohydrodynamic jet 3D printing technology with the resultant effect of electrohydrodynamic force and thermal convection was developed, and its feasibility to fabricate controllable filament composite scaffolds was verified. This method introduces an effective thermal field under the needle to simultaneously enhance the ink viscosity, jetting morphology controllability and printing structure solidify. The fabrication mechanisms of thermal convection on jetting morphology and printed structures feature were investigated through theoretical analysis and experimental characterization. Under optimized conditions, a stable and finer jet was formed; then with the use of this jet, various 3D structures were directly printed at a high aspect ratio ~30. Furthermore, the PCL/PVP composite scaffolds with the controllable filament diameter (~10 μm) which is closed to living cells were printed. Cell culture experiments showed that the printed scaffolds had excellent cell biocompatibility and facilitated cellular proliferation in vitro. It is a great potential that the developed electrohydrodynamic jet 3D printing technology might provide a novel approach to directly print composite synthetic biopolymers into flexibly scale structures for tissue engineering applications.

Polygonatum odoratum is widely used as a traditional food supplement and herbal medicine with strong antioxidant activity. However, systematic investigation of its antioxidants was limited. Ethanol extract of P. odoratum was fractioned on macroporous absorptive resin (D101) column. A bioassay-guided purification of flavonoid-rich fraction (IC50 value at 74.1 ± 11.9 μg/mL for DPPH scavenging) was realised via high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) using petroleum ether-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (2:3:3:2, v/v/v/v) as the solvent system combination with Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography (CC) eluting with MeCN-MeOH (1:1, v/v). Three novel homoisoflavonoids (1-3), along with eight homoisoflavonoids (4-11), were isolated. Their structures were elucidated by interpretating various spectroscopic data. All the isolated homoisoflavonoids showed potent antioxidant activities, while compounds 1, 4, and 6 with dihydroxylated B-rings exhibited stronger antioxidant activities (IC50 values at 3.8 ± 0.5, 4.9 ± 0.3 and 3.9 ± 0.4 μg/mL) than ascorbic acid (IC50 value at 5.3 ± 0.6 μg/mL).

A facile and scalable technique for preparation of superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic titanium (Ti) surface by single-step anodization and fluorination is presented in this paper. The Ti substrates were anodized to produce micro-nano hierarchical structure which is essential for superhydrophilic surface. The water contact angles (WCAs) of 5 μl water droplets on the anodized Ti surfaces were measured as low as 0°. Capillary rise measurement was used to evaluate the superhydrophilicity on Ti surfaces anodized at different conditions. Results show that higher anodization voltage can yield stronger superhydrophilicity on Ti surface, but the influence of electrolyte temperature on the superhydrophilicity has a close correlation with the anodization voltages. At 20 V and 40 V anodization voltages, the increase of electrolyte temperature can improve the surface superhydrophilicity, but this trend will be reversed when the voltages rise to 60 V and 80 V. Superhydrophobic surfaces were further obtained from fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) modification on the anodized Ti substrates. It was observed that appropriate anodization voltages and electrolyte temperatures can balance the growth and dissolution of the micro-nano hierarchical surface structure, thereby obtaining the desired superhydrophobic Ti surface. The WCA, rolling angle and contact angle hysteresis of water droplets on the best superhydrophobic Ti surface were respectively recorded as 160°, 2° and 1.7° in this work. Furthermore, the superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic Ti surfaces fabricated in this research also show satisfactory stability in acidic, neutral and alkaline aqueous solutions as well as ambient conditions.

A combined electrodeposition and fluorinated modification approach for preparation of stable superhydrophobic film on SS316L substrate is presented. Nickel film with micro-nano binary structure was coated on the substrate using electrodeposition techniques and then followed by a fluorinated modification process to obtain superhydrophobic surface. The surface morphology of the nickel film at micro/nano scale was characterized at different electrodeposition current densities. Results show that when the current density fall in the range from 5 to 9 A/dm2, the contact angle with 5 μL water droplets on the nickel film after fluorinated modification is higher than 160°, and the sliding angle with 10 μL water droplets is as low as 1°. Moreover, the superhydrophobic film has a very low contact angle hysteresis of 2.2°. Results also show that the superhydrophobic nickel film on SS316L has satisfied stability both in strong acid and alkaline solutions, and the superhydrophobic property can still keep fairly well after a durability testing last for more than 400 days under ambient conditions.

In this work, an integrated catalyst-coated membrane (CCM) is prepared by successively spray deposit Pt/C nano-suspension, Nafion solution and Pt–Ru/C nano-suspension on a cathode gas diffusion layer using electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition. Porous cathode and anode catalyst layers and dense Nafion membrane are deposited using the EHDA LbL deposition technique. It is also found that the EHDA LbL deposited CCM presents close packed structure. An 85 h life test shows that the EHDA LbL deposited cathode electrode side of the integrated CCM still presents well compact feature. Whereas, the delamination of the anode electrode side formed by direct pressing method is evident. The performance of the cell with different methanol concentrations is also examined. It is found that the 3 M methanol concentration gives the highest cell performance. Moreover, the polarization behaviour, methanol crossover and impedance response of the cell at different working temperatures are analysed. The cell performance demonstrates faster increase between 20 °C and 50 °C than between 50 °C and 70 °C. The methanol crossover test shows that the cell presents higher increase level of methanol crossover between 40 °C and 50 °C than other 10 °C temperature increase steps.

Compression pressure has significant influence on the performance of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and the effect of compression is more significant for a DMFC than a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). But there are few data concerning the compression pressure on the performance of DMFCs. Loading history and feeding mode may also affect the optimal compression pressure for the DMFC. This paper investigates the influence of compression pressure on the DMFC. The effects of reload and air feeding mode are also examined. The optimal pressure of the DMFC is 1 MPa when the cell is assembled for the first time in forced convection mode. However, the optimum pressure decreases to 0.05 MPa when the cell is compressed again because of the residual strain of the GDL. The optimal pressure decreases to 0.5 MPa when the cell operates in air-breathing mode. Therefore, the optimum compression pressure for a DMFC strongly depends on the loading history and the feeding mode.

Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), with benefits such as high energy efficiency, quick start capability and instantaneous refueling, is a promising power source to meet the ever-increasing power demand for portable electronic products. In this paper, a novel CO2-driven fuel-feed device was produced and equipped in a passive 8-cell DMFC twin-stack for long-term operation. It was shown that this fuel-feed device was capable of supplying methanol solution continuously in response to the change in discharging current of the stack. Stainless steel sheet was photochemically etched as current collectors based on MEMS techniques. Series interconnections between two neighbor cells were realized in banded configuration which avoided the external connection. TiN-plated mesh was placed between current collector and membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which was used to lessen the internal resistance of the stack. A peak power density of 16.9 mW cm−2 was achieved with 4 M methanol at ambient temperature and passive operation. The stack equipped with the fuel feed device successfully powered a sensor node for 39 h with the consumption of 80 ml of 4 M methanol.