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Development of compact and low-cost electronic circuits in the biosensor field is an essential demand. Especially, the design of noise reduction sections plays an important role in the measurement ...

Detection and counting of biological living cells in continuous fluidic flows play an essential role in many applications for early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this regard, this study highlighted the proposal of a biochip system for detecting and enumerating human lung carcinoma cell flow in the microfluidic channel. The principle of detection was based on the change of impedance between sensing electrodes integrated in the fluidic channel, due to the presence of a biological cell in the sensing region. A compact electronic module was built to sense the unbalanced impedance between the sensing microelectrodes. It consisted of an instrumentation amplifier stage to obtain the difference between the acquired signals, and a lock-in amplifier stage to demodulate the signals at the stimulating frequency as well as to reject noise at other frequencies. The performance of the proposed system was validated through experiments of A549 cells detection as they passed over the microfluidic channel. The experimental results indicated the occurrence of large spikes (up to approximately 180 mV) over the background signal according to the passage of a single A549 cell in the continuous flow. The proposed device is simple-to-operate, inexpensive, portable, and exhibits high sensitivity, which are suitable considerations for developing point-of-care applications.

This paper reports a study on developing of a protein detection biochip based on interdigitated array electrodes (IDAEs) capacitive immunosensor. The protein after being preconcentrated in a detection region will be selectively captured and detected by the capacitive immunosensor. Using electrical impedance spectroscopy operated at high-frequency in the range of 100 kHz–1 MHz, the capacitance of the gold electrode is determined and the antibody surface modification steps can be also monitored. The experiment results show the capacitance changes in accordance with the adding biochemical layer on gold electrodes for each step of the antibody surface modification. In particular, the total impedance operated at 1 MHz frequency has been seen to change from 2.1 kΩ of bare chip (before antibody surface modification) to 8 kΩ after antibody surface modification process while the serial capacitance is recorded to reduce steadily from 450 pF to 55 pF. Also, the efficiency of protein chip was investigated by implementing the measurement of 10 µM BSA with and without preconcentration process. The measurement results have shown the sensitivity increasing significantly after the protein is preconcentrated in this chip. The results demonstrate high efficiency of protein detection can be achieved by operating high frequency capacitive measurement on IDAEs capacitive immunosensor.

The evolution of a sustainable green composite in various loadbearing structural applications tends to reduce pollution, which in turn enhances environmental sustainability. This work is an attempt to promote a sustainable green composite in buckling loadbearing structural applications. In order to use the green composite in various structural applications, the knowledge on its structural stability is a must. As the structural instability leads to the buckling of the composite structure when it is under an axial compressive load, the work on its buckling characteristics is important. In this work, the buckling characteristics of a woven flax/bio epoxy (WFBE) laminated composite plate are investigated experimentally and numerically when subjected to an axial compressive load. In order to accomplish the optimization study on the buckling characteristics of the composite plate among various structural criterions such as number of layers, the width of the plate and the ply orientation, the optimization tool “response surface methodology” (RSM) is used in this work. The validation of the developed finite element model in Analysis System (ANSYS) version 16 is carried out by comparing the critical buckling loads obtained from the experimental test and numerical simulation for three out of twenty samples. A comparison is then made between the numerical results obtained through ANSYS16 and the results generated using the regression equation. It is concluded that the buckling strength of the composite escalates with the number of layers, the change in width and the ply orientation. It is also noted that the weaving model of the fabric powers the buckling behavior of the composite. This work explores the feasibility of the use of the developed green composite in various buckling loadbearing structural applications. Due to the compromised buckling characteristics of the green composite with the synthetic composite, it has the capability of replacing many synthetic composites, which in turn enhances the sustainability of the environment.

Tungsten heavy alloys are two-phase metal matrix composites that include W–Ni–Fe and W–Ni–Cu. The significant feature of these alloys is their ability to acquire both strength and ductility. In order to improve the mechanical properties of the basic alloy and to limit or avoid the need for post-processing techniques, other elements are doped with the alloy and performance studies are carried out. This work focuses on the developments through the years in improving the performance of the classical tungsten heavy alloy of W–Ni–Fe through doping of other elements. The influence of the percentage addition of rare earth elements of yttrium, lanthanum, and their oxides and refractory metals such as rhenium, tantalum, and molybdenum on the mechanical properties of the heavy alloy is critically analyzed. Based on the microstructural and property evaluation, the effects of adding the elements at various proportions are discussed. The addition of molybdenum and rhenium to the heavy alloy gives good strength and ductility. The oxides of yttrium, when added in a small quantity, help to reduce the tungsten’s grain size and obtain good tensile and compressive strengths at high temperatures.

In the present work, nano Cu (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 wt.%) was added to W, and W–Cu composites were fabricated using the spark plasma sintering (S.P.S.) technique. The densification, microstructural evolution, tensile strength, micro-hardness, and electrical conductivity of the W–Cu composite samples were evaluated. It was observed that increasing the copper content resulted in increasing the relative sintered density, with the highest being 82.26% in the W75% + Cu25% composite. The XRD phase analysis indicated that there was no evidence of intermetallic phases. The highest ultimate (tensile) strength, micro-hardness, and electrical conductivity obtained was 415 MPa, 341.44 HV0.1, and 28.2% IACS, respectively, for a sample containing 25 wt.% nano-copper. Fractography of the tensile tested samples revealed a mixed-mode of fracture. As anticipated, increasing the nano-copper content in the samples resulted in increased electrical conductivity.

Due to the growing environmental awareness, the development of sustainable green composites is in high demand in composite industries, mainly in the automotive, aircraft, construction and marine applications. This work was an attempt to experimentally and numerically investigate the dynamic characteristics of Woven Flax/Bio epoxy laminated composite plates. In addition, the optimisation study on the dynamic behaviours of the Woven Flax/Bio epoxy composite plate is carried out using the response surface methodology (RSM) by consideration of the various parameters like ply orientation, boundary condition and aspect ratio. The elastic constants of the Woven Flax/Bio epoxy composite lamina needed for the numerical simulation are determined experimentally using two methods, i.e., the usual mechanical tests as well as through the impulse excitation of vibration-based approach and made a comparison between them. The numerical analysis on the free vibration characteristics of the composite was carried out using ANSYS, a finite element analysis (FEA) software. The confirmation of the FE model was accomplished by comparing the numerical results with its experimental counterpart. Finally, a comparison was made between the results obtained through the regression equation and finite element analysis.

Titanium aluminide (TiAl) is one of the most promising materials for aerospace applications. It is a suitable replacement for nickel-based superalloys predominantly used in these applications. Titanium aluminide with superior processability is the main task in carrying out this work. A less brittle TiAl alloy was fabricated using spark plasma sintering by adding the nominal composition (2.5, 5, and 7.5 wt.%) of manganese (Mn) to Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb. The samples were sintered at 1150 &deg, C using spark plasma sintering (SPS), which helped produce highly dense models with fine grain sizes at the high heating rate (here, 100 &deg, C per minute). The effects produced by Mn additions on the densification, mechanical properties (yield strength, hardness, and % elongation), and microstructure of the Ti aluminide alloys are studied. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to explore the sintered samples&rsquo, microstructures. The alloyed materials are entirely dissolved in the gamma matrix due to the manganese approaching its melting point. XRD and SEM analysis confirmed the new intermetallic related to Mn neither with titanium nor aluminum. The enhancement of % elongation at break is evident for the little improvement in the ductility of TiAl by the addition of Mn. The samples&rsquo, tensile fracture nature is also evidence for enhancement in the alloy&rsquo, s % elongation.

This paper investigated the effects of ionic strength in the medium on a preconcentrator for a protein sample with low concentration. The preconcentration chip was designed and fabricated using a polydimethylsiloxane replica through standard lithophotography. A glass substrate is silanized prior to functionalizing the nanoparticles for self-assembly at a designed region. Due to the overlap of electrical double layers in a nanofluidic channel, a concentration polarization effect can be achieved using an electric field. A nonlinear electrokinetic flow is induced, resulting in the fast accumulation of proteins in front of the induced ionic depletion zone, so called exclusion-enrichment effect. Thus, the protein sample can be driven by electroosmotic flow and accumulated at a specific location. The chip is used to collect fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) diluted in phosphate- buffered saline (PBS) buffer solution. Different concentrations of the buffer media were studied herein. Fluorescence intensity images show that the buffer concentration of 4 mM is more appropriate than all the other ones. The sample of FITC-BSA with an initial concentration of 10 μM in the 4 mM PBS solution increases its concentration at the desired region by up to 50 times within 30 min, demonstrating the results in this investigation.

This study proposes a handheld electronics module integrated with the microchip that utilizes dielectrophoretic (DEP) impedance measurement for characterizing of cancerous cell lines. The microchip consists of circle-on-line-shaped interdigitated microelectrodes, which were used for DEP concentration and impedance sensing of cells within a chamber, patterned by standard microfabrication processes. The handheld electronics module was built for measuring impedance of cancerous cells in the microchip. It can provide sinusoidal electrical signals in a large range of frequencies. The analyzed results demonstrate a high-sensitivity impedance measurement. Meanwhile, the linear relationships between the admittance variation and the number of cell were observed for both two human lung cell lines, namely A549 human lung carcinoma cells and MRC-5 human lung epithelial cells. The difference in the slopes of these characteristic lines could be used to distinguish two stages of lung cells. The proposed device is simple to operate, has high sensitivity, inexpensive and portable.

We produced an anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) structure with periodic nanopores on the surface of flip-chip blue light-emitting diodes (FC-BLEDs). The nanopores had diameters ranging from 73 to 85 nm and were separated by distances ranging from approximately 10 to 15 nm. The light extraction efficiency enhancement of the FC-BLEDs subjected to different durations of the second pore-widening process was approximately 1.6–2.9%. The efficiency enhancement may be attributed to the following mechanism: periodic nanopores on the surface of FC-BLEDs reduce the critical angle of total reflection and effective energy transfer from a light emitter into a surface plasmon mode produced by AAO.

The manipulation and detection of rare cells are important for many applications in early disease diagnosis and medicine. This study presents a dielectrophoresis (DEP) microfluidic enrichment platform combined with a built-in capacitive sensor for circulating tumor cell detection. The microchip is composed of a lollipop-shaped gold microelectrode structure under a polydimethylsiloxane chamber. A prototype of the device was fabricated using standard micromachining technology. With the proposed device, target cells (in this study, A549 non-small human lung carcinoma and S-180 sarcoma cell lines) are firstly guided toward the center of the working chamber via DEP forces. Then, the target cells are captured by an electrode immobilized by anti-EGFR, which has high affinity toward the target cells. After the cell concentration process, the differential capacitance is read to detect the presence of the target cells. Numerical simulations and measurement experiments were performed to demonstrate the high sensitivity of differential capacitive sensing. The obtained results show high sensitivity for S-180 cell detection (3 mV/cell). The proposed platform is suitable for rapid cancer diagnoses and other metabolic disease applications.

Geological storage of CO2 has been viewed as an effective means of reducing CO2 emissions and mitigating the greenhouse effect. In the Taiwan area, the Western Taiwan Basin is suitable for million-ton-scale geological CO2 storage. Numerical methods were used in this study to investigate reservoir performance under various injection pressures. Three formations in the basin, the Chingshui Formation, Kueichulin Formation and Nanchunag Formation, were modeled. Three different injection pressures (1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 times the initial pressure) were considered. The simulation results show that the cumulative injected CO2 mass is proportional to the applied injection pressure and that the storage security increases over time. An annual injection rate of 5 Mt year–1 could be achieved by applying an injection pressure of 1.5 times the initial pressure at the injection well. The pressure accumulation in the system featured three stages. The over-pressurization effects associated with the injection in the system decrease, and the pressure in the system almost returns to the original pressure conditions after 50 years following cessation of injection. The CO2 gas plumes simulated in this study also suggest that the modeled injection scenarios are safe in terms of CO2 leakage from the vertical fault in this area.

This study established a microfluidic chip for the capture of A549 human lung circulating tumor cells via the aptamer-conjugated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the channel. AuNPs are among the most attractive nanomaterials for the signal enhancement of biosensors owing to their unique chemical, physical, and mechanical properties. The microchip was fabricated using soft photolithography and casting and molding techniques. A self-assembly method was designed to attach AuNPs, cell-specific aptamers, and target cells onto the desired area (i.e., SAM area). In this study, the gold microelectrode configuration was characterized by fluorescence microscopy and impedance measurements to confirm the important modification steps. Subsequently, several investigations with the proposed assay were conducted with different cell samples to determine the specific binding ability of the device for A549 adenocarcinoma cancer cells. This work has ensured a simple, convenient, selective, and sensitive approach for the development of biosensors for lung cancer detection during the early stages.

In recent years, multi-axis robots are indispensable in automated factories due to the rapid development of Industry 4.0. Many related processes were required to have the increasing demand for accuracy, reproducibility, and abnormal detection. The monitoring function and immediate feedback for correction is more and more important. This present study integrated a highly sensitive lithium niobate (LiNbO3) vibration sensor as a sensor node (SN) and architecture of wireless mesh network (WMN) to develop a monitoring system (MS) for the robotic arm. The advantages of the thin-film LiNbO3 piezoelectric sensor were low-cost, high-sensitivity and good electrical compatibility. The experimental results obtained from the vibration platform show that the sensitivity achieved 50 mV/g and the reaction time within 1 ms. The results of on-site testing indicated that the SN could be configured on the relevant equipment quickly and detect the abnormal vibration in specific equipment effectively. Each SN could be used more than 10 h at the 80 Hz transmission rate under WMN architecture and the loss rate of transmission was less than 0.01% within 20 m.

This review paper provides insight into current developments in refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) based on previous and currently available literature. High-temperature strength, high-temperature oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance properties make RHEAs unique and stand out from other materials. RHEAs mainly contain refractory elements like W, Ta, Mo, Zr, Hf, V, and Nb (each in the 5–35 at% range), and some low melting elements like Al and Cr at less than 5 at%, which were already developed and in use for the past two decades. These alloys show promise in replacing Ni-based superalloys. In this paper, various manufacturing processes like casting, powder metallurgy, metal forming, thin-film, and coating, as well as the effect of different alloying elements on the microstructure, phase formation, mechanical properties and strengthening mechanism, oxidation resistance, and corrosion resistance, of RHEAs are reviewed.

The effect of molybdenum additions on the phases, microstructures, and mechanical properties of pre-alloyed Ti6Al4V was studied through the spark plasma sintering technique. Ti6Al4V-xMo (where x = 0, 2, 4, 6 wt.% of Mo) alloys were developed, and the sintered compacts were characterized in terms of their phase composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties. The results show that the equiaxed primary alpha and Widmänstatten (alpha + beta) microstructure in pre-alloyed Ti6Al4V is transformed into a duplex and globular model with the increasing content of Mo from 0 to 6%. The changing pattern of the microstructure of the sample strongly influences the properties of the material. The solid solution hardening element such as Mo enhances mechanical properties such as yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, ductility, and hardness compared with the pre-alloyed Ti6Al4V alloy.

Sample preconcentration is an important step that increases the accuracy of subsequent detection, especially for samples with extremely low concentrations. Due to the overlap of electrical double layers in a nanofluidic channel, the concentration polarization effect can be generated by applying an electric field. A nonlinear electrokinetic flow is induced, which results in the fast accumulation of proteins in front of the induced ionic depletion zone, the so-called exclusion- enrichment effect. In this way, a protein sample can be driven by electroosmotic flow and accumulated at a specific location. In the present study, a nanofluidic preconcentrator fabricated with the help of junction gap electric breakdown was integrated with microelectrodes for immunoassay. The preconcentration chip for proteins was fabricated using simple standard soft lithography with a polydimethylsiloxane replica. Human galectin-1 proteins from the cell lysate of T24 cells were concentrated and immunoassayed in the proposed microchip. The capability of the proposed microchip for concentrating multiple proteins from cell lysates and immunoassays after preconcentration was demonstrated. Immunosensing was evaluated by measurements of both fluorescence intensities and impedance, which proved the enhancement of preconcentration for immunoassay.

In this study, Al-TiB2 compacts fabricated by spark plasma sintering methods at different temperatures were characterized for densification, microstructural development, and mechanical properties. Sintering parameters used were temperatures of 500 &deg, C and 550 &deg, C under the pressure of 30 MPa. A very dense microstructure with uniform phase distribution and porosity was produced in the sample sintered at 550 &deg, C with 2.5 wt% TiB2. The same sample exhibited excellent hardness value, and a high-tensile strength attributed to full metallurgical bonding, presence of sub-micron sized grains, and their uniform distribution. These results show that the TiB2 addition enhanced the composite&rsquo, s hardness, sintered density, and tensile strength. In all the sintered samples, the fractographs revealed a mixed-mode fracture (ductile and brittle).

This study reports the results on the development of an electrical impedance-based protein detection circuit board for the protein detection biochip. A digital quadrature phase shift module, which can generate two sine waves with 90-degree difference in phase in a large frequency range is employed for lock-in amplifier block for impedance profiling. A microcontroller is used for frequency selection and data acquisition. The measurement module is connected with a computer to display the impedance profile. The implemented board were applied to protein detection biochip to detect the presence of the protein of interest in an essay sample. Experiment is performed for 10 μM Bovine serum albumin (BSA) labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC-BSA) protein sample in 10 mM PBS medium solution with the frequency range from 10 kHz to 200 kHz. The measured results reveal a clear impedance change between before and after trapping protein on the microelectrodes of the biochip. The developed electrical impedance spectroscopy board enables rapid and effective protein detection at low concentration.

Enrichment and detection of rare cells are essential in many biological and medical applications. In this study, circulating tumor cells were detected by combining dielectrophoretic (DEP) manipulation and impedance measurement using circular microelectrodes within a single microfluidic device. A prototype of the device was fabricated through standard soft-lithography. With the proposed microchip, target cells (lung cancer cells, A549) were guided toward the center of the working region due to the action of positive DEP and hydrodynamic drag forces and were then trapped onto the desired sensing electrodes. Impedance was measured to identify the presence of cells. Impedance spectroscopy was conducted at different numbers of cells. Linear characteristics were found using differential analysis technique. Experimental results showed that the impedance sensor can detect A549 cell line with low cell number at the appropriate frequencies. Limit of detection (LOD) of approximately 3 cells was achieved at frequencies near 50 kHz. This simple, rapid, label-free, and low-cost approach may open up new opportunities for developing cell diagnosis systems for future applications.

This paper presents a design of a compact system for low concentration protein detection based on an effectiveness concentrator which is relied on exclusion-enrichment effect (EEE) and a highly sensitivity lock-in impedance measurement technique. Experiment results suggested that protein concentration of down to sub-nanomolar can be detected by the proposed system.

This paper presents a dielectrophoresis (DEP) enrichment microfluidic platform with built-in antibody-based capacitive sensor for tumor rare cells detection. We take the advantages of the effective DEP actuation, the high selectivity property of antibody for rare cell immobilization, and the high sensitivity of differential capacitive sensing for quantitatively reading out, to produce advanced platform, toward single tumor cell detection for the rapid laboratory tests of cancers diagnoses and other metabolic diseases applications.

Analysis of cancerous cells allows us to provide useful information for the early diagnosis of cancer and to monitor treatment progress. An approach based on electrical principles has recently become an attractive technique. This study presents a microdevice that utilizes a dielectrophoretic impedance measurement method for the identification of cancerous cells. The proposed biochip consists of circle-on-line microelectrodes that are patterned using a standard microfabrication processes. A sample of various cell concentrations was introduced in an open-top microchamber. The target cells were collectively concentrated between the microelectrodes using dielectrophoresis manipulation, and their electrical impedance properties were also measured. Different stages of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma lines could be distinguished. This result is consistent with findings using hyperspectral imaging technology. Moreover, it was observed that the distinguishing characteristics change in response to the progression of cancer cell invasiveness by Raman spectroscopy. The device enables highly efficient cell collection and provides rapid, sensitive, and label-free electrical measurements of cancerous cells.

Improvement of methods for reliable and early diagnosis of the cellular diseases is necessary. A biological selectivity probe, such as an aptamer, is one of the candidate recognition layers that can be used to detect important biomolecules. Lung cancer is currently a typical cause of cancer-related deaths. In this work, an electrical sensing platform is built based on amine-terminated aptamer modified-gold electrodes for the specific, label-free detection of a human lung carcinoma cell line (A549). The microdevice, that includes a coplanar electrodes configuration and a simple microfluidic channel on a glass substrate, is fabricated using standard photolithography and cast molding techniques. A procedure of self-assembly onto the gold surface is proposed. Optical microscope observations and electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements confirm that the fabricated microchip can specifically and effectively identify A549 cells. In the experiments, the capacitance element that is dominant in the change of the impedance is calculated at the appropriate frequency for evaluation of the sensitivity of the biosensor. Therefore, a simple, inexpensive, biocompatible, and selective biosensor that has the potential to detect early-stage lung cancer would be developed.

Performance assessments of high-level radioactive waste disposal have emphasized the role of colloids in the migration of radionuclides in the geosphere. The transport of colloids often brings them in contact with fracture surfaces or porous rock matrix. Colloids that attach to these surfaces are treated as being immobile and are called filtered colloids. The filtered colloids could be released into the fracture again; that is, the attachment of colloids may be reversible. Also, the colloids in the fracture could diffuse into the porous matrix rock. A methodology is proposed to evaluate a predictive model to assess transport within the fractured rock as well as various phenomenological coefficients employed in the different mechanisms, such as filtration, remobilization, and matrix diffusion of colloids. The governing equations of colloids considering mechanisms of the colloidal transport in the fractured media, including filtration, remobilization, and matrix diffusion, have been modeled and solved analytically in previous studies. In the present study, transport equations of colloids and radionuclides that consider the combination of the aforementioned transport mechanisms have also been solved numerically and investigated. The total concentration of mobile radionuclides in the fracture becomes lower because the concentration of mobile colloids in the fracture decreases when themore » filtration coefficient for colloids increases. Additionally, the concentration of mobile radionuclides was increased at any given time step due to the higher sorption partition coefficient of radionuclides associated with colloids. The results also show that the concentration of radionuclides in the fracture zone decreases when the remobilization coefficient of colloids or the percentages of the matrix diffusion flux of colloids increase.« less

The p-n heterojunction photoelectrochemical biosensor, which comprises a p-type Cu2O film formed by electrochemical deposition and n-type ZnO nanorods formed by the hydrothermal method, is prone to photoelectrochemical reactions and self-powered. Four types of human esophageal cancer cells (ECCs) were detected by this biosensor without requiring an extra bias voltage. The measured photocurrent values of high invasion capacity cancer cells was consistently 2 times higher than those measured by a slight invasion capacity cancer cells. The response time, which was about 0.5 s, allowed repeated measurement.

The role of colloids in the migration of radionuclides in the geosphere has been emphasized in the performance assessment of high-level radioactive waste disposal. The literature indicates that the colloid velocity may not be equal to the velocity of groundwater owing to hydrodynamic chromatography. A theoretical model for hydrodynamic chromatography of colloid migration in the fracture is proposed in the present work. In this model, the colloids are treated as nonreactive and the external forces acting on colloidal particles are considered including the inertial force, the van der Waals attractive force, and the electrical double-layer repulsive force, as well as the gravitational force. A fully developed concentration profile for colloids is obtained to elucidate migration behavior for colloids in the fracture. The effects of parameters governing these forces and the aperture of the fracture are determined using a theoretical model.

This work proposes a simple method for creating nanofluidic channels for protein preconcentration through self-assembled gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using the exclusion-enrichment effect. A depletion force is elicited in nano-interstices among self-assembled AuNPs due to the overlap of electrical double layers (EDLs); therefore, proteins quickly accumulate. The experimental results show that the generation of depletion forces is correlated with the size of the AuNPs. The self-assembled monolayer of AuNPs (13 nm in diameter) can successfully preconcentrate proteins through effective EDL overlapping. This approach provides a new process to produce nanochannels that does not require high-voltage or time-consuming fabrication.