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The article discusses the importance of energy in sustainable development and the need for research and development in energy conversion systems. It highlights the limitations of current energy systems and the goal of achieving sustainable and environmentally friendly energy solutions. The article also provides an overview of a research topic on recent developments in energy conversion systems, including papers on topics such as piezoelectric materials, corrosion control methods, lithium-ion batteries, renewable off-grid mini-grids, and materials for fuel cells. The research topic has received positive responses and has generated significant interest. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of ongoing research for a more sustainable and energy-efficient future. [Extracted from the article]

Research in asymmetric light transmission interfaces has been recently gaining traction. While traditionally considered for optical circuitry applications, there is a new interest to use these interfaces in luminescent solar concentrators. Previous studies have shown that applying them to the top surface of a concentrator could mitigate surface losses. This paper presents experimental results for proof-of-concept asymmetric light transmission interfaces that may have potential applications in luminescent solar concentrators. The interfaces and the underneath substrate were created in a single step from polydimethylsiloxane using silicon molds fabricated on <100> wafers via anisotropic wet etching. The resulting structures were pyramidal in shape. Large surface areas of nanostructures repeating at 800 nm, 900 nm, and 1000 nm were tested for backward and forward transmission using a spectrometer. Results showed a 21%, 10%, and 0% average transmissivity difference between the forward and backward directions for each periodicity, respectively. The trends seen experimentally were confirmed numerically via COMSOL simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical hydrodynamic lubrication theory has been one of the most successful and widely used theories in all of engineering and applied science. This theory predicts that the force resisting the squeezing of a fluid between two parallel plates is inversely proportional to the cube of the fluid thickness. However, recent reports on liquid squeeze film damping in microsystems appear to indicate that experimentally measured damping force is proportional to the inverse of the fluid thickness to the first power--a large fundamental discrepancy from classical theory. This paper investigates potential limitations of lubrication theory in microsystems by theoretical and computational methods. The governing equations for a Newtonian incompressible fluid are solved subject to two-dimensional, parallel surface squeezing by an open-source computational fluid dynamics program called parallel hierarchic adaptive stabilized transient analysis (PHASTA), and by a classical similarit3, solution technique. At low convective Reynolds numbers, the damping force is determined as a function of the ratio of a reference film thickness H to a reference direction B along the film. Good agreement with classical lubrication theory is found for aspect ratios H/ B as high as 1 despite the fact that lubrication theory requires that this ratio be 'small.' A similarity analysis shows that when instantaneous convective Reynolds number is of order 10-100 (a range present in experiment), calculated damping deviates significantly from lubrication theory. This suggests that nonlinearity associated with high Reynolds numbers could explain the experimentally observed discrepancy in damping force. Dynamic analysis of beams undergoing small vibrations in the presence of a liquid medium further supports this finding. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4001620] Keywords: lubrication, squeeze film, microsystems, MEMS, inertia effects

The effect of annealing at temperatures up to 600 [degrees]C on the mechanical properties and the thermal and electrical transport characteristics of nickel and a nickel-manganese electrodeposits are presented. The samples include Ni plated from sulfamate salt with dodecyl sulfate surfactant and from NiS[O.sub.4] with saccharin additive and a NiMn alloy deposited from a nickel sulfamate bath with added Mn[Cl.sub2]. Recrystallization and grain growth, induced by annealing, are shown to strongly affect the mechanical and transport properties. Relatively coarse-grained Ni-sulfamate electrodeposits yielded properties closest to bulk Ni. The incorporation of sulfur (from saccharin additions to the plating electrolyte) or Mn into electrodeposited Ni produces materials with exceptionally fine grain size and with very high yield and ultimate strength. At the same time, the thermal and electrical conductivities are smaller than bulk Ni. Thermal annealing leads to a reduction in strength and an enhancement of the transport properties. The Ni-Mn alloy shows the best temperature stability of the mechanical and transport properties among the tested samples. The observed trends are explained in terms of the influence of microstructure on the mechanical and transport properties. [1534] Index Terms--Annealing, conductivity, mechanical variables measurement, microstructure, nickel, nickel alloys, thermal variables measurement.

Electrosurgical radio-frequency heating of tissue is widely applied in minimally invasive surgical procedures to dissect tissue with simultaneous coagulation to obtain hemostasis. The tissue effect depends on the cumulative heating that occurs in the vicinity of the moving blade electrode. In this work, a continuum thermomechanical model based on mixture theory, which accounts for the multiphase nature of soft hydrated tissues and includes transport and evaporation losses, is used to capture the transient heating effect of a moving electrode. The model takes into account the dependence of electrical conductivity and the evaporation rate on the water content in the tissue, as it changes in response to heating. Temperature prediction is validated with mean experimental temperature measured during in situ experiments performed on porcine liver tissue at different power settings of the electrosurgical unit. The model is shown to closely capture the temperature variation in the tissue for three distinct scenarios; with no visible cutting or coagulation damage at a low 10 W power setting, with coagulation damage but no tissue cutting at an intermediate power setting of 25 W, and with both coagulation and tissue cutting at a higher power setting of 50 W. Furthermore, an Arrhenius model is shown to capture tissue damage observed in the experiments. Increase in applied power was found to correlate with tissue cutting and concentrated damage near the electrode, but had little effect on the observed coagulation damage width. The proposed model provides, for the first time, an accurate tool for predicting temperature rise and evolving damage resulting from a moving electrode in pure-cut electrosurgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The light absorption enhancement of an organic solar cell with plasmonic nanoparticles (NP) embedded in the active layer is studied employing 3D finite element simulation. The effect of the vertical positioning of the particle monolayer inside the active layer is elucidated. The results indicate that the highest enhancement is obtained when the particles lay at the bottom of the active layer, an organization less difficult to control accurately in practice. The paper also discusses the difference in the absorption enhancement obtained for two existing definitions currently used in the literature. The results show that models assessing absorption by taking both host and nanoparticles into consideration may overpredict the enhancement even when integration is carried out only over the wavelength interval where the host absorption dominates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new technique employing fluorescent quantum dots as temperature probes for measuring the temperature rise in the proximity of nanoparticles heated by a radio frequency (rf) electromagnetic field. The remote heating of nanoparticles by an rf field is a promising approach to control biological transformations at the molecular level. In principle, the heat dissipated by each nanoparticle might produce a temperature increase in its proximity, facilitating a change in the molecules directly attached to it but not in the others. Although this method has been demonstrated to provide control over biological transformations, the proposed mechanism involves producing and maintaining large temperature differences across small distances, in the range of several degrees Celsius across tens of nanometers. Existing theories for heat generation and transfer in rf heated nanoparticle systems cannot account for these gradients. To better understand the limitations of local heating, the temperature in the vicinity of rf heated nanoparticles was measured. Dilute aqueous suspensions of gold and magnetite nanoparticles were remotely heated by an rf field between 600-800 kHz. Two systems were investigated: a control sample consisting of quantum dots mixed with nanoparticles and a solution of quantum dots covalently linked to nanoparticles. The temperature of the fluorescent probes represents the average temperature in the former and the local temperature in the later. For the experimental conditions employed in this study, the measured temperature rise in the vicinity of rf heated nanoparticles were similar to the average or 'bulk' temperature, in agreement with theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents the fabrication and characterization of mechanical and magnetic properties of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocomposites with nickel nanoparticles and nanowires as fillers. To enhance filler dispersion and polymer-filler interface bonding, allyltrimethoxysilane was used for nanofiller coating. Sample preparation was carried out by speed mixing and curing at 100 °C. Nanowire-PDMS composites were exposed to magnetic field prior to full curing in order to facilitate nanowire alignment. Composites with concentrations of 5, 10, and 15 vol % of nanoparticles and 5 vol % of nanowires were prepared and tested. An increase in elastic modulus of ∼30% was observed for composites with 5 vol % nanoparticle concentration. A much higher increase in elastic modulus, of ∼80%, was observed for nanowire-based composites of same concentration. The measured elastic modulus agrees well with predictions that assume strong interface bonding between the polymer and the filler. Magnetic anisotropy and higher remanent magnetization and coercivity are observed for the nanowire composite. These multifunctional materials could have a wide range of applications, from active structural components to sensing elements in macro- and particularly microsystem applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]