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Highlights Zn-MnO2 batteries promise safe, reliable energy storage, and this roadmap outlines a combination of manufacturing strategies and technical innovations that could make this goal achievable. Approaches such as improved efficiency of manufacturing and increasing active material utilization will be important to getting costs as low as $100/kWh, but key materials innovations that facilitate the full 2-electron capacity utilization of MnO2, the use of high energy density 3D electrodes, and the promise of a separator-free battery with greater than 2V potential offer a route to batteries at $50/kWh or less. Abstract Large-scale energy storage is certain to play a significant, enabling role in the evolution of the emerging electrical grid. Battery-based storage, while not a dominant form of storage today, has opportunity to expand its utility through safe, reliable, and cost-effective technologies. Here, secondary Zn–MnO2 batteries are highlighted as a promising extension of ubiquitous primary alkaline batteries, offering a safe, environmentally friendly chemistry in a scalable and practical energy dense technology. Importantly, there is a very realistic pathway to also making such batteries cost-effective at price points of $50/kWh or lower. By examining manufacturing examples at the Zn–MnO2 battery manufacturer Urban Electric Power, a roadmap has been created to realize such low-cost systems. By focusing on manufacturing optimization through reduced materials waste, scalable manufacturing, and effective materials selection, costs can be significantly reduced. Ultimately, though, coupling these approaches with emerging research and development advances to enable full capacity active materials utilization and battery voltages greater than 2V are likely needed to drive costs below a target of $50/kWh. Reaching this commercially important goal, especially with a chemistry that is safe, well-known, and reliably effective stands to inject Zn–MnO2 batteries in the storage landscape at a critical time in energy storage development and deployment. Graphical abstract

Zinc (Zn)-anode batteries, although safe and non-flammable, are precluded from promising applications because of their low voltage (2 V) and poor rechargeability. Here, we report the fabrication of rechargeable membrane-less Zn-anode batteries with high voltage properties (2.5 to 3.4 V) achieved through coupling cathodes and Zn-anodes in gelled concentrated acid and alkaline solutions separated by a gelled buffer interlayer containing the working ions. The concentrated gelled buffer interlayers perform dual functions of regulating the pH of the system and acting as the source and sink of the working ions. With this strategy we show low-cost membrane-less 2.5 to 3.4 V Zn-manganese dioxide (MnO

Toronto Metropolitan University Library implemented a Scan and Deliver service in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this service patrons can request a portion of text, such as a chapter of a book or a journal article, be scanned by a library staff member and emailed to them. This service was implemented because of limited access to the physical library building and the print collection due to pandemic lockdowns. As the Library space reopened to patrons TMU librarians assessed this service to understand its impact and plan for future service offerings. The purpose of this assessment was to understand why Toronto Metropolitan University Library patrons have used the scan and deliver service: what benefits does it offer them, what role do scanned materials play in their scholarly research, and what barriers does it help them overcome? As the researchers found the service was impactful, namely in reducing barriers to academic research related to travel, health, and ease of access. These results have informed the future of this service at TMU Libraries and can be used to as a starting point for assessment by academic libraries regarding similar services implemented mid-pandemic. This collections contains information related to the Scan and Delivery service assessment, including a paper delivered at the Library Assessment Conference in November 2022.

This paper was delivered to the Library Assessment Conference in November 2022. Abstract: In the summer of 2020, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Libraries started a digitization service called Scan and Deliver amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the Library building was closed to patrons with limited on-site staffing, the library provided some access to parts of the print collection when electronic alternatives were unavailable. The Scan and Deliver service allowed patrons to request a portion of text, such as a chapter of a book or journal article, to be scanned by a Library staff member and emailed to them. When the Library building reopened to patrons in Winter 2022 we assessed this service to understand its impact and plan for future service offerings. This paper addresses why Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries patrons have used the Scan and Deliver service: what benefits does it offer them, what role do scanned materials play in their scholarly research, and what barriers does it help them overcome? The results of our assessment show that the Scan and Deliver service has been impactful for patrons. Specifically, students told us it enabled them to complete their coursework and instructors stated that it allowed them to plan coursework and conduct research. The service helped patrons overcome barriers to completing their academic pursuits during the COVID-19 pandemic, including limits related to travel and serious health concerns. The service has also increased access to the collection and patrons describe it as easy to use and convenient. They also noted a few areas for service improvements. Patrons viewed the service as working in conjunction with other library services, such as interlibrary loan and course reserves, as a method of extending access to print. As a result of this analysis Library administration extended the scanning service for an additional year due to its value to patrons, allowing additional time for ongoing assessment.

This is a video of a presentation given at the Library Assessment Conference in November 2022. This resource contains a video file and a transcript file.

The consent form to participate in research is form that introduces the principal investigator and the purpose of the survey. The form outlines what the resondent will be asked to do, potential benefits and risks. A section of the form includes information about confidentiality, protection and incentives for participation.

Requests for Scan and Deliver survey are submitted through Google forms. This is a download of the request form. Please note that the list of program names would be seen by users as a drop down.

The scan and deliver survey was conducted through Google forms. This is a download of the survey instrument. Please note that this survey includes branching logic and that the lists of program names would be seen by users as a drop down.

This is a conference presentation delivered at Library Assessment Conference in November 2022. Toronto Metropolitan University Library implemented the scan and deliver service in June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this service patrons can request a portion of text, such as a chapter of a book or a journal article, be scanned by a library staff member and emailed to them. This and other complementary services were implemented because of limited access to the physical library building and the print collection due to pandemic lockdowns. As the Library space reopened to patrons, we assessed this service to understand its impact and plan for future service offerings. This paper addresses why Toronto Metropolitan University Library patrons have used the scan and deliver service: what benefits does it offer them, what role do scanned materials play in their scholarly research, and what barriers does it help them overcome? These questions will inform the future of this service at our library and can be used to address similar questions facing other libraries regarding services implemented mid-pandemic.

The books by Aseema Sinha in 2016 and Adnan Naseemullah in 2017 focus on India’s international and domestic political economy, and Naseemullah examines Pakistan as well. The challenge for the study...

Microalgae have a diverse application in food, pharmaceutical, beauty, animal feed and bioenergy industry. The demand for high-quality pure microalgae biomass has steered the large-scale production of microalgae in the photobioreactor. The usage of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a light source is gaining attention as to conventional fluorescent lamps due to the higher energy conversion ratio, lower heat dissipation and its flexible application in photobioreactors. Besides, the narrow spectrum of LEDs could efficiently promote specific compounds in microalgae. This article reviews the influence of using various LED spectra on the biomass and lipid composition of microalgae. In addition, suggestions on the use of different LEDs cultivating common microalgae species in aquaculture are provided.

The polydisperse nature of asphaltenes is not usually considered in studies of asphaltenes adsorption effects at interfaces, e.g., water–oil interfaces. We recently proposed a methodology that take...

Alkaline zinc-manganese dioxide (Zn-MnO2) batteries are well suited for grid storage applications because of their inherently safe, aqueous electrolyte and established materials supply chain, resulting in low production costs. With recent advances in the development of Cu/Bi-stabilized birnessite cathodes capable of the full 2-electron capacity equivalent of MnO2 (617 mA h/g), there is a need for selective separators that prevent zincate (Zn(OH)4)2- transport from the anode to the cathode during cycling, as this electrode system fails in the presence of dissolved zinc. Herein, we present the synthesis of N-butylimidazolium-functionalized polysulfone (NBI-PSU)-based separators and evaluate their ability to selectively transport hydroxide over zincate. We then examine their impact on the cycling of high depth of discharge Zn/(Cu/Bi-MnO2) batteries when inserted in between the cathode and anode. Initially, we establish our membranes' selectivity by performing zincate and hydroxide diffusion tests, showing a marked improvement in zincate-blocking (DZn (cm2/min): 0.17 ± 0.04 × 10-6 for 50-PSU, our most selective separator vs 2.0 ± 0.8 × 10-6 for Cellophane 350P00 and 5.7 ± 0.8 × 10-6 for Celgard 3501), while maintaining similar crossover rates for hydroxide (DOH (cm2/min): 9.4 ± 0.1 × 10-6 for 50-PSU vs 17 ± 0.5 × 10-6 for Cellophane 350P00 and 6.7 ± 0.6 × 10-6 for Celgard 3501). We then implement our membranes into cells and observe an improvement in cycle life over control cells containing only the commercial separators (cell lifetime extended from 21 to 79 cycles).

Asphaltene deposition is one of the major flow assurance problems in upstream and downstream crude oil recovery operations. In order to prevent potential loss and reduce downtime due to asphaltenes...

Zinc (Zn)–manganese dioxide (MnO2) rechargeable batteries have attracted research interest because of high specific theoretical capacity as well as being environmentally friendly, intrinsically safe and low-cost. Liquid electrolytes, such as potassium hydroxide, are historically used in these batteries; however, many failure mechanisms of the Zn–MnO2 battery chemistry result from the use of liquid electrolytes, including the formation of electrochemically inert phases such as hetaerolite (ZnMn2O4) and the promotion of shape change of the Zn electrode. This manuscript reports on the fundamental and commercial results of gel electrolytes for use in rechargeable Zn–MnO2 batteries as an alternative to liquid electrolytes. The manuscript also reports on novel properties of the gelled electrolyte such as limiting the overdischarge of Zn anodes, which is a problem in liquid electrolyte, and finally its use in solar microgrid applications, which is a first in academic literature. Potentiostatic and galvanostatic tests with the optimized gel electrolyte showed higher capacity retention compared to the tests with the liquid electrolyte, suggesting that gel electrolyte helps reduce Mn3+ dissolution and zincate ion migration from the Zn anode, improving reversibility. Cycling tests for commercially sized prismatic cells showed the gel electrolyte had exceptional cycle life, showing 100% capacity retention for >700 cycles at 9.5 Ah and for >300 cycles at 19 Ah, while the 19 Ah prismatic cell with a liquid electrolyte showed discharge capacity degradation at 100th cycle. We also performed overdischarge protection tests, in which a commercialized prismatic cell with the gel electrolyte was discharged to 0 V and achieved stable discharge capacities, while the liquid electrolyte cell showed discharge capacity fade in the first few cycles. Finally, the gel electrolyte batteries were tested under IEC solar off-grid protocol. It was noted that the gelled Zn–MnO2 batteries outperformed the Pb–acid batteries. Additionally, a designed system nameplated at 2 kWh with a 12 V system with 72 prismatic cells was tested with the same protocol, and it has entered its third year of cycling. This suggests that Zn–MnO2 rechargeable batteries with the gel electrolyte will be an ideal candidate for solar microgrid systems and grid storage in general.

Zinc (Zn)-manganese dioxide (MnO

Since the early detection of COVID-19 infection in December 2019, the number of infected persons has been increasing day by day. In this present scenario, people worldwide are reorganizing their life taking safety precautions like doing frequent sanitization, wearing face masks, and avoiding social gathering to protect themselves from getting infected as the proven vaccine or lifesaving drugs are yet to be discovered. However, deficiency of face mask and their reusability have become a key issue because the used masks need to be discarded after some time.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has been announced as a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and further identified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Considering the unprecedented spread of the disease across the world, the development of noncontact and unobtrusive methods for quick screening of potential carriers is the need of the hour. The chapter describes a multimodal approach for rapid screening of potential COVID-19 carriers based on symptomatic sensing using a combination of sensors, followed by generation of a metric to indicate the severity of symptoms. The proposed system is likely to be a significant addition to the present body of systems to scan COVID-19 carriers.

Increasingly students and researchers are accessing and using information in a wide variety of settings on an array of different devices. Libraries need to adapt and re-purpose their data and information so that it can be used by patrons where, when and how they want to use it. To meet this need the Ryerson Library has initiated several projects to expand access to its resources beyond the traditional confines of the building and the website.