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This paper developed a new methodology which is a sandwich-like platform to measure Seebeck coefficient for single layer thin-film thermoelectric devices which are flexible and wearable without environmental limitation. With our new apparatus, a stably controlled temperature gradient environment is created on thin-film test samples so that the commonly used and simple probing can be employed for Seebeck coefficient measurements. This paper finally verified the accuracy and availability of the new experimental design through Seebeck coefficient measurements on a typical organic conductive material (PEDOT)

In this paper, a new type of microfluidic pump that can be activated and controlled by a masked light source is presented. The actuation of this micropump is based on an optopiezoelectric composite. This composite is constructed by having one of the electrodes of a piezoelectric PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) polymer replaced by a layer of TiOPc (titanyl phthalocyanine) photoconductive coating and an ITO (indium-tin-oxide) transparent electrode. This layer of photoconductive electrode provides the capability to activate multiple locations of this optopiezoelectric composite independently using a masked light source and a single voltage source. To verify the feasibility of this concept, dual light-activated microfluidic pumps based on this optopiezoelectric composite are implemented and studied. Experimental results verify that two microfluidic pumps can be created by one optopiezoelectric composite and that each pump can be optically turned on and off independently or be turned on simultaneously. These results suggest that integrating an optopiezoelectric composite into a lab-on-a-chip system can reduce the size and the number of driving units significantly, since every operation can be done optically and only one driving source is needed. The equivalent circuit, design, and implementation of dual light-activated optopiezoelectric micropumps are discussed in this paper.

Methyl 3-amino-2-methoxy-7-isopropylazulene-l-carboxylate(8a) and its 5-isopropyl isomer (8b) were synthesized by reduction of the 3-nitro derivatives (7a,b) with zinc/acetic acid in excellent yields. 7a and 7b were prepared by nitration and methylation of methyl 7-isopropyl-2-hydroxyazulene-l-carboxylate (5a) and methyl 5-isopropyl-2-hydroxyazulene-l-carboxylate (5b), respectively. Diazotization of 8a with sodium nitrite in trifluoroacetic acid at 0 °C gave methyl 5-isopropyl-1,2-azulenequinone-3-carboxylate (9a) in 91% yield. Similar reaction of 8b gave the corresponding methyl 7-isopropyl-1,2-azulenequinone-3-carboxylate (9b) in 93% yield. No evidence for the formation of l-diazo-1,2-azulenequinones was obtained.