Potential In Many Applications Research Articles

A multifunctional and environmentally-friendly method to fabricate superhydrophilic and self-healing coatings for sustainable antifogging

Antifogging films are essential in many areas, such as eyeglasses, windshields, goggles and so on. In this work, a transparent antifogging film was successfully prepared on glass by spin-coating a mixture of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and iron (III) chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3·6H2O). The coated film was superhydrophilic and showed excellent anti-frosting and self-healing properties. The composite coating was resistant to fouling by oil and had a very small water sliding angle about 3.1°. This coating could maintain its antifogging performance after by tape-peeling test for 80 cycles and being exposed to UV irradiation for 96 h. The diverse desirable functions demonstrated and the facile preparation procedure of the film offer huge potential in many practical applications.

High-temperature ultra-broad UV–MIR high-efficiency absorber based on double ring-shaped titanium nitride resonators

An ultrabroad absorber based on double-ring-shaped titanium nitride (TiN) nanoresonators, which can work in high temperatures, is proposed and numerically studied. The absorber with some optimal parameters exhibits an averaged absorption of 94.6% in the range of 200–4000 nm (from ultraviolet to mid-infrared) and a band from 200–3518 nm having an absorption > 90%. We have demonstrated in detail the physical mechanisms of the ultra-broad absorption, including the dielectric lossy property of TiN material itself in shorter wavelengths and plasmonic resonances caused by the metallic property of TiN nano-resonators in longer wavelengths. In addition, the absorber shows polarization independent and wide-angle acceptance. Another absorber with double TiN nano-rings of different heights has flatter and higher absorption efficiency (more than 95% absorption) at 200–2860 nm waveband. These properties make the proposed absorbers based on TiN has great potentials in many applications, such as light trapping, photovoltaics, thermal emitters.

Lateral size of graphene oxide determines differential cellular uptake and cell death pathways in Kupffer cells, LSECs, and hepatocytes.

As a representative two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial, graphene oxide (GO) has shown high potential in many applications due to its large surface area, high flexibility, and excellent dispersibility in aqueous solutions. These properties make GO an ideal candidate for bio-imaging, drug delivery, and cancer therapy. When delivered to the body, GO has been shown to accumulate in the liver, the primary accumulation site of systemic delivery or secondary spread from other uptake sites, and induce liver toxicity. However, the contribution of the GO physicochemical properties and individual liver cell types to this toxicity is unclear due to property variations and diverse cell types in the liver. Herein, we compare the effects of GOs with small (GO-S) and large (GO-L) lateral sizes in three major cell types in liver, Kupffer cells (KCs), liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), and hepatocytes. While GOs induced cytotoxicity in KCs, they induced significantly less toxicity in LSECs and hepatocytes. For KCs, we found that GOs were phagocytosed that triggered NADPH oxidase mediated plasma membrane lipid peroxidation, which leads to PLC activation, calcium flux, mitochondrial ROS generation, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation. The subsequent caspase-1 activation induced IL-1β production and GSDMD-mediated pyroptosis. These effects were lateral size-dependent with GO-L showing stronger effects than GO-S. Amongst the liver cell types, decreased cell association and the absence of lipid peroxidation resulted in low cytotoxicity in LSECs and hepatocytes. Using additional GO samples with different lateral sizes, surface functionalities, or thickness, we further confirmed the differential cytotoxic effects in liver cells and the major role of GO lateral size in KUP5 pyroptosis by correlation studies. These findings delineated the GO effects on cellular uptake and cell death pathways in liver cells, and provide valuable information to further evaluate GO effects on the liver for biomedical applications.

BlinKey

Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promising potentials in many applications, such as e-business, healthcare, and social networking. Rich information regarding user's activities and their online accounts is stored in VR devices. If it is carelessly unattended, then attackers, including insiders, can make use of the stored information to, for example, perform in-app purchases at the legitimate owner's expenses. Current solutions, mostly following schemes designed for general personal devices, have been proved vulnerable to shoulder-surfing attacks due to the sight blocking caused by the headset. Although there have been efforts trying to fill this gap, they either rely on some highly advanced equipment, such as electrodes to read brainwaves, or introduce heavy cognitive load that has users perform a series of cumbersome authentication tasks. Therefore, an authentication method for VR devices that is robust and convenient is in dire need. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a two-factor user authentication scheme, BlinKey, for VR devices that are equipped with an eye tracker. A user's secret passcode is a set of recorded rhythms when he/she blinks, together with the unique pupil size variation pattern. We call this passcode as a blinkey, which can be jointly characterized by knowledge-based and biometric features. To examine the performances, BlinKey is implemented on an HTC Vive Pro with a Pupil Labs eye tracker. Through extensive experimental evaluations with 52 participants, we show that our scheme can achieve the average EER as low as 4.0% with only 6 training samples. Besides, it is robust against various types of attacks. BlinKey also exhibits satisfactory usability in terms of login attempts, memorability, and impact of user motions. We also carry out questionnaire-based pre-/post-studies. The survey result indicates that BlinKey is well accepted as a user authentication scheme for VR devices.

An Acoustic Waveguide With Tight Field Confinement for High Temperature Sensing

A fused quartz acoustic waveguide structure was reported as the suspended core waveguide. The waveguide featured good acoustic wave confinement within the core and a relatively small diameter. Consistent high-temperature sensing was also demonstrated with the waveguide after a temperature sensor was fabricated inside. The waveguide was fabricated by suspending its core rod in the middle of the hollow cladding tube by discrete thin supporting disks. It was found that the characteristics of acoustic propagation in the waveguide was similar to that in a bare core rod and that the waveguide was largely insensitive to lossy surface perturbations. The diameter of the waveguide was relatively small, little more than the bulk longitudinal acoustic wavelength. For sensing, the periodic structure, the acoustic fiber Bragg grating, was fabricated on the core of the suspended core waveguide. A temperature test up to 1000 °C was performed. The central frequency of the reflected acoustic wave was found to change unidirectionally and consistently with changes in temperature. With its good field confinement and consistent sensing capabilities, the suspended core waveguide could find vast potential in many applications.

Revealing nutritional requirements of MICP-relevant Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM33 for growth improvement in chemically defined and complex media

Microbial induced calcite precipitation (MICP) based on ureolysis has a high potential for many applications, e.g. restoration of construction materials. The gram-positive bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii is the most commonly used microorganism for MICP due to its high ureolytic activity. However, Sporosarcina pasteurii is so far cultivated almost exclusively in complex media, which only results in moderate biomass concentrations at the best. Cultivation of Sporosarcina pasteurii must be strongly improved in order to make technological application of MICP economically feasible. The growth of Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM 33 was boosted by detecting auxotrophic deficiencies (L-methionine, L-cysteine, thiamine, nicotinic acid), nutritional requirements (phosphate, trace elements) and useful carbon sources (glucose, maltose, lactose, fructose, sucrose, acetate, L-proline, L-alanine). These were determined by microplate cultivations with online monitoring of biomass in a chemically defined medium and systematically omitting or substituting medium components. Persisting growth limitations were also detected, allowing further improvement of the chemically defined medium by the addition of glutamate group amino acids. Common complex media based on peptone and yeast extract were supplemented based on these findings. Optical density at the end of each cultivation of the improved peptone and yeast extract media roughly increased fivefold respectively. A maximum OD600 of 26.6 ± 0.7 (CDW: 17.1 ± 0.5 g/L) was reached with the improved yeast extract medium. Finally, culture performance and media improvement was analysed by measuring the oxygen transfer rate as well as the backscatter during shake flask cultivation.

Functional Design of a 6-DOF Platform for Micro-Positioning

Parallel kinematic machines (PKMs) have demonstrated their potential in many applications when high stiffness and accuracy are needed, even at micro- and nanoscales. The present paper is focused on the functional design of a parallel platform providing high accuracy and repeatability in full spatial motion. The hexaglide architecture with 6-PSS kinematics was demonstrated as the best solution according to the specifications provided by an important Italian company active in the field of micro-positioning, particularly in vacuum applications. All the steps needed to prove the applicability of such kinematics at the microscale and their inherent advantages are presented. First, the kinematic model of the manipulator based on the study’s parametrization is provided. A global conditioning index (GCI) is proposed in order to optimize the kinetostatic performance of the robot, so that precise positioning in the required platform workspace is guaranteed avoiding singular configurations. Some numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the study. Finally, some details about the realization of a physical prototype are given.

Manipulation and optimization of electron transport by nanopore array targets

The transport of sub-picosecond laser-driven fast electrons in nanopore array targets is studied. Attributed to the generation of micro-structured magnetic fields, most fast electron beams are proven to be effectively guided and restricted during the propagation. Different transport patterns of fast electrons in the targets are observed in experiments and reproduced by particle-in-cell simulations, representing two components: initially collimated low-energy electrons in the center and high-energy scattering electrons turning into surrounding annular beams. The critical energy for confined electrons is deduced theoretically. The electron guidance and confinement by the nano-structured targets offer a technological approach to manipulate and optimize the fast electron transport by properly modulating pulse parameters and target design, showing great potential in many applications including ion acceleration, microfocus x-ray sources and inertial confinement fusion.

A fast-response and transparent solution–processed ultraviolet photodetector based on ZnO quantum–sized nanoparticles

Solution-processed ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors with high performance have great potential in many practical applications. In this paper, quantum-sized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (~ 5.5 nm) were synthesized by a simple and low-cost chemical reflux method. The crystalline structure, morphologies, and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles were investigated in detail. The results showed that the as-synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were wurtzite-structured (hexagonal) ZnO and had specific surface area as high as 68.3 m2/g, the ZnO nanoparticulate thin films had a strong absorption in UV region and optical bandgap of 3.28 eV. Furthermore, an UV photodetector was fabricated using the as-prepared ZnO nanoparticles, the device revealed stable, rapid and repeatable photoresponse towards 365 nm UV light, the sensitivity (S), responsivity (R), rise time (Tr), and decay time (Td) of the photodetector was 11.4 at − 0.25 V, 22.1 A/W at 3 V, 1.8 s and 47.2 s, respectively. In addition, the photoresponsive mechanism of this UV photodetector was systematically illuminated according to the adsorption-photodesorption theory of oxygen in ZnO nanoparticles.

Characterization and properties of hybrid foams from nanocellulose and kaolin-microfibrillated cellulose composite

Hybrid nanocellulose-based foams are a desirable class of low-density and porous materials for their potential in many applications. This study aims at characterizing and understanding the structure-properties relationship of four foam formulations prepared from combinations of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and kaolin-microfibrillated cellulose composite. All the foams were crosslinked with a polyamide-epichlorohydrin crosslinker (Polycup) to impart stability under wet conditions without additional functionalization. Foams containing 25 wt% kaolin exhibited excellent shape recovery promoted by a higher load of crosslinker (5 wt%), and superior compressive properties. The addition of CNC at 33.3 wt% and 50 wt% did not seem to enhance the properties of the foam and also reduced the specific surface area. A preliminary comparative study between the four tested formulations was conducted to assess the feasibility of the foam as an adsorbent of methylene blue dye.

Tunable DFB laser diode based on high-order surface isolation grooves working at 905nm

A widely tunable distributed feedback Bragg (DFB) laser diode based on surface isolation grooves has been produced by i-line lithography. Periodic p-electrodes on the mesas realize a single longitudinal mode output. The maximum continuous wave output power of the uncoated device was 145.3 mW/facet at 500 mA, and the maximum side-mode suppression ratio was over 37 dB. Experimentally, the laser diode could be tuned from 899.9 to 907.7 nm from 15 ∘C to 35 ∘C. The 3 dB linewidth was 920 MHz at 20 ∘C for an injected current of 300 mA. The method of fabricating the tunable DFB laser diode has great potential for many applications, such as in light detection and ranging (LiDAR) devices.

Data-Aided Doppler Compensation for High-Speed Railway Communications Over mmWave Bands

Millimeter wave communications show great potentials in many applications, one of which is the high-speed railway(HSR) communication system. However, a major challenge is the Doppler effect caused by the relative-movement between the train and the base station (BS), which leads to fast channel variation. To compensate for the Doppler shift, an accurate channel model is indispensable, and the far-field channel model is generally employed, which assumes that the dimensions of the antenna arrays are negligible compared to the distance between transmitter and receiver. This model is widely used in Cellular systems, but the underlining assumption is not always true for railway communication systems. In this paper, the modeling of the Doppler effect for millimeter wave in HSR communications is conducted, and data-aided Doppler estimation and compensation algorithms are designed based on the new model. We show that the conventional far-field channel model is based on the first-order Taylor expansion of the actually channel, and the second-order component cannot be ignored for HSR communications. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the validity of the new model and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Ordered Nanofibers Fabricated from Hierarchical Self-Assembling Processes of Designed α-Helical Peptides.

Peptide self-assembly is fast evolving into a powerful method for the development of bio-inspired nanomaterials with great potential for many applications, but it remains challenging to control the self-assembling processes and nanostrucutres because of the intricate interplay of various non-covalent interactions. A group of 28-residue α-helical peptides is designed including NN, NK, and HH that display distinct hierarchical events. The key of the design lies in the incorporation of two asparagine (Asn) or histidine (His) residues at the a positions of the second and fourth heptads, which allow one sequence to pack into homodimers with sticky ends through specific interhelical Asn-Asn or metal complexation interactions, followed by their longitudinal association into ordered nanofibers. This is in contrast to classical self-assembling helical peptide systems consisting of two complementary peptides. The collaborative roles played by the four main non-covalent interactions, including hydrogen-bonding, hydrophobic interactions, electrostatic interactions, and metal ion coordination, are well demonstrated during the hierarchical self-assembling processes of these peptides. Different nanostructures, for example, long and short nanofibers, thin and thick fibers, uniform metal ion-entrapped nanofibers, and polydisperse globular stacks, can be prepared by harnessing these interactions at different levels of hierarchy.

Toward the inclusion of end-to-end security in the OM2M platform

The exponential growth in the number of Internet of things (IoT) devices and their potential in many applications in a vast number of domains fuelled the development of different IoT platforms, supported by big companies and industry groups. These platforms are able to provide reliable services to IoT devices and reduce the time to market for the targeted applications. Unfortunately, these proprietary solutions fragment the IoT market and hamper horizontal integration. The need to interoperate the different IoT platforms and communication protocols pushed the Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) to the specification of a machine-to-machine (M2M) service layer, published as the oneM2M (OM2M) standard. Although the OM2M standard provides generic guidelines to implement security solutions which include authentication, authorization, confidentiality and data integrity, more efficient security schemes should be investigated when constrained IoT devices are concerned. This paper presents two main contributions. First, a CoAPS binding for the OM2M platform is provided that enables secure and reliable communication with constrained IoT devices. Second, a lightweight dynamic access control system is designed, developed and integrated in a OM2M-based architecture. It allows to dynamically grant or revoke access permission in an anonymous way to constrained IoT devices for controlling some actuators. From the experimental results, we can conclude that the computational complexity of the proposed security scheme is extremely low for the client device which requests data access. We show that a constrained IoT device establishes a trust relationship with the OM2M server in few seconds.

Nickel nanoparticles supported by commercial carbon paper as a catalyst for urea electro-oxidation

Nickel nanoparticles supported by commercial carbon paper (CP) are prepared by pulsed laser deposition with deposition time of 3, 6, and 12 min as a catalyst for urea electro-oxidation. The surface conditions and the morphologies of the prepared electrodes have been characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Urea electro-oxidation reaction in KOH solution on the Ni/CP electrodes is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The results show that the electrode with less Ni nanoparticle agglomeration shows higher peak current density, which was achieved in the 3 min deposition samples when normalized by electroactive surface areas. However, the highest current normalized by the area of the carbon paper was achieved in the 6 min deposition sample due to the larger quantity of Ni nanoparticles. All the samples show good stability. Our results suggest that the low density, low cost, and environmental friendly CP can be used as support for Ni nanoparticle as a catalyst for urea electro-oxidation. It thus has great potential for many applications involving urea oxidation, such as wastewater treatments.

Reactivating Adsorption Capacities of Spent Bleaching Earth for Using in Crude Palm Oil Industry

The spent bleaching earth from the palm oil refining industries contains various contaminants, including free fatty acids and hazardous material. The conventional procedure is harmful to the environment. In this study, spent bleaching earth (SBE) was successfully regenerated by calcination and acid-activation process. The calcination process was performed at 500, 600 and 700°C for 2, 3 and 4 h. All samples were then mixed with CaCO3 and lastly activated with aqueous acid. The results showed the SBE color restored at calcination temperature higher than 500°C, even though the decomposition of the volatile compound was removed at 680°C according to thermal gravimetric analysis. Treatment affected the clay structure and mostly removed the impregnated organic matter. The primary phase of regenerated SBE is similar to virgin bleaching earth (VBE), implying the calcination and acid-activation is not alter the phase. Moreover, the adsorbent capacity of regenerated SBE was comparable with VBE, showing the regenerated SBE has promising potential for many applications, in particular for the palm oil refining industry. Regenerated SBE gave significantly larger specific surface area, microporous surface area and total pore volume with smaller the average pore diameter.

Theoretical Evaluation of DNA Genotoxicity of Graphene Quantum Dots: A Combination of Density Functional Theory and Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Owing to their unique morphology, ultrasmall lateral sizes, and exceptional properties, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) hold great potential in many applications, especially in the fields of electrochemical biosensors, bioimaging, drug delivery, gene delivery, etc. Their biosafety and potential genotoxicity to human and animal cells have been a growing concern in recent years. Especially, the potential DNA damage caused by GQDs is very crucial but still unclear. In this study, the effect of GQDs on DNA damage has been evaluated by a combination of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and density functional theory. Our results demonstrate that the DNA damaging mechanism of GQDs depends on the size of GQDs. The small GQDs (seven benzene rings) tend to enter into the interior of DNA molecules and cause a DNA base mismatch. The relatively large GQDs (61 benzene rings) tend to adsorb onto the two ends of a DNA molecule and cause DNA unwinding. Due to the strong interaction between guanine (G) and GQDs, the effect of GQDs is much larger on G than on the other three bases (A, C, and T). In addition, the concentration of GQDs could also affect the results of DNA damaging.

Investigation and improvement of the spin self-sustaining magnetometer

The spin self-sustaining atomic magnetometer has the advantage of 1/τ measurement and great development potential in many applications. In this paper, we investigated the main elements that affect the stability and accuracy of the self-sustaining magnetometer and proposed the methods to improve its performance based on the measurement results. The correlation coefficient between fluctuations of the magnetic field generated by coils and the spin Larmor precession frequency is 0.97, which mainly dominates the stability in a short term. The accuracy of the magnetometer is affected by the power and frequency of the pump light. The Larmor precession frequency coefficient related to the pump light power is 26 mHz/mW, and the effect on the Larmor precession frequency is minimized when the pump light frequency is red detuned by 200 MHz from the 85Rb transition D1 line F = 3 to F′ = 3. The 1/τ measurement time after these corrections can be extended to 10 s, and the sensitivity achieved is 149 fT/Hz, which is close to the quantum projection noise limit of the system.

Energy-efficient thermo-optic silicon phase shifter with well-balanced overall performance

Silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) show great potential for many applications. The phase tuning technique is indispensable and of great importance in silicon PICs. An optical phase shifter with balanced overall performance on power consumption, insertion loss, footprint, and modulation bandwidth is essential for harnessing large-scale integrated photonics. However, few proposed phase shifter schemes on various platforms have achieved a well-balanced performance. In this Letter, we experimentally demonstrate a thermo-optic phase shifter based on a densely distributed silicon spiral waveguide on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The phase shifter shows a well-balanced performance in all aspects. The electrical power consumption is as low as 3 mW to achieve a π phase shift, the optical insertion loss is 0.9 dB per phase shifter, the footprint is 67×28µm2 under a standard silicon photonics fabrication process without silicon air trench or undercut process, and the modulation bandwidth is measured to be 39 kHz.

Phosphorescent Manganese(II) Complexes and Their Emerging Applications

AbstractPhosphorescent manganese(II) complexes are emerging as a new generation of phosphorescent materials showing great potentials in many applications, owing to their unique features including highly efficient phosphorescence, diverse structural/molecular design, and ease of synthesis, structural diversity, rich physical properties (e.g., triboluminescence, stimuli‐responsivity, etc.), high abundance, and low cost. The research on phosphorescent manganese(II) complexes is just in its infancy but rapidly flourishing indeed, and their potential applications are also emerging in many aspects. Herein, the recent progress on the molecular design of new manganese(II) complex‐based materials, mechanism of phosphorescence, photophysical properties, and their representative applications is highlighted, which covers topics such as: i) structural features and photophysics of phosphorescent manganese(II) complexes; ii) molecular design strategies of phosphorescent manganese(II) complexes (e.g., neutral complexes, ionic complexes, coordination polymers, and other types of complexes); and iii) their emerging applications in the fields of organic electroluminescence, information recording and security protection, temperature sensors. Finally, some perspectives together with future research focus of the field are described.