Search results for "Note"
showing 10 items of 10709 documents
A Promising New Method to Estimate Drug-Polymer Solubility at Room Temperature
2016
The established methods to predict drug-polymer solubility at room temperature either rely on extrapolation over a long temperature range or are limited by the availability of a liquid analogue of the polymer. To overcome these issues, this work investigated a new methodology where the drug-polymer solubility is estimated from the solubility of the drug in a solution of the polymer at room temperature using the shake-flask method. Thus, the new polymer in solution method does not rely on temperature extrapolations and only requires the polymer and a solvent, in which the polymer is soluble, that does not affect the molecular structure of the drug and polymer relative to that in the solid st…
Impedance analysis of perovskite solar cells: a case study
2019
Metal halide perovskites are mixed electronic-ionic semiconductors with an extraordinary rich optoelectronic behavior and the capability to function very efficiently as active layers in solar cells, with a record efficiency surpassing 23% nowadays. In this work, we carry out an impedance spectroscopy analysis of two perovskite solar cells with quite distinct optical and electrical characteristics, i.e. MAPbI3 and CsPbBr3-based devices. The main aim of the analysis is to establish how, regardless the inherent complexity of the impedance spectrum due to ionic effects, information like ideality factors, recombination losses and the collection efficiency can be qualitative and quantitatively as…
Manipulation of nanoparticles of different shapes inside a scanning electron microscope
2014
In this work polyhedron-like gold and sphere-like silver nanoparticles (NPs) were manipulated on an oxidized Si substrate to study the dependence of the static friction and the contact area on the particle geometry. Measurements were performed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) that was equipped with a high-precision XYZ-nanomanipulator. To register the occurring forces a quartz tuning fork (QTF) with a glued sharp probe was used. Contact areas and static friction forces were calculated by using different models and compared with the experimentally measured force. The effect of NP morphology on the nanoscale friction is discussed.
Complex tribomechanical characterization of ZnO nanowires: nanomanipulations supported by FEM simulations
2016
In the present work, we demonstrate a novel approach to nanotribological measurements based on the bending manipulation of hexagonal ZnO nanowires (NWs) in an adjustable half-suspended configuration inside a scanning electron microscope. A pick-and-place manipulation technique was used to control the length of the adhered part of each suspended NW. Static and kinetic friction were found by a 'self-sensing' approach based on the strain profile of the elastically bent NW during manipulation and its Young's modulus, which was separately measured in a three-point bending test with an atomic force microscope. The calculation of static friction from the most bent state was completely reconsidered…
Subamorphous thermal conductivity of crystalline half-Heusler superlattices
2021
The quest to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit has mainly followed the roadmap of lowering the thermal conductivity while keeping unaltered the power factor of the material. Ideally an electron-crystal phonon-glass system is desired. In this work, we report an extraordinary reduction of the cross-plane thermal conductivity in crystalline (TiNiSn):(HfNiSn) half-Heusler superlattices (SLs). We create SLs with thermal conductivities below the effective amorphous limit, which is kept in a large temperature range (120–300 K). We measured thermal conductivity at room temperature values as low as 0.75 W m−1 K−1, the lowest thermal conductivity value reported so far for half-Heusler compou…
Experimental characterization of a novel configuration of thermoelectric refrigerator with integrated finned heat pipes
2021
Abstract Thermoelectric refrigerating systems (TER) are environment-friendly technologies. They have several advantages such as low maintenance costs, are less cumbersome and long lifetime. However, these systems have low coefficient of performance and are limited in achieving low temperature levels. This study investigates a new configuration of TE refrigerator employing a novel arrangement of heat sinks with integrated flat and finned heat pipes. A mathematical model is firstly developed to predict transient temperatures and cooling limit time. An experimental characterization is then performed and it includes optimization of energy consumption, cooling time, temperature levels and TE ref…
Wall collision and drug-carrier detachment in dry powder inhalers: Using DEM to devise a sub-scale model for CFD calculations
2018
Abstract In this work, the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used to simulate the dispersion process of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) after a wall collision in dry powders inhaler used for lung delivery. Any fluid dynamic effects are neglected in this analysis at the moment. A three-dimensional model is implemented with one carrier particle (diameter 100 μm) and 882 drug particles (diameter 5 μm). The effect of the impact velocity (varied between 1 and 20 m s−1), angle of impact (between 5° and 90°) and the carrier rotation (±100,000 rad s−1) are investigated for both elastic and sticky walls. The dispersion process shows a preferential area of drug detachment located in the southe…
Visualizing pectin polymer-polymer entanglement produced by interfacial water movement.
2020
In this report, we investigated the physical conditions for creating pectin polymer-polymer (homopolymer) entanglement. The potential role of water movement in creating pectin entanglement was investigated by placing water droplets-equivalent to the water content of two gel phase films-between two glass phase films and compressing the films at variable probe velocities. Slow probe velocity (0.5 mm/sec) demonstrated no significant debonding. Corresponding videomicroscopy demonstrated an occasional water bridge, but no evidence of stranding or polymer entanglement. In contrast, fast probe velocity (5 mm/sec) resulted in 1) an increase in peak adhesion strength, 2) a progressive debonding curv…
Connections Between Topology and Macroscopic Mechanical Properties of Three-Dimensional Open-Pore Materials
2018
This work addresses a number of fundamental questions regarding the topological description of materials characterized by a highly porous three-dimensional structure with bending as the major deformation mechanism. Highly efficient finite-element beam models were used for generating data on the mechanical behavior of structures with different topologies, ranging from highly coordinated bcc to Gibson–Ashby structures. Random cutting enabled a continuous modification of average coordination numbers ranging from the maximum connectivity to the percolation-cluster transition of the 3D network. The computed macroscopic mechanical properties–Young's modulus, yield strength, and Poisson's ratio–co…
A high-resolution layer-wise discontinuous Galerkin formulation for multilayered composite plates
2020
Abstract In this work, a novel high-resolution formulation for multilayered composite plates is presented. The formulations is referred to as high-resolution since it combines (i) Layer-Wise plate theories, which are based on a per-layer, high-order expansion of the primary variables throughout the plate’s thickness, providing a detailed layer-level description of the sought solution; (ii) The discontinuous Galerkin method, a numerical approach based on a discontinuous representation of the unknown fields over the mesh elements and on the introduction of boundary integral operators enforcing inter-element continuity, which allow the natural treatment of high-order mesh elements and provide …