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Photocatalytic reactions can be efficiently driven by completely integrated photocatalyst–light emitter units which are wirelessly powered using resonant inductive coupling.

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The ability to communicate with our voice can be regarded as the concatenation of the two processes "phonation" and "modulation." These take place in the larynx and palatal and oral region, respectively. During phonation the audible primary voice signal is created by mutual reaction of vocal folds with the exhaled air stream of the lungs. The underlying interactions of masses, fluids and acoustics have yet to be identified and understood. One part of the primary signal's acoustical source are vortex induced vibrations, as e.g., created by the Coandăeffect in the air stream. The development of these vorteces is determined by the shape and 3-D movements of the vocal folds in the larynx. Current clinical in vivo research methods for vocal folds do not deliver data of satisfactory quality for fundamental research, e.g., an endoscope is limited to 2-D image information. Based hereupon, a few improved methods have been presented, however delivering only selective 3-D information, either for a single point or a line. This stands in contrast to the 3-D motions of the entire vocal fold surface. More complex imaging methods, such as MRI, do not deliver information in real-time. Thus, it is necessary to develop an easily applicable, more improved examination method, which allows for 3-D data of the vocal folds surfaces to be obtained. We present a method to calibrate a 3-D reconstruction setup including a laser projection system and a high-speed camera. The setup is designed with miniaturization and an in vivo application in mind. The laser projection system generates a divergent grid of 196 laser dots by diffraction gratings. It is calibrated with a planar calibration target through planar homography. In general, the setup allows to reconstruct the topology of a surface at high frame rates (up to 4000 frames per second) and in uncontrollable environments, as e.g., given by the lighting situation (little to no ambient light) and varying texture (e.g., varying grade of reflection) in the human larynx. In particular, this system measures the 3-D vocal fold surface dynamics during phonation. Applied to synthetic data, the calibration is shown to be robust (error approximately 0.5 μm) regarding noise and systematic errors. Experimental data gained with a linear z -stage proved that the system reconstructs the 3-D coordinates of points with an error at approximately 15 μm. The method was applied exemplarily to reconstruct porcine and artificial vocal folds' surfaces during phonation. Local differences such as asymmetry between left and right fold dynamics, as well as global parameters, such as opening and closing speed and maximum displacements, were identified and quantified.

We report on the frequency dependent behavior of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA). The introduced smart material actuators consist of 3M ™ 's elastomer VHB ™ 4905 (9469) and a compliant, sputtered copper electrode on each side. The presented experiments on these compounds contain the active tuning of their resonance frequency and their application as acoustic actuators. We are able to decrease the membranes' eigenfrequency by 30% with an electrical offset potential. Alternatively, if an alternating signal is applied, sound pressure levels up to 130 dB in an enclosed volume of 28 ccm are achieved. In order to verify the results, a numerical simulation is introduced incorporating the two physical fields involved: electrical and mechanical.

Light‐driven biocatalytic processes are notoriously hampered by poor penetration of light into the turbid reaction media. In this study, wirelessly powered light‐emitting diodes are found to represent an efficient and scalable approach for process intensification of the photobiosynthetic production of diesel alkanes from renewable fatty acids.