Fatal casualties resulting from explosions of electric vehicles and energy storage systems equipped with lithium-ion batteries have become increasingly common worldwide. As a result, interest in developing safer and more advanced battery systems has grown. Aqueous batteries are emerging as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which offer advantages such as low cost, safety, high ionic conductivity, and environmental friendliness. In this Review, we discuss the challenges and recent strategies for various aqueous battery systems that use lithium, zinc, sodium, magnesium, and aluminium ions as carrier ions. We also highlight the three key factors that need the most improvement in these aqueous battery systems: higher operating voltage for the cathode, a more stable metal anode interface, and a larger electrochemical stability window of the electrolyte.
The concentration effect of dielectrophoresis (DEP) enables detection of biomolecules with high sensitivity. In this study, microstructures were patterned between the interdigitated microelectrodes (IMEs) to increase the concentration effect of DEP. The microstructures increased the electric field gradient (∇|E2|) between the IMEs to approximately 6.61-fold higher than in the bare IMEs with a gap of 10 μm, resulting in a decreased optimal voltage to concentrate amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42, from 0.8 Vpp to 0.5 Vpp) and tau-441 (from 0.9 Vpp to 0.6 Vpp) between the IMEs. Due to the concentration effect of DEP, the impedance change in the optimal condition was higher than the values in the reference condition at 2.64-fold in Aβ42 detection and at 1.59-fold in tau-441 detection. This concentration effect of DEP was also verified by counting the number of gold (Au) particles which conjugated with the secondary antibody. Finally, an enhanced concentration effect in the patterned IMEs was verified by measuring the impedance change depending on the concentration of Aβ42 and tau-441. Our results suggest that microstructures increase the concentration effect of DEP, leading to enhanced sensitivity of the IMEs.
We synthesized Sr- and W-doped BaTiO3 (BTO) polycrystals by using a solid-state reaction method. The X-ray diffraction results showed that Sr and W atoms occupied the Ba and Ti sites in tetragonal BTO, respectively, and there were changes in the lattice constants and the volumes in the Sr- and W-doped BTO. We found a change in the latent heat and the Curie temperature (TC) during the transition between the ferroelectric and paraelectric phases while increasing the contents of Sr and W in the Sr- and W-doped BTO. This can be explained by the fact that the doping of Sr and W atoms in BTO prevented a distinct transition between the ferroelectric tetragonal and paraelectric cubic structures by decreasing the c/a ratio to a value close to unity. This study shows a way toward a strategy for modulating a crystal structure by using proper dopants for future applications in ferroelectricity-based devices.
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