Electrically conducting polymeric membranes were prepared by incorporating multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) into bacterial cellulose pellicles produced by Gluconacetobacter xylinum. The MWCNTs were dispersed in a surfactant (cationic cetyl trimethylammonium bromide) solution, and cellulose pellicles were dipped into the solution for 6, 12, and 24 h. The surfactants were then extracted in pure water and dried. Electron microscopy showed that the individual MWCNTs were strongly adhered to the surface and the inside of the cellulose pellicle. The conductivity of the MWCNTs-incorporated cellulose pellicle, as measured by a four-probe at room temperature, was 1.4 x 10(-1) S/cm, based on the total cross-sectional area (approximately 9.6 wt % of MWCNTs). This suggests that the MWCNTs were incorporated uniformly and densely into the pellicles.

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Monodisperse and spherical PS and PMMA microspheres, which are only conducting on the surface by the adsorption of carbon nanotubes, were used as the dispersed phase of electrorheological fluids.

In this study, experiments were performed on air heater samples with three different shapes (chevron, wave and dimple type) to reduce theplumes from cooling towers. The tests were conducted for a range of frontal air velocities of 1~3 m/s and water flow rate 0.19~0.33 kg/s. The results showed that the heat transfer rate increased with increasing air velocity or water flow rate. The air-side pressure drop also increased with increasing air velocity. At the same frontal air velocity, the highest heat transfer rate was obtained for the chevron sample (1.5~1.7 times compared to that of the plate sample), followed by the dimple, wave and plate samples. The heat transfer rate per unit power consumption was also 15% larger than that of the dimple sample. On the other hand, there was no noticeable difference between the other samples.

Single-ion conducting polymer electrolyte (SICPE) is a safer alternative to the conventional high-performance liquid electrolyte for Li-ion batteries. The performance of SICPEs-based Li-ion batteries is limited due to the low Li+ conductivities of SICPEs at room temperature. Herein, we demonstrated the synthesis of a novel SICPE, poly­(ethylene-co-acrylic lithium (fluoro sulfonyl)­imide) (PEALiFSI), with acrylic (fluoro sulfonyl)­imide anion (AFSI). The solvent- and plasticizer-free PEALiFSI electrolyte, which was assembled at 90 °C under pressure, exhibited self-healing properties with remarkably high Li+ conductivity (5.84 × 10–4 S cm–1 at 25 °C). This is mainly due to the self-healing behavior of this electrolyte, which induced to increase the proportion of the amorphous phase. Additionally, the weak interaction of Li+ with the resonance-stabilized AFSI anion is also responsible for high Li+ conductivity. This self-healed SICPE showed high Li+ transference number (ca. 0.91), flame and heat retardancy, and good thermal stability, which concurrently delivered ca. 88.25% (150 mAh g–1 at 0.1C) of the theoretical capacitance of LiFePO4 cathode material at 25 °C with the full-cell configuration of LiFePO4/PEALiFSI/graphite. Furthermore, the self-healed PEALiFSI-based all-solid-state Li battery showed high electrochemical cycling stability with the capacity retention of 95% after 500 charge–discharge cycles.

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The BRST quantization of the Abelian Proca model is performed using the BatalinFradkin-Tyutin and the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky formalism. First, the BFT Hamiltonian method is applied in order to systematically convert a second class constraint system of the model into an effectively first class one by introducing new fields. In finding the involutive Hamiltonian we adopt a new approach which is more simpler than the usual one. We also show that in our model the Dirac brackets of the phase space variables in the original second class constraint system are exactly the same as the Poisson brackets of the corresponding modified fields in the extended phase space due to the linear character of the constraints comparing the Dirac or Faddeev-Jackiw formalisms.Then, according to the BFV formalism we obtain that the desired resulting Lagrangian preserving BRST symmetry in the standard local gauge fixing procedure naturally includes the Stückelberg scalar related to the explicit gauge symmetry breaking effect due to the presence of the mass term. We also analyze the nonstandard nonlocal gauge fixing procedure.

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