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1. Carbon aerogels with atomic dispersion of binary iron–cobalt sites as effective oxygen catalysts for flexible zinc–air batteries

   https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ta04633g  

   Chen, Yang ; Hu, Shengqiang ; Nichols, Forrest ; Bridges, Frank ; Kan, Shuting ; He, Ting ; Zhang, Yi ; Chen, Shaowei ( June 2020 , Journal of Materials Chemistry A)

   null (Ed.)

   Iron single atom catalysts have emerged as one of the most active electrocatalysts towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), but the unsatisfactory durability and limited activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has hampered their commercial applications in rechargeable metal–air batteries. By contrast, cobalt-based catalysts are known to afford excellent ORR stability and OER activity, due to the weak Fenton reaction and low OER Gibbs free energy. Herein, a bimetal hydrogel template is used to prepare carbon aerogels containing Fe–Co bimetal sites (NCAG/Fe–Co) as bifunctional electrocatalysts towards both ORR and OER, with enhanced activity and stability, as compared to the monometal counterparts. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, elemental mapping and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements demonstrate homogeneous distributions of the metal centers within defected carbon lattices by coordination to nitrogen dopants. X-ray absorption spectroscopic measurements, in combination with other results, suggest the formation of FeN 3 and CoN 3 moieties on mutually orthogonal planes with a direct Fe–Co bonding interaction. Electrochemical measurements show that NCAG/Fe–Co delivers a small ORR/OER potential gap of only 0.64 V at the current density of 10 mA cm −2 , 60 mV lower than that (0.70 V) with commercial Pt/C and RuO 2 catalysts. When applied in a flexible Zn–air battery, the dual-metal NCAG/Fe–Co catalyst also shows a remarkable performance, with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.47 V, a maximum power density of 117 mW cm −2 , as well as good rechargeability and flexibility. Results from this study may offer an ingenious protocol in the design and engineering of highly efficient and durable bifunctional electrocatalysts based on dual metal-doped carbons. 

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2. A Family of Novel Switch Capacitor Based Integrated Matrix Autotransformer LLC Converter for Data Center Application

   https://doi.org/10.1109/GreenTech56823.2023.10173801  

   Qiu, Maohang ; Wei, Mengxuan ; Liu, Xiaoyan ; Meng, Haoran ; Cao, Dong ( April 2023 , IEEE)

   Switched Tank Converter(STC) is one kind of Resonant Switch Capacitor(ReSC) that can be considered as a good candidate for data center application with high power efficiency and high power density. On the other hand, LLC converter can also realize very good performance for low voltage application. Although STC can realize relatively higher efficiency than LLC converter in the light load since the core loss is saved, LLC can keep relatively higher efficiency in the heavy load than STC does since the conduction loss of LLC is smaller. The main reason is because transformer’s winding resistance is smaller than semiconductor devices’ resistance, and this is very important for high current application.In order to utilize the benefits of the STC and the LLC converter together, this paper proposes a family of the novel Switch Capacitor based Integrated Matrix Autotransformer LLC Converters (SCIMAC). The proposed converters share the same high voltage side circuit of the STC with low voltage stress devices. Different from the traditional LLC converter with an isolated transformer, the proposed SCIMAC utilizes one autotransformer with only the secondary side windings similar to LLC's secondary side. There are several advantages that can be realized of the SCIMAC: 1). Low figure of merit (FOM) devices can be adopted to realize higher efficiency due to the low voltage stress of the SCIMAC. 2). Higher power efficiency can be realized when compared with STC converter in heavy load because the resistance of the autotransformer’s windings is lower than semiconductor devices’ resistance. 3). The primary side winding loss of the transformer is saved to further increase the efficiency. 4) ZVS turning on can be realized by the magnetizing current of the core. 

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3. 100  GHz bandwidth, 1 volt integrated electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulator at near-IR wavelengths

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.484549  

   Valdez, Forrest ; Mere, Viphretuo ; Mookherjea, Shayan ( May 2023 , Optica)

   Integrated photonics at near-IR (NIR) wavelengths currently lacks high bandwidth and low-voltage modulators, which add electro-optic functionality to passive circuits. Here, integrated hybrid thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZM) are shown, using TFLN bonded to planarized silicon nitride waveguides. The design does not require TFLN etching or patterning. The push–pull MZM achieves a half-wave voltage length product (V_πL) of 0.8 V.cm at 784 nm. MZM devices with 0.4 cm and 0.8 cm modulation length show a broadband electro-optic response with a 3 dB bandwidth beyond 100 GHz, with the latter showing a record bandwidth to half-wave voltage ratio of 100 GHz/V and a high extinction ratio exceeding 30 dB. Such fully integrated high-performance NIR electro-optic devices may benefit data communications, analog signal processing, test and measurement instrumentation, quantum information processing and other applications.

    

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4. Enhancing the performance of a fused-ring electron acceptor via extending benzene to naphthalene

   https://doi.org/10.1039/c7tc04520d  

   Zhu, Jingshuai ; Wu, Yang ; Rech, Jeromy ; Wang, Jiayu ; Liu, Kuan ; Li, Tengfei ; Lin, Yuze ; Ma, Wei ; You, Wei ; Zhan, Xiaowei ( January 2018 , Journal of Materials Chemistry C)

   We compared an indacenodithiophene(IDT)-based fused-ring electron acceptor IDIC1 with its counterpart IHIC1 in which the central benzene unit is replaced by a naphthalene unit, and investigated the effects of the benzene/naphthalene core on the optical and electronic properties as well as on the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Compared with benzene-cored IDIC1, naphthalene-cored IHIC1 shows a larger π-conjugation with stronger intermolecular π–π stacking. Relative to benzene-cored IDIC1, naphthalene-cored IHIC1 shows a higher lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy level (IHIC1: −3.75 eV, IDIC1: −3.81 eV) and a higher electron mobility (IHIC1: 3.0 × 10 −4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , IDIC1: 1.5 × 10 −4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ). When paired with the polymer donor FTAZ that has matched energy levels and a complementary absorption spectrum, IHIC1-based OSCs show higher values of open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor and power conversion efficiency relative to those of the IDIC1-based control devices. These results demonstrate that extending benzene in IDT to naphthalene is a promising approach to upshift energy levels, enhance electron mobility, and finally achieve higher efficiency in nonfullerene acceptor-based OSCs. 

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5. Self-Powered Motion Tracking Sensor Integrated with Low-Power CMOS Circuitry

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ISCAS51556.2021.9401440  

   Tasneem, Nishat T. ; Biswas, Dipon K. ; Mahbub, Ifana ; Adhikari, Pashupati R. ; Reid, Russell ( May 2021 , 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS))

   null (Ed.)

   This paper presents a motion-sensing device with the capability of harvesting energy from low-frequency motion activities that can be utilized for long-term human health monitoring. The energy harvester used in the proposed motion sensor is based on the mechanical modulation of liquid on an insulated electrode, which utilizes a technique referred to as reverse electrowetting-on-dielectric (REWOD). The generated AC signal from the REWOD is rectified to a DC voltage using a Schottky diode-based rectifier and boosted subsequently with the help of a linear charge-pump circuit and a low-dropout regulator (LDO). The constant DC voltage from the LDO (1.8 V) powers the motion-sensing read-out circuitry, which converts the generated charge into a proportional output voltage using a charge amplifier. After amplification of the motion data, a 5-bit SAR-ADC (successive-approximation register ADC) digitizes the signal to be transmitted to a remote receiver. Both the CMOS energy harvester circuit including the rectifier, the charge-pump circuit, the LDO, and the read-out circuit including the charge amplifier, and the ADC is designed in the standard 180 nm CMOS technology. The amplified amplitude goes up to 1.76 V at 10 Hz motion frequency, following linearity with respect to the frequency. The generated DC voltage from the REWOD after the rectifier and the charge-pump is found to be 2.4 V, having the voltage conversion ratio (VCR) as 32.65% at 10 Hz of motion frequency. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the rectifier is simulated as high as 68.57% at 10 Hz. The LDO provides the power supply voltage of 1.8 V to the read-out circuit. The energy harvester demonstrates a linear relationship between the frequency of motion and the generated output power, making it suitable as a self-powered wearable motion sensor. 

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