Bioaerosol Inactivation by a Cold Plasma Ionizer Coupled with an Electrostatic Precipitator.

Despite best efforts in air purification, airborne infectious diseases will continue to spread due to the continuous emission of bioaerosols by the host/infected person. Hence, a shift in focus from air purification to bioaerosol inactivation is urgently needed. To explore the potential of the cold plasma technology for preventing rapid spread of airborne infectious diseases, we studied a cold plasma ionizer (CPI) device and an electrostatic precipitator (ESP)-coupled CPI (CPI-ESP) device for the inactivation and cleaning of surface-spread microorganisms and bioaerosols, using porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV), (), and aerosolized as representatives.

Ultrahigh electromechanical response from competing ferroic orders.

Materials with electromechanical coupling are essential for transducers and acoustic devices as reversible converters between mechanical and electrical energy. High electromechanical responses are typically found in materials with strong structural instabilities, conventionally achieved by two strategies-morphotropic phase boundaries and nanoscale structural heterogeneity. Here we demonstrate a different strategy to accomplish ultrahigh electromechanical response by inducing extreme structural instability from competing antiferroelectric and ferroelectric orders.

Valorization of Spent coffee Grounds: A sustainable resource for Bio-based phase change materials for thermal energy storage.

Spent coffee grounds (SCGs) are waste residues arising from the process of coffee brewing and are usually sent to landfills, causing environmental concerns. SCGs contain a considerable amount of fatty acids and is therefore a promising green alternative bio-based phase change material (PCMs) compared to conventional organic and inorganic PCMs. In this study, the extraction of coffee oil from SCGs was conducted using three different organic solvents-ethanol, acetone, and hexane.

Controlled Formation of Conduction Channels in Memristive Devices Observed by X-ray Multimodal Imaging.

Neuromorphic computing provides a means for achieving faster and more energy efficient computations than conventional digital computers for artificial intelligence (AI). However, its current accuracy is generally less than the dominant software-based AI. The key to improving accuracy is to reduce the intrinsic randomness of memristive devices, emulating synapses in the brain for neuromorphic computing.

Upcycling Silicon Photovoltaic Waste into Thermoelectrics.

Two decades after the rapid expansion of photovoltaics, the number of solar panels reaching end-of-life is increasing. While precious metals such as silver and copper are usually recycled, silicon, which makes up the bulk of a solar cells, goes to landfills. This is due to the defect- and impurity-sensitive nature in most silicon-based technologies, rendering it uneconomical to purify waste silicon.

SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater: From detection to evaluation.

SARS-CoV-2 presence in wastewater has been reported in several studies and has received widespread attention among the Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) community. Such studies can potentially be used as a proxy for early warning of potential COVID-19 outbreak, or as a mitigation measure for potential virus transmission via contaminated water. In this review, we summarized the latest understanding on the detection, concentration, and evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.

Improved in NbGe-GeTe thermoelectric nanocomposite.

Robust electronic transport properties is a crucial in designing high performance thermoelectrics. A key similarity between superconductor and thermoelectric lies in their generally high electrical conductivity, even at above its superconducting temperature. In this work, we design a nanocomposite between NbGe and GeTe-based thermoelectric to improve its thermoelectric figure of merit .

Risk assessment of airborne COVID-19 exposure in social settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many countries oscillating between various states of lock-down as they seek to balance keeping the economy and essential services running and minimizing the risk of further transmission. Decisions are made about which activities to keep open across a range of social settings and venues guided only by heuristics regarding social distancing and personal hygiene. Hence, we propose the dual use of computational fluid dynamic simulations and surrogate aerosol measurements for location-specific assessment of risk of infection across different real-world settings.

Concave Array Ultrasonic Transducer From Multilayer Piezoelectric Ceramic for Photoacoustic Imaging.

Implementation of piezoelectric multilayer ceramic (MLC) is an effective way to reduce impedance and improve the performance of linear-array transducer for ultrasonic system applications. However, the ultrasonic image derived from a planar linear-array transducer generally suffers from degradation of lateral resolution and contrast. In this article, we designed and fabricated a focused 5-MHz 128-element linear-array ultrasonic transducer with concave structure using five-layered 0.

The Efficacy of Plant-Based Ionizers in Removing Aerosol for COVID-19 Mitigation.

Small-sized droplets/aerosol transmission is one of the factors responsible for the spread of COVID-19, in addition to large droplets and surface contamination (fomites). While large droplets and surface contamination can be relatively easier to deal with (i.e.

Giant piezoelectricity in oxide thin films with nanopillar structure.

High-performance piezoelectric materials are critical components for electromechanical sensors and actuators. For more than 60 years, the main strategy for obtaining large piezoelectric response has been to construct multiphase boundaries, where nanoscale domains with local structural and polar heterogeneity are formed, by tuning complex chemical compositions. We used a different strategy to emulate such local heterogeneity by forming nanopillar regions in perovskite oxide thin films.

Broadband Ultrasonic Array Transducer From Multilayer Piezoelectric Ceramic With Lowered Co-Firing Temperature.

Increasing array transducer bandwidth (BW) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a critical issue for producing a high-quality medical ultrasound image. However, array elements with small size tend to have poor sensitivity due to a much higher impedance compared with the electrical impedance of the transmitter and receiver circuit. Implementation of multilayer ceramic (MLC) is an effective way of reducing impedance, and thus, with a potential for improving SNR for an ultrasonic probe.

Lead-Free Piezoelectric Ceramic Coatings Fabricated by Thermal Spray Process.

This paper starts from a review on the progress in fabrication of piezoelectric ceramic coatings by thermal spray method. For our experimental work, two types of lead-free piezoelectric ceramic coatings, including potassium-sodium niobate-based and bismuth sodium titanate-based, are fabricated by thermal spray process, and their structure, morphology, and piezoelectric properties are characterized. Our obtained lead-free ceramic coatings exhibit single phase of perovskite structure, relatively dense morphology, and competitive piezoelectric coefficients.