Probing membrane hydration in microfluidic polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers operando synchrotron Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy.

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers are renewable energy storage systems that produce high purity hydrogen fuel from electrochemical water splitting. The PEM in particular is a key component that acts as a solid electrolyte between electrodes and separates the reactants, but despite these benefits, its internal ion transport mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, the first microfluidic PEM electrolyzer that is semi-transparent in the infrared (IR) spectrum is developed as a platform for characterizing the PEM hydration during operation.

Toward a comprehensive study for multielemental quantitative LA-ICP MS bioimaging in soft tissues.

Quantitative localization of metals in biological tissue sections is critical to obtain insight into metal toxicity mechanisms or their beneficial characteristics. This study presents the development of a quantitative LA-ICP MS bioimaging methodology based on the polymer film strategy and internal standardization. To maximize the number of elements mapped, an aqueous soluble polymer (dextran) was selected.

Flexible relaxor materials: Ba(2)Pr(x)Nd(1-x)FeNb(4)O(15) tetragonal tungsten bronze solid solution.

Relaxors are very interesting materials but most of the time they are restricted to perovskite materials and thus their flexibility is limited. We have previously shown that tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) niobate Ba(2)PrFeNb(4)O(15) was a relaxor below 170 K and that Ba(2)NdFeNb(4)O(15) displays a ferroelectric behavior with a T(C) = 323 K. On scanning the whole solid solution Ba(2)Pr(x)Nd(1-x)FeNb(4)O(15) (x = 0, 0.