Introduction: Modeling of injury risk from nonlethal weapons including flash-bangs is a critical step in the design, acquisition, and application of such devices for military purposes. One flash-bang design concept currently being developed involves multiple, area-distributed flash-bangs. It is particularly difficult to model the variation inherent in operational settings employing such devices due to the randomness of flash-bang detonation positioning relative to targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThin film nonstoichiometric oxides enable many high-temperature applications including solid oxide fuel cells, actuators, and catalysis. Large concentrations of point defects (particularly, oxygen vacancies) enable fast ionic conductivity or gas exchange kinetics in these materials but also manifest as coupling between lattice volume and chemical composition. This chemical expansion may be either detrimental or useful, especially in thin film devices that may exhibit enhanced performance through strain engineering or decreased operating temperatures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActuator operation in increasingly extreme and remote conditions requires materials that reliably sense and actuate at elevated temperatures, and over a range of gas environments. Design of such materials will rely on high-temperature, high-resolution approaches for characterizing material actuation in situ. Here, we demonstrate a novel type of high-temperature, low-voltage electromechanical oxide actuator based on the model material PrCeO (PCO).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Zintl-phase Sr3 AlSb3 , which contains relatively earth-abundant and nontoxic elements, has many of the features that are necessary for good thermoelectric performance. The structure of Sr3 AlSb3 is characterized by isolated anionic units formed from pairs of edge-sharing tetrahedra. Its structure is distinct from previously studied chain-forming structures, Ca3 AlSb3 and Sr3 GaSb3 , both of which are known to be good thermoelectric materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Zintl compound Ca5Al2Sb6 is a promising thermoelectric material with exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity resulting from its complex crystal structure. In common with the Al analogue, Ca5In2Sb6 is naturally an intrinsic semiconductor with a low p-type carrier concentration. Here, we improve the thermoelectric properties of Ca5In2Sb6 by substituting Zn(2+) on the In(3+) site.
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