High throughput integrated thermal characterization with non-contact optical calorimetry.

Commonly used thermal analysis tools such as calorimeter and thermal conductivity meter are separated instruments and limited by low throughput, where only one sample is examined each time. This work reports an infrared based optical calorimetry with its theoretical foundation, which is able to provide an integrated solution to characterize thermal properties of materials with high throughput. By taking time domain temperature information of spatially distributed samples, this method allows a single device (infrared camera) to determine the thermal properties of both phase change systems (melting temperature and latent heat of fusion) and non-phase change systems (thermal conductivity and heat capacity).

Photothermally Driven Refreshable Microactuators Based on Graphene Oxide Doped Paraffin.

Actuators based on phase change materials (paraffin) can simultaneously produce large stroke length and large force due to thermal expansion, but the low thermal conductivity of paraffin requires high power input and long actuation time. The graphene oxide (GO) doped paraffin dynamic actuator addresses the key challenges in the design of thermal phase change actuators: Thermal conductivity and light absorbing are increased, and the response time is reduced compared to the standard phase change actuator designed with metal heating resistors. The thermal properties of GO-paraffin composites with varied loading amount are characterized to confirm the optimal loading amount of 1.

Nanomaterials for Biosensing Applications.

Nanomaterials have shown tremendous potentials to impact the broad field of biological sensing. Nanomaterials, with extremely small sizes and appropriate surface modifications, allow intimate interaction with target biomolecules. [.

Small-Area, Resistive Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Sensors Using Metal-Polymer Hybrid Film Based on Oxidative Chemical Vapor Deposition (oCVD).

We report a novel room temperature methanol sensor comprised of gold nanoparticles covalently attached to the surface of conducting copolymer films. The copolymer films are synthesized by oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD), allowing substrate-independent deposition, good polymer conductivity and stability. Two different oCVD copolymers are examined: poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene-co-thiophene-3-aceticacid)[poly(EDOT-co-TAA)] and poly(3,4-ehylenedioxythiophene-co-thiophene-3-ethanol)[poly(EDOT-co-3-TE)].

Effect of Mg2+ on hydrothermal formation of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O whiskers with high aspect ratios.

The effect of Mg(2+) on hydrothermal formation of α-CaSO4·0.5H2O whiskers with high aspect ratios was investigated in this paper. α-CaSO4·0.