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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Toward High-Performance Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials: The Progress Of Bottom-Up Solution Chemistry Approaches, Yixin Zhao, Jeffrey S. Dyck, Clemens Burda Dec 2012

Toward High-Performance Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials: The Progress Of Bottom-Up Solution Chemistry Approaches, Yixin Zhao, Jeffrey S. Dyck, Clemens Burda

Jeffrey Dyck

Significant research effort has recently gone into the synthesis of thermoelectric nanomaterials through different chemical approaches since nanomaterials chemistry became a promising strategy for improving thermoelectric performance. Different thermoelectric nanocrystals, especially PbTe, Bi2Te3 and CoSb3, with various compositions and morphologies have been successfully prepared by solvo/hydrothermal, electrochemical, and ligand-based synthesis methods. Such nanoscale materials show not only substantial reduction in thermal conductivity due to increased phonon scattering at nanoscale grain boundaries and lower densities of phonon states but possibly also an enhancement in thermopower due to electronic quantum size effects. More recently, the notoriously low power factors of thermoelectric nanomaterials …


Structure Inhomogeneities, Shallow Defects, And Charge Transport In The Series Of Thermoelectric Materials K2bi8−Xsbxse13, Jeffrey S. Dyck, T. Kyratski, E. Hatzikraniotis, K. M. Paraskevopoulos, C. D. Malliakas, C. Uher, M. G. Kanatzidis Dec 2012

Structure Inhomogeneities, Shallow Defects, And Charge Transport In The Series Of Thermoelectric Materials K2bi8−Xsbxse13, Jeffrey S. Dyck, T. Kyratski, E. Hatzikraniotis, K. M. Paraskevopoulos, C. D. Malliakas, C. Uher, M. G. Kanatzidis

Jeffrey Dyck

The charge transport properties of the low-dimensional thermoelectric materials K2Bi8-xSbxSe13 (02Bi8-xSbxSe13 was analyzed on the basis of the classical semiconductor theory and discussed in the context of recent band calculations. The results suggest that the K2Bi8-xSbxSe13 materials possess coexisting domains with semimetallic and semiconducting characters whose ratio is influenced by the value of x and by local defects. The extent and relative distribution of these domains control the charge transport properties. Electron diffraction experiments performed on samples of K2Bi8-xSbxSe13 with x=1.6 show evidence for such domains by indicating regions with long range ordering of K+/Bi3+ atoms and regions with increased …


Double Layer In Ionic Liquids: Overscreening Versus Crowding, Martin Z. Bazant, Brian D. Storey, Alexei A. Kornyshev Jul 2012

Double Layer In Ionic Liquids: Overscreening Versus Crowding, Martin Z. Bazant, Brian D. Storey, Alexei A. Kornyshev

Brian Storey

We develop a simple Landau-Ginzburg-type continuum theory of solvent-free ionic liquids and use it to predict the structure of the electrical double layer. The model captures overscreening from short-range correlations, dominant at small voltages, and steric constraints of finite ion sizes, which prevail at large voltages. Increasing the voltage gradually suppresses overscreening in favor of the crowding of counterions in a condensed inner layer near the electrode. This prediction, the ion profiles, and the capacitance-voltage dependence are consistent with recent computer simulations and experiments on room-temperature ionic liquids, using a correlation length of order the ion size.


Self-Assembly Of Helical Ribbons, Yevgeniya V. Zastavker, Neer Asherie, Aleksey Lomakin, Jayanti Pande, Joanne M. Donovan, Joel M. Schnur, George B. Benedek Jun 2012

Self-Assembly Of Helical Ribbons, Yevgeniya V. Zastavker, Neer Asherie, Aleksey Lomakin, Jayanti Pande, Joanne M. Donovan, Joel M. Schnur, George B. Benedek

Yevgeniya V. Zastavker

The self-assembly of helical ribbons is examined in a variety of multicomponent enantiomerically pure systems that contain a bile salt or a nonionic detergent, a phosphatidylcholine or a fatty acid, and a steroid analog of cholesterol. In almost all systems, two different pitch types of helical ribbons are observed: high pitch, with a pitch angle of 54 ± 2°, and low pitch, with a pitch angle of 11 ± 2°. Although the majority of these helices are right-handed, a small proportion of left-handed helices is observed. Additionally, a third type of helical ribbon, with a pitch angle in the range …


Tension-Induced Straightening Transition Of Self-Assembled Helical Ribbons, Yevgeniya V. Zastavker, Brice Smith, George B. Benedek Jun 2012

Tension-Induced Straightening Transition Of Self-Assembled Helical Ribbons, Yevgeniya V. Zastavker, Brice Smith, George B. Benedek

Yevgeniya V. Zastavker

Helical ribbons with pitch angles of either 11° or 54° self-assemble in a wide variety of quaternary surfactant-phospholipid/fatty acid-sterol-water systems. By elastically deforming these helices, we examined their response to uniaxial forces. Under sufficient tension, a low pitch helix reversibly separates into a straight domain with a pitch angle of 90° and a helical domain with a pitch angle of 16.5°. Using a newly developed continuum elastic free energy model, we have shown that this phenomenon can be understood as a first order mechanical phase transition.


Non-Linear Dynamic Intertwining Of Rods With Self-Contact, Christopher Lee, Sachin Goyal, Noel Perkins Apr 2012

Non-Linear Dynamic Intertwining Of Rods With Self-Contact, Christopher Lee, Sachin Goyal, Noel Perkins

Christopher Lee

Twisted marine cables on the sea floor can form highly contorted three-dimensional loops that resemble tangles. Such tangles or ‘hockles’ are topologically equivalent to the plectomenes that form in supercoiled DNA molecules. The dynamic evolution of these intertwined loops is studied herein using a computationalrod model that explicitly accounts for dynamicself-contact. Numerical solutions are presented for an illustrative example of a long rod subjected to increasing twist at one end. The solutions reveal the dynamicevolution of the rod from an initially straight state, through a buckled state in the approximate form of a helix, through the dynamic collapse of this …


Hydrogen Production From Biogas By Oxy-Reforming: Reaction System Analysis, Aleksandra Terlecka, Wojciech M. Budzianowski Dec 2011

Hydrogen Production From Biogas By Oxy-Reforming: Reaction System Analysis, Aleksandra Terlecka, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

Oxy-reforming is emerging as an interesting alternative to conventional methods of hydrogen generation. The current article characterises this process through analysis of individual reactions: SMR (steam methane reforming), WGS (water gas shift) and CPO (catalytic partial oxidation). Analyses relate to optimisation of thermal conditions thus enabling cost-effectivenes of the process.