RESUMO
Low efficiencies and costly electrode materials have limited harvesting of thermal energy as electrical energy using thermo-electrochemical cells (or "thermocells"). We demonstrate thermocells, in practical configurations (from coin cells to cells that can be wrapped around exhaust pipes), that harvest low-grade thermal energy using relatively inexpensive carbon multiwalled nanotube (MWNT) electrodes. These electrodes provide high electrochemically accessible surface areas and fast redox-mediated electron transfer, which significantly enhances thermocell current generation capacity and overall efficiency. Thermocell efficiency is further improved by directly synthesizing MWNTs as vertical forests that reduce electrical and thermal resistance at electrode/substrate junctions. The efficiency of thermocells with MWNT electrodes is shown to be as high as 1.4% of Carnot efficiency, which is 3-fold higher than for previously demonstrated thermocells. With the cost of MWNTs decreasing, MWNT-based thermocells may become commercially viable for harvesting low-grade thermal energy.
Assuntos
Fontes de Energia Elétrica , Eletroquímica/instrumentação , Nanotecnologia/instrumentação , Nanotubos de Carbono/química , Cristalização/métodos , Transferência de Energia , Desenho de Equipamento , Análise de Falha de Equipamento , Temperatura Alta , Teste de Materiais , Nanotubos de Carbono/ultraestrutura , Tamanho da PartículaRESUMO
A novel designed free-standing, sandwich-structured membrane electrode assembly (MEA), nano-Pt loaded (0.142 mg cm(-2)) ACNT/Nafion/ACNT via the attachment of two sets of aligned CNT array electrode structures to opposite sides of a Nafion PEM membrane exhibits significantly improved performance compared to commercially available Pt/CB catalysts used in PEM fuel cell applications.
RESUMO
Pulsed amperometry has been used to detect and discriminate between different base-pair oligonucleotides using flow injection analysis with polypyrrole modified electrodes. Oligonucleotides with 20-repeat units were immobilized as the sole counter anion during polymerisation of pyrrole onto a glassy carbon (GC) electrode. The modified electrode was then used in a flow injection analysis (FIA) set-up to selectively detect complementary oligonucleotides. Results showed that complementary oligo(dG)(20) and non-complementary oligonucleotides can be distinguished by using the oligo(dC)(20) modified electrode.