bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Electrochemical Melting of DNA: Optimization and Application
Authors: Madrigal Eddie , West Ryan M 
Published: February 2020

A biosensor is an analytical device that can detect, quantitate, and/or characterize biologically-relevant molecules, often utilizing biologically-derived recognition elements, such as DNA oligomers or enzymes. Applications in point-of-care diagnostics, drug development, and forensic toxicology require portable, rapid, reliable, and easy-to-use devices. Electrochemistry provides a promising platform for such devices due to its potential for parallel measurements, its sensitivity, and its ease-of-miniaturization. In this work, gold electrodes modified with self-assembled monolayers of DNA are utilized to study the electric field assisted melting of double-stranded DNA (i.e. “e-melting”). We have previously demonstrated the ability to detect single mismatches in short DNA oligomers using this approach (J. Electrochem. Soc. 2019 volume 166, issue 4, B236-B242). Broadly, this project aims to (1) develop a better understanding of the mechanism of e-melting and (2) correlate e-melting behavior (kinetics, dependence on applied potential, ionic strength, etc.) to DNA structure and stability. Such analysis has the potential to provide fast and portable screening of biological samples for specific sequences, presence of mismatches, and other mutations. In addition, this method could provide a new platform for fundamental biophysical studies aimed at understanding the behavior of DNA in high electric fields.
We will present several key improvements to the procedure for formation of the DNA monolayers using a potential pulse routine during electrode modification. This procedure has now replaced the “passive” method used in previous work and has decreased the amounts of reagents, decreased the reaction time, and increased reproducibility of the DNA surface coverage. This has made possible a correlation between the electrochemical signal (peak height obtained from voltammetric measurements) and the DNA surface coverage (DNA molecules per cm2). Additionally, improvements to the electrochemical melting routine itself will also be presented.These improvements in the methodology allows more controlled and reproducible studies, decreasing the signal-to-noise, and increasing sensitivity to small changes in DNA stability or structure. Results from the application of this method towards the study of interactions between DNA and small molecules, specifically cisplatin, will also be presented. Cisplatin has a strong affinity for DNA: it binds to the N7 of two neighboring purines with preference to neighboring guanines. This binding causes a kink in the DNA which destabilizes it. This research will contribute to a better understanding of the way in which small molecules, like cisplatin, affect the stability of DNA and how such interactions are affected by high electric fields. Ultimately, these studies may provide the foundation upon which future electrochemical biosensors can be developed.
Designing Corrosion Resistant High Entropy Alloys Via Chlorine Susceptibility Index
Authors: Li Sirui , Ke Huibin , Panindre Anup , Taylor Christopher , Frankel Gerald S. 
Published: February 2020

In this poster presentation, first principle density functional theory (DFT) implemented in the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) is coupled with Chlorine Susceptibility Index (CSI) to guide the design of high entropy alloys (HEA) for materials employed in marine environment. On the atomic scale, elements within HEAs are randomly distributed throughout the alloy. This disordered crystalline state renders the investigation of all possible combinations impossible for DFT calculations. The CSI methodology developed by Dr. Huibin Ke in the Taylor group can be applied here to circumvent this issue [1]. The first successful CSI model for alloy systems was derived based on the special quasi-random structure approach[2] utilized for the study of Ni-Cr 22 alloy[3] and uses the first-principles thermodynamics approximation that allows the prediction of preferred chemisorption states in mixed media as a function of pH, electrochemical potential and chloride concentration[4]. Herein, we apply this method in search for combinations of elements that can provide the best corrosion resistance, under constraints of satisfying the high entropy alloy predictors of configurational entropy, valence electron concentration, atomic size difference[5] as well as cost efficiency (cost should be on par with Stainless Steel 304). Performance predictions will be compared with a parallel experimental program involving alloy synthesis, structural characterization and electrochemical characterization of the corrosion performance [6].
Reference:
[1] H. Ke and C.D. Taylor, Chloride Susceptibility Index (CSI): An ab initio based corrosion resistance indicator, Research in Progress, NACE (2019), Nashville, TN

[2] S. Wei, L.G. Ferreira, J.E. Bernard, A. Zunger, Electronic properties of random alloys: Special quasirandom structures, 42 (1990).
[3] A.J. Samin, C.D. Taylor, First-principles investigation of surface properties and adsorption of oxygen on Ni-22Cr and the role of molybdenum, Corros. Sci. 134 (2018) 103–111. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2018.02.017.
[4] C.D. Taylor, S. Li, A. Samin, S. Li, A. Samin, Oxidation versus salt-film formation: Competitive adsorption on a series of metals from first-principles, Electrochim. Acta. (2018). doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2018.02.150.This.
[5] M.C. Gao, J.-W. Yeh, P.K. Liaw, Y. Zhang, eds., High-Entropy Alloys: Fundamentals and Applications, Springer, 2016. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-27013-5_12.
[6] A. Panindre, G.B. Viswanathan, S. Li, C. D. Taylor, G.S. Frankel, The effect of intermediate temperature anneal on the corrosion properties of a High Entropy Alloy, NACE Conference 2019, Nashville, TN, USA.
(Invited) National Science Foundation Innovation Programs
Authors: Soriano Molla Jesus 
Published: February 2020

This presentation will discuss the challenges faced by academic institutions when trying to commercialize the output of federally funded research. Through the Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) program, the National Science Foundation (NSF) offers researchers from all disciplines of science and engineering the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development, catalyze partnerships and accelerate the transition of discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit.
PFI has five broad goals, as set forth by the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017 (“the Act”, S.3084— 114th Congress; Sec. 602. Translational Research Grants): (1) identifying and supporting NSF-sponsored research and technologies that have the potential for accelerated commercialization; (2) supporting prior or current NSF-sponsored investigators, institutions of higher education, and non-profit organizations that partner with an institution of higher education in undertaking proof-of-concept work, including the development of technology prototypes that are derived from NSF-sponsored research and have potential market value; (3) promoting sustainable partnerships between NSF-funded institutions, industry, and other organizations within academia and the private sector with the purpose of accelerating the transfer of technology; (4) developing multi-disciplinary innovation ecosystems which involve and are responsive to the specific needs of academia and industry; (5) providing professional development, mentoring, and advice in entrepreneurship, project management, and technology and business development to innovators.
In addition, PFI responds to the mandate set by Congress in Section 601(c)(3) of the Act (Follow-on Grants), to support prototype or proof-of-concept development work by participants, including I-Corps participants, with innovations that because of the early stage of development are not eligible to participate in a Small Business Innovation Research Program or a Small Business Technology Transfer Program.
Finally, PFI seeks to implement the mandate set by Congress in Section 102(c)(a) of the Act (Broader Impacts Review Criterion Update) by enhancing partnerships between academia and industry in the United States and expanding the participation of women and individuals from underrepresented groups in innovation, technology translation, and entrepreneurship.
The presentation will describe other entrepreneurship, innovation and industrial partnerships programs offered by the NSF to catalyze the commercialization of high-risk, high-impact technologies.
(Invited) Batteries to Power Implantable Medical Devices: Development and Inspiration
Authors: Takeuchi Esther S , Takeuchi Kenneth J , Marschilok Amy C. 
Published: February 2020

Batteries for implantable medical devices have requirements specific to each device. However, some characteristics are demanded by all implantable applications including high energy density both volumetrically and gravimetrically, exceptional reliability, predictable behavior, and ability to determine state of charge. The lithium/iodine (Li/I2) solid electrolyte battery system has been used successfully for decades as a high energy density primary battery to power implantable cardiac pacemakers delivering microampere level currents with an exceptional record of predictability and reliability. In contrast, high power cells capable of delivering ampere level pulses based on the lithium/silver vanadium oxide chemistry power implantable cardiac defibrillators.
Case studies will be provided to illustrate that understanding the batteries systems used under the rigorous requirements demanded by implantable medical devices can provide inspiration for addressing issues in battery systems intended for a wide variety of applications. Strategies to extend the life time of lithium batteries comparing cathode materials based on transition metal oxides with transition metal phosphates will be described. Known failure modes are explored along with their impact on interfacial phenomena. The lithium/iodine pacemaker battery is used as inspiration for demonstration of a rechargeable solid state battery based on the use of LiI rich lithium iodide-(3-hydroxyproprionitrile)2 solid state electrolyte. The battery is assembled fully discharged using only the solid state electrolyte. On charge, lithium metal forms at the negative side of the battery and iodine forms at the positive side. Finally, strategies to successfully increase power of high energy density batteries will be described.
Optimizing Electrochemical Thermal Control Devices: Investigating the Effect of Water Contamination on Reversible Silver Thin-Film Plating
Authors: Ganley Emily Nicole , Plumley John Bryan , Tsui Lok-kun , Peng Thomas , Garzon Fernando H 
Published: February 2020

Reversible Electrochemical Mirror (REM) technology describes a variable emissivity system that can switch between reflective and transmissive states through the application of a voltage to electrodeposit and remove a reflective mirror film. Such a system is an ideal replacement for traditional thermal control methods in space (louvres and radiators), because it is lighter, has no moving parts, and offers a finer degree of tunability.
We have investigated various silver-plating systems that achieve this switching effect, including (1) AgNO3 in DMSO solvent, as well as (2) AgI and LiBr salts in γ-Butyrolactone. The effect of water contamination on these systems was determined, and the subsequent enhancement or degradation of the system quantified. While silver nucleation occurs more readily in water-contaminated systems, the presence of water may be detrimental to the stability and reversibility of the system such as more ready oxidation of the deposited film. For the DMSO/AgNO3 system, the addition of water also results in an increase in current during deposition (Figure 1). This is hypothesized to be a result of easier dissociation of AgNO3 in the presence of water which leads to greater silver ion conductivity.
Thin film growth will be carried out on various substrates (indium tin oxide (ITO), silver, and gold) to determine the ways in which small amounts of water contamination affect the microstructure, optical reflectivity, reversibility, and stability of the system.
Figure 1: Silver plating at -0.05 V in DMSO/AgNO3 systems (WE: ITO, CE: ITO, RE: Ag/AgNO3/0.1M AgNO3 in DMSO) with various amounts of water-doping. As the concentration of water increases, current increases.

Figure 1
Pulsed Electrophoretic Deposition of Carbon Nanotubes for Anti-Reflective Coatings
Authors: Wang Dan , Hall Timothy D. , Inman Maria , Taylor E. J. , Skinn Brian , Snyder Stephen 
Published: February 2020

Exo-atmospheric optical sensors, seeker telescopes, and some other space-borne instruments require low reflectivity surfaces to minimize stray and reflected light across the visible and infrared wavebands. For example, in order to improve the sensitivity of missile-defense sensors and seekers, baffles are used within optical telescopes to reduce stray light. Some materials (e.g., aluminum, beryllium, etc.) are too reflective to use as absorptive baffles without surface processing, although they have lightweight and good thermo-structural properties, and survive harsh environments. Black surface coating treatments have been demonstrated as effective approaches to obtain low reflective surfaces. The surface features and intrinsic properties of the coating materials play an important role for scattering, absorbing, or trapping light. The excellent optical absorption performance and light weight of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) make them as ideal coating materials for obtaining low reflectivity surfaces.
Within this context, Faraday Technology demonstrated the feasibility of a low-cost, efficient and scalable manufacturing process for the deposition of durable, low reflectivity carbon nanotube black coatings based on the use of pulse and pulse reverse electrophoretic deposition. As shown in Figure 1 A, the uniform CNT coatings are formed on stainless steel substrate (Figure 1 A, Inset), and the diffuse reflectance of the CNT coatings is ~ 1% over the visible range. We also demonstrated the potential to apply CNT coating on the internal diameter of cylinders at room temperature (Figure 1 B). Faraday are currently working on developing CNT coatings on the surface of absorptive baffle materials, such as beryllium and aluminum. The economic and scalable technology for producing CNT black coatings on desired substrates can not only be used for minimizing stray and reflected light for space-borne instruments, but also offer potential applications in other optical related devices which request low reflective surfaces, such as solar cells.

Acknowledgements: The financial support of NASA Contract No. 80NNSC18P2062 and DOD MDA Contract No. HQ0147-19-C-7065 are acknowledged.

Figure 1
Paving the Way for K-Ion Batteries: Role of the Electrolyte Reactivity
Authors: Caracciolo Laure , Gachot Grégory , Gabaudan Vincent , Petit Emmanuel , Stievano Lorenzo , Monconduit Laure , Martinez Hervé , Madec Lénaïc 
Published: February 2020

Developing batteries based on Earth abundant elements such as sodium, magnesium or more recently potassium has become a mandatory challenge in the context of renewable energy growth that requires large-scale storage systems for which cost is the dominant factor and lithium supply a possible issue. Due to the beneficial potassium abundance (2.09 wt.% of the Earth’s crust), low standard potential of K+/K,1 weaker K+ Lewis acidity,2 K-ion batteries (KIBs) are expected to greatly favor both the energy and power density compared to NIB. Numerous new materials for KIBs have thus rapidly been proposed3 but their performance evaluation still remains greatly limited by the lack of efficient electrolytes and the high reactivity of K metal in half cells.4 Indeed, the use of KN(SO2F)2 (KFSI) instead of KPF6 have been reported to be beneficial to most of the anode materials5 while detrimental to some cathode materials,6 probably due to the corrosion of Al current collector by KFSI at high potential.
In this presentation, the impact of KPF6 and KFSI salts in carbonate- and glyme-based electrolytes is investigated. The reactivity of K metal is first evaluated by its immersion in the different electrolytes. The soluble/gaseous and solid electrolyte degradation species are analyzed using GC/MS and XPS, respectively. A comparison with the reactivity of Li metal in the equivalent Li salts based electrolyte is also performed. Moreover, K//graphite and K//KVPO4F half-cells have also been prepared and stored (no cycling) to investigate interactions between electrodes (i.e. migration of electrolyte degradation species from the K metal to the working electrode) and their impact in solid electrolyte interphases formation and resulting electrochemical performance.

References

N. Matsuura, K. Umemoto, and Z. Takeuchi, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn., 47, 813–817 (1974).

M. Okoshi, Y. Yamada, S. Komaba, A. Yamada, and H. Nakai, J. Electrochem. Soc., 164, A54–A60 (2017).

K. Kubota, M. Dahbi, T. Hosaka, S. Kumakura, and S. Komaba, Chem. Rec., 18, 1–22 (2018).

L. Madec, V. Gabaudan, G. Gachot, L. Stievano, L. Monconduit, and H. Martinez, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 10, 34116–34122 (2018).

N. Xiao, W. D. McCulloch, and Y. Wu, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 9475–9478 (2017).

X. Jiang, T. Zhang, L. Yang, G. Li, and J. Y. Lee, ChemElectroChem, 4, 2237–2242 (2017).
Understanding Chemo-Mechanical Degradation in High-Capacity Electrode Materials for Beyond-Lithium-Ion Batteries
Authors: Boebinger Matthew G , Wang Baolin , Papakyriakou Marc , Yarema Maksym , Wood Vanessa , Xia Shuman , Zhu Ting , McDowell Matthew T 
Published: February 2020

In recent years there has been growing interest in the development of large-volume-change electrode materials for use in lithium-, sodium- and potassium-ion based systems to satisfy the demand for batteries with low cost and/or high energy density. Conversion and alloying battery materials are attractive options for such systems due to their high specific capacity. The conventional thought is that the larger volume changes due to reaction with larger ions (e.g., Na+ and K+) cause significant mechanical degradation. However, the mechanisms by which these ions react with high-capacity materials are largely unknown. In this work, in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments are used to examine the nanoscale transformation mechanisms of two different high-capacity nanocrystal materials during reaction with various alkali ions. In both cases, we find that unexpected changes in morphology during reaction arise due to significant mechanical stress evolution within the nanocrystals. Overall, these results are important because they provide guidance for engineering high-capacity electrode materials with improved durability and cyclability.
In the first set of experiments, cubic FeS2 nanocrystals were examined with in situ TEM as they underwent reaction with Li+, Na+, and K+. In all cases, the FeS2 nanocrystals exhibited a conversion-type reaction, but mechanical fracture during reaction was only observed during lithiation (which caused the smallest volumetric changes). This non-intuitive behavior was found to be due to differently-shaped reaction fronts that formed during reaction with Li+ compared to Na+ and K+. Specifically, lithiation induced a reaction front with sharp corners, while sodiation and potassiation resulted in fronts with blunted corners. Chemomechanical modeling of the reaction-induced expansion showed that the sharp corners during lithiation led to higher tensile stress concentrations and thus particle fracture. These results indicate that previously-dismissed high-capacity materials may in fact exhibit good chemo-mechanical stability during reaction and cycling with Na+ and K+. Next, other in situ TEM experiments were performed to investigate reaction mechanisms of Sb nanocrystals. These experiments showed that Sb nanocrystals naturally evolve to form hollow structures during ion removal. This finding indicates that electrochemically optimized nanoscale structures can evolve naturally in certain alloying anode materials, which may obviate the need for complex and expensive synthesis of hollow nanostructures for maximizing cyclability and Coulombic efficiency in battery anodes.

Figure 1
Potential-Dependent Oxidation Mechanism of Li2O2 and Its Application in Li-O2 Batteries
Authors: Wang Yu , Lu Yi-Chun 
Published: February 2020

Non-aqueous lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries have attracted intensive research attentions owing to their potential to provide gravimetric energy density 3–5 times that of conventional Li-ion batteries. In-depth understandings of the reaction mechanisms during discharge and charge are the prerequisites for further advancement of the Li-O2 technology. The ORR has been widely established to generate Li2O2 by surface (electrochemical) or solution (chemical) pathway via manipulating the fate of superoxide intermediate (LiO2). However, the reaction mechanism of the charging reaction in Li-O2 batteries (OER, or Li2O2
oxidation) is still under debates.
In this study, we report a potential-dependent oxidation mechanism of Li2O2 (charging mechanism) by examining the reaction intermediate species at a wide range of charging overpotential via thin-film rotating–ring disk electrode (RRDE) and synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). To investigate the oxidation behavior of Li2O2 at lower overpotential, we used ruthenium (Ru) as the model catalyst to control the charging potential. To make the amount of reactant comparable to that in regular Li-O2 cells, we here employ thin-film RRDE by drop casting Valcun Carbon (VC) or VC supported Ru (Ru/VC) particles onto the glass carbon electrode (disk) to increase the total surface area, as shown in Figure 1. XANES further provides the chemical information of reaction intermediates and parasitic product that caused by the intermediates/discharge product. We will discuss potential-dependent charging reaction pathways and provide insights in the design strategy to achieve efficient Li-O2 batteries.

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by two grants from Research Grants Council (RGC) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, under No. C7051-17G and CUHK 14207517.

Figure 1