Graphene hosts a unique electron system in which electron-phonon scattering is extremely weak but electron-electron collisions are sufficiently frequent to provide local equilibrium above the ...temperature of liquid nitrogen. Under these conditions, electrons can behave as a viscous liquid and exhibit hydrodynamic phenomena similar to classical liquids. Here we report strong evidence for this transport regime. We found that doped graphene exhibits an anomalous (negative) voltage drop near current-injection contacts, which is attributed to the formation of submicrometer-size whirlpools in the electron flow. The viscosity of graphene's electron liquid is found to be ~0.1 square meters per second, an order of magnitude higher than that of honey, in agreement with many-body theory. Our work demonstrates the possibility of studying electron hydrodynamics using high-quality graphene.
The antibacterial properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles were investigated using both gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms. These studies demonstrate that ZnO nanoparticles have a wide ...range of antibacterial activities toward various microorganisms that are commonly found in environmental settings. The antibacterial activity of the ZnO nanoparticles was inversely proportional to the size of the nanoparticles in S. aureus. Surprisingly, the antibacterial activity did not require specific UV activation using artificial lamps, rather activation was achieved under ambient lighting conditions. Northern analyses of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) specific genes and confocal microscopy suggest that the antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles might involve both the production of reactive oxygen species and the accumulation of nanoparticles in the cytoplasm or on the outer membranes. Overall, the experimental results suggest that ZnO nanoparticles could be developed as antibacterial agents against a wide range of microorganisms to control and prevent the spreading and persistence of bacterial infections.
Biochar is a stabilized, recalcitrant organic carbon compound, created when biomass is heated to temperatures usually between 300 and 1000°C, under low (preferably zero) oxygen concentrations. It is ...produced from a variety of biomass feedstock, such as agricultural residues, wood chips, manure, and municipal solid waste, through a variety of thermal treatments, among which slow pyrolysis is the most widely used due to its moderate operating conditions and optimization of biochar yields. Despite the recent introduction of the term biochar for this material, there have been several applications of charred materials in the past due to their unique properties (e.g., high specific surface area, microporosity, and sorptive capabilities). These early applications have primarily focused on the use of biochar as a soil amendment in agriculture, though other applications in environmental remediation engineering may be equally important (i.e., for soil and groundwater treatment and stormwater filter media). The objective of this review is to provide a detailed examination into the engineering properties and potential uses of biochar as an engineered material for environmental remediation. Biochar, due its highly variable and customizable surface chemistry, offers great potential in a variety of engineering applications, some of which have yet to be discovered.
At very small twist angles of ∼0.1°, bilayer graphene exhibits a strain-accompanied lattice reconstruction that results in submicron-size triangular domains with the standard, Bernal stacking. If the ...interlayer bias is applied to open an energy gap inside the domain regions making them insulating, such marginally twisted bilayer graphene is expected to remain conductive due to a triangular network of chiral one-dimensional states hosted by domain boundaries. Here we study electron transport through this helical network and report giant Aharonov-Bohm oscillations that reach in amplitude up to 50% of resistivity and persist to temperatures above 100 K. At liquid helium temperatures, the network exhibits another kind of oscillations that appear as a function of carrier density and are accompanied by a sign-changing Hall effect. The latter are attributed to consecutive population of the narrow minibands formed by the network of one-dimensional states inside the gap.
Electrokinetic remediation is a developing remediation technology for the restoration of soils, sludge and sediments contaminated with inorganic and/or organic compounds. The basis of electrokinetic ...remediation lays in the application of a low intensity direct electric current (typically 1VDCcm−1) to the contaminated porous matrix (soil, sediment). The electric field induces the mobilization and transport of the contaminants toward the electrodes. Ionic contaminants are transported toward the electrode of the opposite charge due to the transport process known as electromigration. The electric field also induces a net flux of water into the solid porous matrix, known as electro-osmosis. Electro-osmosis transport contaminants in solution in the interstitial fluid toward the cathode if the surface charge of the porous matrix is negative, which is the most common case. Thus, electro-osmosis is the key transport phenomenon for the removal of organic contaminants in soils, sludge and sediments. The most dangerous and recalcitrant organics in soils are hydrophobic and tend to remain attached to the soil particles and organic matter in the soil. In order to enhance the removal of organic contaminants by electro-osmosis, it is necessary to use solubilizing agents that desorb the contaminants and favor their dissolution/solubilization in the interstitial fluid. Surfactants, bio-surfactants, co-solvents, and cyclodextrins were used with different success in the removal of these hydrophobic organics in soils. However, the effectiveness of the process also depends on the maintenance of a high electro-osmotic flow for a long time. This can be achieved by regulating the pH of the soil with the proper flushing solution in the electrodes and using pulsed electric fields.
This paper proposes a new 7-level inverter topology for induction motor drives. It is a hybrid topology formed by cascading a 5-level active neutral-point-clamped inverter with a 3-level T-type ...converter. It is obtained using low-voltage semiconductor devices with voltage blocking capability of Vdc/3 and Vdc/6. The topology uses three floating capacitors per phase, which are balanced within a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) switching duration using switching-state redundancies for each pole-voltage level. Topology forms two stacks at the front-end, which requires individual symmetrical dc source. The analysis of switching loss and conduction loss is performed and compared with some of the existing 7-level multi-level inverters reported in various literatures to show the advantages of the proposed topology. Furthermore, the single dc source operation with two stacked capacitors and closed-loop control of neutral-point voltage using symmetrical six-phase induction motor is proposed. The voltage-control algorithms for floating capacitors and dc-link stacked capacitors are proposed, which are independent of load power factor and modulation index. Open-loop V / f and closed-loop rotor field oriented control are performed, and various results at steady and transient states are presented to validate the aforementioned claims.
There has been an undercurrent of intellectual tension between geneticists studying human population history and archaeologists for almost 40 years. The rapid development of paleogenomics, with ...geneticists working on the very material discovered by archaeologists, appears to have recently heightened this tension. The relationship between these two fields thus far has largely been of a multidisciplinary nature, with archaeologists providing the raw materials for sequencing, as well as a scaffold of hypotheses based on interpretation of archaeological cultures from which the geneticists can ground their inferences from the genomic data. Much of this work has taken place in the context of western Eurasia, which is acting as testing ground for the interaction between the disciplines. Perhaps the major finding has not been any particular historical episode, but rather the apparent pervasiveness of migration events, some apparently of substantial scale, over the past ∼5000 years, challenging the prevailing view of archaeology that largely dismissed migration as a driving force of cultural change in the 1960s. However, while the genetic evidence for `migration’ is generally statistically sound, the description of these events as structured behaviours is lacking, which, coupled with often over simplistic archaeological definitions, prevents the use of this information by archaeologists for studying the social processes they are interested in. In order to integrate paleogenomics and archaeology in a truly interdisciplinary manner, it will be necessary to focus less on grand narratives over space and time, and instead integrate genomic data with other form of archaeological information at the level of individual communities to understand the internal social dynamics, which can then be connected amongst communities to model migration at a regional level. A smattering of recent studies have begun to follow this approach, resulting in inferences that are not only helping ask questions that are currently relevant to archaeologists, but also potentially opening up new avenues of research.
Cyclotron motion of charge carriers in metals and semiconductors leads to Landau quantization and magneto-oscillatory behavior in their properties. Cryogenic temperatures are usually required to ...observe these oscillations. We show that graphene superlattices support a different type of quantum oscillation that does not rely on Landau quantization. The oscillations are extremely robust and persist well above room temperature in magnetic fields of only a few tesla. We attribute this phenomenon to repetitive changes in the electronic structure of superlattices such that charge carriers experience effectively no magnetic field at simple fractions of the flux quantum per superlattice unit cell. Our work hints at unexplored physics in Hofstadter butterfly systems at high temperatures.
Mining practices and the absence of proper mine land reclamation has led to heavy metal contaminated sites with serious impact on the ecosystems and risk for human health. The origin of the ...contamination is often associated to mine tailing deposits because they are a source of the acid mine drainage (AMD). These areas are devoid of vegetation due to the harsh soil conditions that prevent the rooting of plant species. The remediation of these areas followed by revegetation is necessary to suppress the generation of the AMD and its negative effects on the ecosystems. Conventional remediation technologies for heavy metal contaminated sites are usually not applicable because of the high cost associated with chemicals and energy requirements, as well as the long treatment time to remediate large areas. In this study, the use of phytocapping for the remediation of mine tailing deposits and abandoned mine areas is reviewed. Phytocapping is cost effective, environmentally friendly and has multifunctional role against various problems of mine tailings: it provides erosion control, landscape rehabilitation, enhances the soil properties for further colonization of other more demanding vegetal species, reduces the leachability of metals downwards the groundwater, and favors the immobilization of metals forming less bioavailable species. The most critical step in phytocapping is the developing of the first vegetative cover because of the biotoxicity of the mine soil and mine tailings. Several amendment materials can be used to ameliorate soil conditions creating a favorable environment for the rooting of plants, as well as serving as a source of nutrients. Local plant species with fast growing are preferable because their adaptation to the soil and climate conditions favors their self-propagation.
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