In this review, we report on the use of low pressure plasmas for elaborating materials at the heart of solid polymer fuel cells (SPFC), especially electrodes and the membrane electrolyte. Electrodes are formed using plasma sputtering techniques while the ion conducting membranes are built up using plasma polymerization. Fuel cell performance will be improved by these approaches. The electrode c...

Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped monodisperse carbon microspheres (NS-CMSs) have been successfully synthesized as a new kind of outstanding metal-free ORR catalyst through a one-pot solvothermal reaction. The as-synthesized heteroatom-doped CMSs have been systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ...

abstract background: menthol is the most important active material in mint and different mechanisms have been suggested for the way mint functions, most of which emphasize its analgesic effect owing to the presence of a group of temporary protein receptors. this study investigates the efficacy of peppermint capsule in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea, in comparison with mefenamic acid and ...

As an alternative or supplement to small batteries, the much-anticipated micro-direct methanol fuel cell ( DMFC) faces several key technical issues such as methanol crossover, reactant delivery, and byproduct release. This paper addresses two of the issues, removal of CO2 bubbles and delivery ofmethanol fuel, in a non-prohibitiveway for systemminiaturization. A recently reported bubble-driven p...

Low cost, durable, and selective membranes with high ionic conductivity are a priority need for wide-spread adoption of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Electrolyte membranes are a major cost component of PEMFC stacks at low production volumes. PEMFC membranes also impose limitations on fuel cell system operating conditions that add system...

In this work, we extend the pure fluid crossover statistical associating fluid theory (HRX-SAFT) equation of state (EOS) (Kiselev et al., Fluid Phase Equilib. 2001, 183-184, 53) to fluid mixtures of polar and associating components. HRX-SAFT incorporates non-analytic scaling laws in the critical region and is transformed into the analytical, classical HR-SAFT EOS far away from the critical poin...

We report the syntheses, characterisations, and spin state behaviours of salts of the tripodal-ligated Fe(II) complex [FeL(6-OH)]X(2) (L(6-OH) = tris{4-[(6-methanol)-2-pyridyl]-3-aza-3-butenyl}amine, X = OTf(-) (1), Br(-) (2), I(-) (3), BPh(4)(-) (4)). Covalent linking of the ligand arms is imperative as a high-spin bis(tridentate) complex (5) is formed when a non-tethered ethyl iminopyridine l...

We study the relaxation times tα in the water-methanol system. We examine new data and data from the literature in the large temperature range 163 < T < 335 K obtained using different experimental techniques and focus on how tα affects the hydrogen bond structure of the system and the hydrophobicity of the alcohol methyl group. We examine the relaxation times at a fixed temperature as a functio...

In this work we extend the crossover (CR) modification of the statistical-associating-fluid-theory (SAFT) equation of state (EOS), recently developed and applied for non-associating systems [Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 38 (1999) 4993] to associating fluids. Unlike the previous crossover EOS that was based on the parametric linear model for the universal crossover function Y, the new CR SAFT EOS is bas...

We have developed a “global” crossover (GC) statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) equation of state (EOS) for associating fluids that incorporates nonanalytic scaling laws in the critical region and in the limit of low densities, F f 0, is transformed into the ideal-gas equation EOS. Unlike the crossover SAFT EOS developed earlier, the new GC SAFT EOS contains a so-called kernel term and ...