This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 10979, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Author and Conference Committee lists.

Electrochemical capacitors are viable energy storage solution but their low energy density restricts their widespread deployment in many electronic devices. The motivation behind hybrid capacitor is the desire to improve the energy density output of electrochemical capacitors by combining electrodes capable of storing charges by surface adsorption with redox active electrodes. The overall performance output of the energy storage device are governed by the intrinsic characteristics of electrodes employed and their preparation techniques. In this paper, we discuss different hybrid capacitor devices employing binder-free electrodes based on electrostatic spray deposition or electrophoretic deposition techniques.

The recent discoveries of new quantum materials, the advances in deposition as well as exfoliation methods, and the improved ability to manufacture contacts and interfaces have refocused the interest of the scientific community on electron transport phenomena. A panoply of applications, ranging from electronic to energy conversion devices, relies on optimized charge transport and, in most cases, requires careful balancing of competing degrees of freedom. A typical example is the power factor (PF = S2/ρ, S is the thermopower and ρ the electrical resistivity), which expresses the need to simultaneously optimize charge and entropic components in the electron transport to improve thermoelectric energy conversion. The search for optimized thermoelectric materials poses also an interesting conundrum because of the delicate balance, which must be achieved between charge and thermal transport. In addition, practical factors such as cost and manufacturability play an important role when discussing materials and properties. We have done substantial progress in addressing these issues and will present an overview of our recent advances and progress in the design of ternary and quaternary thermoelectric sulfides for mid-temperature applications. Our conclusions are based on a synergistic approach which combines synthesis, characterization, and first principles modeling.

In recent years, automotive companies have tried to implement in their vehicles devices that supply renewable energy to the electromechanical systems that make them up, giving rise to well know hybrid and electric cars. The main idea to produce this kind of energy is focused on taking advantage of resources that in the past were useless due to the lack of technology. This work presents a preliminary system of electrical charge from the use of sun heat that is stored in the front panel of the car while it is parked in such a way that the solar radiation falls directly on it. The system uses inversely a Peltier cell, an electronic element that is composed of plates of semiconductor material that has the property of generating heat or cold depending on the polarity that is applied to the plates, for this case one of the cell faces is used to capture the heat energy through the vehicle front windshield. This work presents a system of heat conversion in electrical energy using a Peltier cell, preliminary experimental results obtained are discussed.

There are several mechanisms which have been proposed for the existence of colossal dielectric constant in the class of perovskite calcium copper titanate (CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ or CCTO) materials. Researches indicate that existence of twinning parallel to (100) (001) and (010) planes causes planar defects and causes changes in local electronic structure. This change can cause insulating barriers locally which contribute to the large dielectric values irrespective of processing. The combination of insulating barriers, defects and displacements caused by twinning have been attributed to the generation of large dielectric constant in CCTO. To examine some of these arguments some researchers replaced Ca with other elements and evaluated this concept. In this study we present the synthesis and characterization of Ga_2/3Cu₃Ti₄O_12-xN_x (GCTON) material. This provides both distortion due to atomic size difference and defects due to insertion of nitrogen. The morphology of the compound was determined to show that processing has tremendous effect on the dielectric values. The resistivity of GCTON was several order higher than CCTO and dielectric constant was higher than 10,000.

Tungsten diselenide (WSe₂) is an interesting two dimensional (2D) transitional metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) with a high quantum yield in photoluminescence (PL), a strong spin-orbit coupling and tunable transport properties. One way to increase photon absorption in WSe₂ is to combine WSe₂ with other excitonic nanomaterials such as Quantum dots (QDs) from which photogenerated excitons can be transferred onto the TMDCs via non-radiative energy transfer. Such characteristics prove highly effective in the utilization of QDs toward enhancing the optical responsivity of 2D material-based photo-FET devices. In this study, we fabricated WSe₂ based photodetector and showed that its photoconduction property was improved by incorporation of Au-QDs. Monolayer WSe₂ was synthesized on SiO₂/Si by low pressure chemical vapor deposition method at a growth temperature of ~ 850°C. Thereafter, Au-QDs (~15 nm) were drop casted onto WSe₂ followed by vacuum annealing. PL spectroscopy showed enhancement in excitonic A-peak intensity by an order of 2-fold in the region where Au QD was incorporated. E-beam lithography was used to fabricate the back gated photo transistor followed by Au/Ti deposition by E-beam evaporation. The device was illuminated with a red laser source (660 nm) to study its optoelectronic properties. The photoresponsivity was found to improve by a factor of ~102 with the incorporation of Au QDs in 1L WSe₂. Our results demonstrate the viability of this hybrid structure for commercial photodetector and light harvesting applications.

Zinc doped titanium oxide (Ti_1-xZn_xO₂, x=0.05) abbreviated as Ti_0.95 Zn_0.05O₂ (TZO) ceramic was synthesized by semiwet route using aqueous solution of zinc acetate dihydrate and solid titanium dioxide as starting materials. The single phase formation of the TZO ceramic sintered at 900 °C for 8 h was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The lattice parameters obtained by Retvield refinement were found to be a=b= 4.609 Å, c= 2.967Å and α=β= γ= 90 ° with space group P 42/m n m confirmed the rhombic structure of TZO ceramic. The average particle size of the TZO ceramic observed by TEM analysis was found to be 84 nm. The surface morphologies and roughness parameters of TZO ceramic were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. The value of dielectric constant (ε′) and tangent loss (tan δ) of the TZO ceramic were found to be 230 and 0.2, respectively at 100 Hz and 498 K.

In this paper, an experimental study is performed to find the relation between the current of a battery and the power thrust of an electric-powered ducted fan. Electric-powered duct fans are becoming increasingly popular in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and are controlled by a pulse position modulation controller. Three different measurements are taken by three transducers, namely: a multimeter with a range of 0 to 400 DC Amps that measures the input current feeding the electric speed controller from the batteries; a load cell with a range of 0 to 45 KG to measure the thrust output of each of the motor; and, a thermocouple to measure the temperature of the Li-Po batteries. Once the data was obtained, an artificial neural network was trained and tested to obtain the relationship between the input (pulse position modulation) and output (the thrust). The effects of battery current on an electric-powered ducted fan are then summarized.

Heat is one of the major setbacks to a Li-Po batterie’s efficiency and performance, being an un-avoidable factor, the increase in heat shortens the cycling life of the battery considerably. Moreover, the heat increases the rate of unwanted chemical reactions inside the battery, which in turn increases the risk of swelling, sparking or even catching fire. This study measures the effect of temperature on the performance of the battery power output. The battery is connected to an electric ducted fan that draws approximately 150 Amp DC. The rapid discharge of the Li-Po battery generates heat that affects the power output of battery, and in turn affects the Electric Ducted Fan performance. The temperature of the battery is managed by either emerging it in a cooling bath or by the room HVAC system. The performance of the battery is measured by analyzing the thrust obtained by the electric ducted fan in relation to the power provided by the battery. Once the data is obtained, an artificial neural network is trained to obtain the relationship between the temperature to the battery performance.