In order to understand the effect of Pb-CuI co-doping on the thermoelectric performance of Bi₂Te₃, n-type Bi₂Te₃ co-doped with x at % CuI and 1/2x at % Pb (x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, and 0.10) were prepared via high temperature solid state reaction and consolidated using spark plasma sintering. Electron and thermal transport properties, i.e., electrical conductivity, carrier concentration, ...

background: the aim of this work was to establish how well gel dosimeters performed, as substitutes for brain tissue compared with standard phantom materials such as water, polymethyl-methacrylate (or pmma), a150 plastic and te- liquid phantom material for dosimetry of neutron beams in boron neutron capture therapy. materials and methods: thermal neutron fluence, photon dose and epithermal neut...

A tool for evaluating thin-film thermal conductivity to submicron spatial resolution has been developed. The micro-instrumentation utilizes the thermoreflectance (TR) technique to characterize thermal conductivity and material uniformity. The instrument consists of a heating element for creating temperature gradients and an Invar bar with in situ temperature monitoring for heat flux measurement...

Novel low-dimensional thermoelectric (TE) materials suffer from poor mechanical reliability, which limits their applications, especially in mechanically harsh environments. Here, we propose a new concept, in which the novel, abundant, thermally stable TE-nanostructures are dispersed and then intimately embedded inside a protective, mechanically reliable tetragonal ZrO2 (TZP) ceramic matrix with...

Background: No large scale analysis of transposable element (TE) protein structures exists. Results: We predicted and analyzed hundreds of proteins from a representative set of DNA and LINE transposable elements. Conclusion: We provide new insights on TE evolution, structure, and frequency of sequence exchange events between TEs and their hosts. Significance: The first large scale analysis of T...

In thermoelectric (TE) generators, maximizing the efficiency of conversion of direct heat to electricity requires the reduction of any thermal and electrical contact resistances between the TE legs and the metallic contacts. This requirement is especially challenging in the development of intermediate to high-temperature TE generators. PbTe-based TE materials are known to be highly efficient up...

The spectral resolution of a MEMS-based IR microspectrometer critically depends on the thermal cross-talk between adjacent TE elements in the detector array. Thermal isolation between elements is realized by using bulk micromachining directly following CMOS processing. This paper reports on the characterization results of bridge-shaped TE detector elements that are cut out of a membrane. Elemen...

Skutterudite materials have been considered as promising thermoelectric candidates due to intrinsically good electrical conductivity and tailorable thermal conductivity. Options for improving thermal-to-electrical conversion efficiency include identifying novel materials, adding filler atoms, and substitutional dopants. Incorporating filler or substitutional dopant atoms in the skutterudite com...

Global warming is intensifying interest in the physiological consequences of temperature change in ectotherms, but we still have a relatively poor understanding of the effects of temperature on early life stages. This study determined how embryonic temperature (TE) affects development and the activity of metabolic enzymes in the swimming muscle of zebrafish. Embryos developed successfully to ha...