Dielectric material between capacitor electrodes increases the capacitance. However, when the electric field exceeds a threshold, electric breakdown in the dielectric discharges the capacitor suddenly and the stored energy is lost. We show that nano vacuum tubes do not have this problem because (i) electric breakdown can be suppressed with quantization phenomena, and (ii) the capacitance is lar...

Lithium-sulfur batteries are one of the most promising next-generation batteries due to their high theoretical specific capacity, but are impeded by the low utilization of insulating sulfur, unstable morphology of the lithium metal anode, and transport of soluble polysulfides. Here, by coating a layer of nano titanium dioxide and carbon black onto a commercial polypropylene separator, we demons...

In the present study, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method in different electric fields (30 – 300 V / cm) was used to apply Co3O4 spinel coating to SUS 430 as SOFC interconnect. The coated and uncoated specimens were pre-sintered in air at 800 and 900 °C for 3 h followed by cyclic oxidation at 700 and 800 °C for 500 h, respectively. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning Electron Microsc...

Dielectrophoresis (DEP), a nonlinear electrokinetic transport mechanism, can be used to concentrate and sort cells, viruses, and particles. To date, microfabricated DEP-based devices have typically used embedded metal electrodes to apply spatially nonuniform, time-varying (AC) electric fields. We have developed an alternative method in which arrays of insulating posts in a channel of a microchi...

In liquid metal blankets the interaction of the moving breeder with the intense magnetic field that confines the fusion plasma results in significant modifications of the velocity distribution and increased pressure drop compared to hydrodynamic flows. Those changes are due to the occurrence of electromagnetic forces that slow down the core flow and which are balanced by large driving pressure ...

Dielectrophoresis (DEP), the motion of particles in nonuniform electric fields, is a nondestructive electrokinetic (EK) transport mechanism can be used to concentrate and separate bioparticles. Traditionally, DEP has been performed employing microelectrodes, an approach that is expensive due to the cost of microelectrode fabrication. An alternative is insulator-based DEP (iDEP), an inexpensive ...

The electric currents induced by infrared radiation incident on optical antennas and resonant structures increase their temperature through Joule heating as well as change their electric resistance through the bolometric effect. As the thermo-electric mechanism exists throughout a distributed bolometer, a multiphysics approach was adopted to analyze thermal, electrical, and electromagnetic effe...

In the present study we propose a charge-conservative scheme to solve twophase electrohydrodynamic (EHD) problems using the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method. EHD problems are usually simplified by assuming that the fluids involved are purely dielectric (insulators) or purely conducting. Gases can be considered as perfect insulators but pure dielectric liquids do not exist in nature and insulating l...

[1] Dust grains on the lunar surface are exposed to UV radiation and solar wind plasma and can collect electrical charges, leading to their possible lift-off and transport in the presence of near-surface electric fields. Motivated by the long-standing open questions about the physics of electrostatic lunar dust transport, we investigated the dynamics of dust grains on a conducting surface in a ...