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The sodium–nickel chloride (Na/NiCl2 ) battery has many advantages over the Na–S battery, such as a higher operating voltage, ease of assembly in the discharge state, less corrosive cathode materials, a safer cell failure mode, and better tolerance against overcharging. In this study, to solve the problem of low electrical conductivity, a planar-type Na/NiCl2 cell was designed by optimizing the cathode through the use of both Ni mesh and excess Ni powder. A β″-Al2O3 membrane, which plays a role in the conducting path for Na+ ions, was glass-sealed and attached to a thicker external α″-Al2O3 ring. For carbon coating, the anode side of the membrane was covered with carbon paste. The prototype cell was operated successfully and showed excellent electrochemical characteristics in terms of high Na utilization and stable charge/discharge cycleability.

Sodium–nickel chloride batteries have been used as energy storage devices because of their high operating voltage, ease of assembly in a discharged state, the less corrosive nature of the cathode materials, safer cell failure mode, and better tolerance against overcharging. In this study, we fabricated a planar-type cell equipped with an elastic spring rod in the anode to maintain effective sodium utilization. In addition, we investigated the influence of carbon coating on the β″-Al2O3 membrane. The carbon coating layer on the β″-Al2O3 membrane showed improved wettability for sodium metal. The carbon-coated alumina membrane delivered a higher initial charge/discharge capacity than the pristine membrane cells.

The 0.3Li 2 MnO 3 ·0.7Li[Mn 0.60 Ni 0.25 Co 0.15 ]O 1.975 F 0.025 cathode materials were synthesized by using a co-precipitation process in a Couette-Taylor reactor. Fluorine was substituted to facilitate the movement of lithium ions by forming more compact SEI layer and reduce the dissolution of transition metals, and lower internal impedance with charging/discharging cycling. In order to chemically remove the Li 2 O, the 0.3Li 2 MnO 3 ·0.7Li [Mn 0.60 Ni 0.25 Co 0.15 ]O 1.975 F 0.025 composites was preconditioned by a HNO 3 solution. The acid-treated 0.3Li 2 MnO 3 ·0.7Li[Mn 0.60 Ni 0.25 Co 0.15 ]O 1.975 F 0.025 was showed the low initial irreversible capacity and the higher discharge capacity. The acid-treated and fluorine-substituted materials delivered the low initial discharge capacities, but it gradually increased during cycles.

We propose a novel packaging method of a thin polyimide multichannel microelectrode. For the simple electrical connection of polyimide (PI) electrodes, we made a via-hole at the interconnection pads of thin PI electrodes, and constructed a Ni ring by electroplating through the via-hole for the stable soldering and strong adhesion of the electrode to PCB. For the construction of a well-organized Ni ring, the electroplating condition was optimized, and the electrical property of the packaged electrode was evaluated. A 40 channel thin PI electrode was fabricated and packaged by the proposed method, and we performed the animal experiment with this packaged electrode for the high-resolution recording of neural signals from the skull of a rat.

We investigated the effect of interfacial buffer layers of aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) as a seed layer of ZnO nanowire and PEDTO:PSS on the performance of hybrid solar cells based on the blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester(PCBM) and ZnO nanowire. The efficient inverted organic/inorganic hybrid solar cell were fabricated with the structure of indium tin oxide (ITO)/AZO/ZnO nanowire/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag. Short circuit current density of 9.77 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage of 0.57 V, fill factor of 51.2 %, and power conversion efficiency of 2.87 % under a AM 1.5G 100 mW/cm2 condition were achieved

We propose a novel packaging method for preparing thin polyimide (PI) multichannel microelectrodes. The electrodes were connected simply by making a via-hole at the interconnection pad of a thin PI electrode, and a nickel (Ni) ring was constructed by electroplating through the via-hole to permit stable soldering with strong adhesion to the electrode and the printed circuit board. The electroplating conditions were optimized for the construction of a well-organized Ni ring. The electrical properties of the packaged electrode were evaluated by fabricating and packaging a 40-channel thin PI electrode. Animal experiments were performed using the packaged electrode for high-resolution recording of somatosensory evoked potential from the skull of a rat. The in vivo and in vitro tests demonstrated that the packaged PI electrode may be used broadly for the continuous measurement of bio-signals or for neural prosthetics.

We propose a growth method to obtain ZnO nanowires with very high aspect ratios which involves adding ammonium chloride without repeated batch process. The ZnO nanowires with a length of over 13.6 μm and an aspect ratio of about 97 were grown by the proposed method. Nanogenerators based on the prepared ZnO nanowires were fabricated and their electrical properties were characterized as a function of aspect ratio to verify the changes in the piezoelectric potential. We obtained a maximum current density of ∼1.6 μm/cm2 by applying a compressive force to the nanogenerator using a linear motor.