Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) is one of the leading advanced energy conversion technology for the use in transport. It generates water droplets through the catalytic processes and dispenses the water through the gas-flowed microchannels. The droplets in the dispensing microchannel experience g-forces from different directions during the operation in transport. Therefore, this paper reviews the computational modelling topics of droplet dynamics behaviour specifically for three categories, i.e. (i) the droplet sliding down a surface, (ii) the droplet moving in a gas-flowed microchannel, and (iii) the droplet jumping upon coalescence on superhydrophobic surface; in particular for the parameters like hydrophobicity surfaces, droplet sizes, numerical methods, channel sizes, wall conditions, popular references and boundary conditions.

The silver nanoparticles/polyaniline/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode (Ag/PANI/RGO/GCE) was prepared by the electrochemical method. The Ag/PANI/RGO nanocomposite was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ESI). Two electrochemical techniques namely differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to the electrochemical behaviors investigation of ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), and uric acid (UA). The Ag/PANI/RGO/GCE exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation reaction of AA, DA, and UA in Britton-Robinson (BR) solution (pH=4.0). Under the optimal conditions, the determinations of AA, DA, and UA were accomplished using DPV. AA-DA and DA-UA peak potential separations were 130 and 180 mV, respectively. For simultaneous detection, the linear response ranges were in the two concentration ranges of 0.05-0.8 mM and 2.0-16.0 mM with detection limit 0.412 μM (S/N = 3) for AA, 0.7-90.0 μM and 90.0-1000.0 μM with detection limit 0.023 μM (S/N = 3) for DA, and 0.8-70.0 μM and 70.0-1000.0 μM with detection limit 0.050 μM (S/N = 3) for UA. This modified electrode showed good sensitivity, selectivity, and stability with applied to determine AA, DA, and UA in human urine and drug.

In this paper, we report the preparation of a flexible, self-standing and binder-free carbon nanotubes (CNTs) electrode with an electro-generated current collector. The copper current collector layer was electrodeposited on the backside of CNTs self-standing film obtained by a simple filtration process. The obtained CNTs-Cu assembly was used as a negative electrode in Li-ion batteries exhibiting good performance along with proving its applicability in flexible batteries.

Zn-air battery uses oxygen from the air, and hence, air holes in it are kept open for cell operation. Therefore, loss of water by evaporation through the holes is inevitable. When the water is depleted, the battery ceases to operate. There are two water consumption routes in Zn-air batteries, namely, active path (electrolysis) and passive path (evaporation and corrosion). Water loss by the active path (electrolysis) is much faster than that by the passive path during the early stage of the cycles. The mass change by the active path slows after 10 h. In contrast, the passive path is largely constant, becoming the main mass loss path after 10 h. The active path contributes to two-thirds of the electrolyte consumption in 24 h of cell operation in 4.0 M KOH. Although water is an important component for the cell, water vapor does not influence the cell operation unless the water is nearly depleted. However, high oxygen concentration favors the discharge reaction at the cathode.

Activated carbons (ACs) are considered important electrode materials for supercapacitors because their large specific surface areas lead to high charging capacities. In the conventional synthesis of ACs, a substantial amount of carbon is lost during carbonization of a precursor. The development of a method to synthesize ACs in high yield would lower their manufacturing cost. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of high-specific-surface-area NaOH-AC from carbon prepared via a hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) route, with a higher yield than that achieved through conventional pyrolysis carbonization. The amorphous carbon was derived from HTC of sugar and subsequently activated at 800℃ with various NaOH etchant/C ratios under a N₂ atmosphere. The AC prepared at 4:1 NaOH/C exhibited the highest surface area (as high as 2,918 ㎡ g^-1) and the highest specific capacitance (157 F g^-1 in 1 M aqueous Na₂SO₄ electrolyte solution) among the NaOH-AC samples prepared in this work. On the basis of their high specific capacitance, the NaOH-ACs prepared from HTC sugar are suitable for use as electrode materials for supercapacitors.

The unique study of TiO₂ sol-gel modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) nanocomposites have been developed for electrochemical sensor detecting fipronil pesticide compound. We develop the easy synthesized TiO₂ via a sol-gel method and modified in CPE which applied electrochemical system as cyclic voltammetry (CV) because the concentration is proportional with current peaks. We discover the TiO₂ optimal mass used of 0.1 g which is compared with 0.7 g carbon and 0.3 mL paraffin. It has high-current anodic (Ip_a) of 1.13×10³ μA and high-current cathodic (Ip_c) -0.96×10³ μA in scan rate of 0.5 V/s. The limit of detection (LOD) of fipronil has been determined of 34.0×10^-5 μM in percent recovery of 0.8%. Its high-stability for lifetime TiO₂-CPE nanocomposites was expressed for 13 days which mean that can be used for detecting fipronil pesticide.

Water electrolysis is known as the most sustainable and clean technology to produce hydrogen gas, however, a serious drawback to commercialize this technology is due to the slow kinetics in oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Thus, we report on the nanoporous IrNi thin film that reveals a markedly enhanced OER activity, which is attained through a selective etching of Os from the IrNiOs alloy thin film. Interestingly, electrochemical selective etching of Os leads to the formation of 3-dimensionally interconnected nanoporous structure providing a high electrochemical surface area (ECSA, 80.8 ㎠), which is 90 fold higher than a bulk Ir surface (0.9 ㎠). The overpotential at the nanoporous IrNi electrode is markedly lowered to be 289 mV at 10 mA cm^-2, compared with bulk Ir (375 mV at 10 mA cm^-2). The nanoporous IrNi prepared through the selective de-alloying of Os is promising as the anode material for a water electrolyzer.

Electroplating is a widely used surface treatment method in the manufacturing process of electronic parts and uniformity of the electrodeposition thickness is very crucial for these applications. Since many variables including fluid flow influence the uniformity of the film, it is difficult to conduct efficient research only by experiments. So many studies using simulation have been carried out. However, the most popular simulation technique, which calculates secondary current distribution, has a limitation on the considering the effects of fluid flow on the deposition behavior. And modified method, which is calculating a tertiary current distribution, is limited to a two-dimensional study of simple shapes because of the massive computational load. In the present study, we propose a new electroplating simulation method that can be applied to complex shapes considering the effect of flow. This new model calculates the electroplating process with three steps. First, the thickness of boundary layers on the surface of the cathode plane and velocity magnitudes at the positions are calculated from the simulation of fluid flow. Next, polarization curves of different velocities are obtained by calculations or experiments. Finally, both results are incorporated into the electroplating simulation program as boundary conditions at the cathode plane. The results of the model showed good agreements with the experimental results, and the effects of fluid flow of electrolytes on the uniformity of deposition thickness was quantitatively predicted.

A novel non-enzymatic oxalic acid (OA) sensor based on the platinum/carbon black-nickel-reduced graphene oxide (Pt/CBNi-rGO) nanocomposite is reported. The nanocomposites were prepared by the ethylene glycol reduction method. Their morphology and chemical composition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results clearly demonstrated the formation of the Pt/CB-Ni-rGO nanocomposite. The electrocatalytic activity of the Pt/CB-Ni-rGO electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry. It was determined that the appropriate amount of Pt enhanced the catalytic activity of Pt for oxalic acid electro-oxidation. Moreover, the modified electrode was determined to be highly selective for oxalic acid without interference from compounds commonly found in urine including uric acid and ascorbic acid. The chronoamperometric signal gave a wide linearity range of 20 μM-60 mM and the detection limit (3σ) was found to be 2.35 μM. The proposed method showed high selectivity, stability, and good reproducibility and could be used with micro-volumes of sample for the detection of oxalic acid. Finally, the oxalic acid content in artificial and control urine samples were successfully determined by our proposed electrode.

Planar BiVO₄ and 3 wt% Mo-doped BiVO₄ (abbreviated as Mo:BiVO₄) film were prepared by the facile spin-coating method on fluorine doped SnO₂(FTO) substrate in the same precursor solution including the Mo precursor in Mo:BiVO₄ film. After annealing at a high temperature of 450℃ for 30 min to improve crystallinity, the films exhibited the monoclinic crystalline phase and nanoporous architecture. Both films showed no remarkably discrepancy in crystalline or morphological properties. To investigate the effect of surface passivation exploring the Al₂O₃ layer, the ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer with a thickness of approximately 2 nm was deposited on BiVO₄ film using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. No distinct morphological modification was observed for all prepared BiVO₄ and Mo:BiVO₄ films. Only slightly reduced nanopores were observed. Although both samples showed some reduction of light absorption in the visible wavelength after coating of Al₂O₃ layer, the Al₂O₃ coated BiVO₄ (Al₂O₃/BiVO₄) film exhibited enhanced photoelectrochemical performance in 0.5 M Na₂SO₄ solution (pH 6.5), having higher photocurrent density (0.91 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), briefly abbreviated as V_RHE) than BiVO₄ film (0.12 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). Moreover, Al₂O₃ coating on the Mo:BiVO₄ film exhibited more enhanced photocurrent density (1.5 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE) than the Mo:BiVO₄ film (0.86 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). To examine the reasons, capacitance measurement and Mott-Schottky analysis were conducted, revealing that the significant degradation of capacitance value was observed in both BiVO₄ film and Al₂O₃/Mo:BiVO₄ film, probably due to degraded capacitance by surface passivation. Furthermore, the flat-band potential (V_FB) was negatively shifted to about 200 mV while the electronic conductivities were enhanced by Al₂O₃ coating in both samples, contributing to the advancement of PEC performance by ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer.