Title: Research challenges for power electronics
Abstract: In this seminar I’ll discuss three top-level research challenges that we are currently working on at Bristol: getting power from horrible sources, sorting out horrible waveforms, and avoiding horrible death (of power devices). Hopefully this will trigger some discussion!
This talk describes the fabrication of solar energy cells on fabrics. These photovoltaic cells are design to exploit to the flexibilty of fabrics and to make them useful for e-textiles.
Challenges for Inductive Power Transfer over wider areas
Inductive power transfer (IPT) is now a commercially mature technology for short range, localised powering of electronic devices. However, there are many potential applications that would be enabled by a power transfer system tolerant of greater separation between transmitter and receiver. In this talk we consider just such an application and elucidate the design and performance constraints facing poor and variably coupled IPT systems.
Title: The good, the bad and the porous: a review of carbonaceous materials for flexible supercapacitor applications
Abstract: The integration of electronics into textiles offers unique and promising opportunities for wearable technologies. Already, the integration of energy harvesters (from ferroelectric to photovoltaic) and sensors have been widely demonstrated in medical and defense applications. However, the problem of reliable power management has not been as readily solved. With high power densities, fast charge-discharge rates and long lifetimes, flexible supercapacitors are seen as a promising energy storage technology for future e-textiles. The design possibilities for these devices are complex and varied, with a myriad of materials and configurations possible. This work will introduce and critique the current state-of-the-art electrode materials for flexible supercapacitors. The use of carbon within electric double-layer supercapacitors and pseudocapacitors will be discussed. It is envisaged that this paper will provide an overview to the current challenges in the field of flexible supercapacitors, and highlight the future possibilities of carbon as an electrode material; providing a useful guide to those new to the field, or as an up-to-date reference material for the more experienced researcher.
Context: This conference talk will be presented at the 4th Annual Energy Storage and its Applications CDT Conference. It will be to an audience of energy storage specialists who are not experienced in e-textiles and I will be presenting in the materials for energy storage session.
Title: Multi-pore Nanopore Resistive Pulse Sensing for Molecular Diagnostics with salt-gradient
Abstract: Resistive pulse sensing is the operating mechanism of classical Coulter counters, which relate the rate of microparticle translocation over a micropore to the particle concentration of a solution in contact with the pore. MicroRNA analytics with resistive pulse sensing is advantageous because as a single molecule technique it does not rely on amplification.In my work, an enhanced sensitivity of nanopore resistive pulse sensing of miRNA with bilayer embedded alpha-hemolysin is achieved with the introduce of multiple nano pores and steep salt concentration gradient.
Title: The application of Aluminium Nitride in Micro-Opto-electro-mechanical system
Abstract: Recent years have witnessed a series of development at Microelectromechanical systems(MEMS) as well as Micro-Opto-Mechanical Systems (MOMS). The MEMS have been widely commercially applied into every part of people’s daily life. For example, accelerometers, microphones, and micro-scale energy harvesting. On the other hand, coherent optical systems combined with micromechanical devices may enable development of ultra-sensitive force sensors and quantum information processing. Due to the great optical , electrical and mechanical characteritics of Aluminium Nitride, it is possible now to combine all the advantages of these systems. My research will be focused on using AlN to build various systems, such as optical modulator and even on-chip laser.
Title: Investigation of Textile-Based Triboelectric Energy Harvester
Abstract: Triboelectric energy harvesters or Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are one of the most promising candidates for powering wearable and portable devices. Textiles are a potential substrate onto, or into, which wearable technology is increasingly being incorporated but supplying power remains an enduring challenge. TENGs are a potential textile based energy harvesting power supply, which can transform kinetic energy occurring during frictional contact between two dissimilar materials into electricity based on the triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction. A significant challenge exists in the integration without losing the performance of the TENG or the original properties (appearance, breathability, washability, and durability) and feel of the textile. My research focuses on a novel design of textile-based TENG with alternate grated strips of positive and negative triboelectric material operating in freestanding triboelectric-layer mode. The TENG with 10 gratings of nylon and PTFE fabric delivers an average power density of 12.82 mW/m2.