Following the transient reactions in lithium-sulfur batteries using an in situ nuclear magnetic resonance technique.

A fundamental understanding of electrochemical reaction pathways is critical to improving the performance of Li-S batteries, but few techniques can be used to directly identify and quantify the reaction species during disharge/charge cycling processes in real time. Here, an in situ (7)Li NMR technique employing a specially designed cylindrical microbattery was used to probe the transient electrochemical and chemical reactions occurring during the cycling of a Li-S system. In situ NMR provides real time, semiquantitative information related to the temporal evolution of lithium polysulfide allotropes during both discharge/charge processes. This technique uniquely reveals that the polysulfide redox reactions involve charged free radicals as intermediate species that are difficult to detect in ex situ NMR studies. Additionally, it also uncovers vital information about the (7)Li chemical environments during the electrochemical and parasitic reactions on the Li metal anode. These new molecular-level insights about transient species and the associated anode failure mechanism are crucial to delineating effective strategies to accelerate the development of Li-S battery technologies.

Enzyme-based biofuel cells.

Enzyme-based biofuel cells possess several positive attributes for energy conversion, including renewable catalysts, flexibility of fuels (including renewables), and the ability to operate at room temperature. However, enzyme-based biofuel cells remain limited by short lifetimes, low power densities and inefficient oxidation of fuels. Recent advances in biofuel cell technology have addressed these deficiencies and include methods to increase lifetime and environmental stability.

Hybridization probe for femtomolar quantification of selected nucleic acid sequences on a disposable electrode.

Mixed monolayers of electroactive hybridization probes on gold surfaces of a disposable electrode were investigated as a technology for simple, sensitive, selective, and rapid gene identification. Hybridization to the ferrocene-labeled hairpin probes reproducibly diminished cyclic redox currents, presumably due to a displacement of the label from the electrode. Observed peak current densities were roughly 1000x greater than those observed in previous studies, such that results could easily be interpreted without the use of algorithms to correct for background polarization currents. Probes were sensitive to hybridization with a number of oligonucleotide sequences with varying homology, but target oligonucleotides could be distinguished from competing nontarget sequences based on unique "melting" profiles from the probe. Detection limits were demonstrated down to nearly 100 fM, which may be low enough to identify certain genetic conditions or infections without amplification. This technology has rich potential for use in field devices for gene identification as well as in gene microarrays.