Invited review: Sensor technologies for real-time monitoring of the rumen environment.

Quantifying digestive and fermentative processes within the rumen environment has been the subject of decades of research; however, our existing research methodologies preclude time-sensitive and spatially explicit investigation of this system. To better understand the temporal and spatial dynamics of the rumen environment, real-time and in situ monitoring of various chemical and physical parameters in the rumen through implantable microsensor technologies is a practical solution. Moreover, such sensors could contribute to the next generation of precision livestock farming, provided sufficient wireless data networking and computing systems are incorporated. In this review, various microsensor technologies applicable to real-time metabolic monitoring for ruminants are introduced, including the detection of parameters for rumen metabolism, such as pH, temperature, histamine concentrations, and volatile fatty acid concentrations. The working mechanisms and requirements of the sensors are summarized with respect to the selected target parameters. Lastly, future challenges and perspectives of this research field are discussed.

Direct Correlations of Grain Boundary Potentials to Chemical States and Dielectric Properties of Doped CaCu3Ti4O12 Thin Films.

Colossal dielectric constant CaCu3Ti4O12 has been recognized as one of the rare materials having intrinsic interfacial polarization and thus unusual dielectric characteristics, in which the electrical state of the grain boundary is critical. Here, the direct correlation between the grain boundary potential and relative permittivity is proposed for the CaCu3Ti4O12 thin films doped with Zn, Ga, Mn, and Ag as characterized by Kelvin probe force microscopy. The dopants are intended to provide the examples of variable grain boundary potentials that are driven by chemical states including Cu+, Ti3+, and oxygen vacancy. Grain boundary potential is nearly linearly proportional to the dielectric constant. This effect is attributed to the increased charge accumulation near the grain boundary, depending on the choice of the dopant. As an example, 1 mol % Ag-doped CaCu3Ti4O12 thin films demonstrate the best relative permittivity as associated with a higher grain boundary potential of 120.3 mV compared with 82.6 mV for the reference film. The chemical states across grain boundaries were further verified by using spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy with the simultaneous electron energy loss spectroscopy.

Origin of in Situ Domain Formation of Heavily Nb-Doped Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Thin Films Sputtered on Ir/TiW/SiO2/Si Substrates for Mobile Sensor Applications.

High-quality piezoelectric thin films have recently been in demand for mobile sensor applications. An investigation was conducted to understand the improvements in the piezoelectric and imprint characteristics of heavily Nb-doped lead zirconate titanate thin films with an extensive range of Nb content (up to 14 mol %) beyond the typical solid solubility limit of Nb. The positive effects produced by the unusual doping of Nb were realized by utilizing an in situ sputtering process that did not require a subsequent annealing and poling procedure. An enhanced piezoelectric coefficient, -e31, of -12.87 C/m2 and a stronger shift in the coercive field, Ec,shift, of ∼20 kV/cm, which are ideally useful for mobile sensor applications, were obtained for the 12 mol % Nb-doped films deposited on nonconventional buffer electrodes of Ir/TiW. The reduced oxygen vacancy concentration and preferred domain orientation with a stronger piezoresponse induced by the Nb donor doping contributed to the enhancement of the piezoelectric properties. Potential defect dipoles aligned by a residual stress gradient along columnar structures seemed to induce an internal electric field in the Nb-doped films, leading to the preferred domain orientation, as well as the strong imprint behavior due to a clamping of domain walls.

In situ magnetic field-assisted low temperature atmospheric growth of GaN nanowires via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism.

We report the growth of GaN nanowires at a low temperature of 750 °C and at atmospheric pressure in a conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) setup via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism with remarkable control of directionality and growth behavior by using an in situ magnetic field. Under typical growth conditions, without any magnetic field, the nanowires are severely twisted and kinked, and exhibit a high density of planar stacking defects. With increasing in situ magnetic field strength, the microstructural defects are found to decrease progressively, and quasi-aligned nanowires are produced. At an applied magnetic field strength of 0.80 T, near-vertical aligned straight and several micrometers long nanowires of average diameter of ~40 nm with defect-free microstructure are routinely produced. Photoluminescence measurements show that the relative intensity of the defect-related peaks in the visible region with respect to the near-band-edge emission continuously decrease with increase in the applied in situ magnetic field strength, ascribable to the magnetic field-assisted significant structural improvement of the wires. It is found out that the degree of agglomerative Ni droplet on Si is critically influenced by the surface tension driven by the magnetic force, which in turn determines the eventual properties of the nanowires.