Plasma-Induced Oxygen Vacancies in N-Doped Hollow NiCoPBA Nanocages Derived from Prussian Blue Analogue for Efficient OER in Alkaline Media.

Although water splitting is a promising method to produce clean hydrogen energy, it requires efficient and low-cost catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This study focused on plasma treatment's significance of surface oxygen vacancies in improving OER electrocatalytic activity. For this, we directly grew hollow NiCoPBA nanocages using a Prussian blue analogue (PBA) on nickel foam (NF). The material was treated with N plasma, followed by a thermal reduction process for inducing oxygen vacancies and N doping on the structure of NiCoPBA. These oxygen defects were found to play an essential role as a catalyst center for the OER in enhancing the charge transfer efficiency of NiCoPBA. The N-doped hollow NiCoPBA/NF showed excellent OER performance in an alkaline medium, with a low overpotential of 289 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a high stability for 24 h. The catalyst also outperformed a commercial RuO2 (350 mV). We believe that using plasma-induced oxygen vacancies with simultaneous N doping will provide a novel insight into the design of low-priced NiCoPBA electrocatalysts.

Reliability Verification of Damping Capacity Assessment Through In Vitro Analysis of Implant Micromotion in Peri-implant Bone Loss Model.

PURPOSE: This in vitro study aimed to determine the efficacy of a damping capacity assessment in evaluating the implant stability in a simulated peri-implant bone loss model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The same type of implant was placed sequentially in 0.5-mm-depth increments in polyurethane bone of a constant density, resulting in 11 specimens with varying surrounding bone levels. The implant stability was evaluated by a damping capacity assessment consisting of six consecutive impacts in one set. The damping results, including the contact time and stability index, were measured by three repeated sets of stability tests for each specimen. All implant micromotions were recorded in real time using a laser scanning vibrometer during these stability tests. The micromotions were analyzed in terms of three parameters: maximum displacement, expected mobility, and vibration frequency. Additionally, two other stability indices were acquired three times each for reference. Pearson correlation analysis was used to confirm the correlations among all the variables; P < .05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: As the peri-implant bone level increased, the contact time results decreased gradually from 502 to 290 µs, and the stability index increased from 55 to 78. The implant micromotions of all specimens showed a damped sine waveform graph, which can be divided into impact displacement and self-vibration patterns by the contact end points. As the implant stability increased, these contact end points converged toward the third peak, the maximum displacement and expected mobility decreased, and the vibration frequency increased (ρ = -0.85, -0.88, and 0.99, respectively). Two other stability indices reflected the implant stability due to peri-implant bone loss. The statistical analysis indicated significant correlations among all measured variables; in particular, the three stability indices exhibited high correlations with each other (ρ = 0.99, -0.99, and -1.00, respectively). CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, the implant stability measured by a damping capacity assessment was suitable for investigating the extent of implant micromotions, which were determined by 0.5-mm horizontal changes in the peri-implant bone level.

Effects of Ar Addition to O2 Plasma on Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition of Oxide Thin Films.

A method for significantly increasing the growth rates (GRs) of high- k oxide thin films grown via plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) by enhancing the plasma density through the addition of Ar gas to the O2 plasma oxidant was developed. This approach led to improvements of ∼60% in the saturation GRs of PE-ALD ZrO2, HfO2, and SiO2. Furthermore, despite the significantly higher GR enabled by PE-ALD, the mechanical and dielectric properties of the PE-ALD oxide films were similar or even superior to those of films grown via the conventional O2 plasma process. Optical emission spectroscopy analyses in conjunction with theoretical calculation of the electron energy distribution function revealed that adding Ar gas to the O2 plasma increased the density of high-energy electrons, thereby generating more O2 plasma species, such as ions and radicals, which played a key role in improving the GRs and the properties of the films. This promising approach is expected to facilitate the high-volume manufacturing of films via PE-ALD, especially for use as gate insulators in thin-film transistor-based devices in the display industry.