MacGyvered Multiproperty Materials Using Nanocarbon and Jam: A Spectroscopic, Electromagnetic, and Rheological Investigation

As part of a biopolymer matrix, pectin was investigated to obtain an engineered jam, due to its biodegradability. Only a few examples of pectin-based nanocomposites are present in the literature, and even fewer such bionanocomposites utilize nanocarbon as a filler-mostly for use in food packaging. In the present paper, ecofriendly nanocomposites made from household reagents and displaying multiple properties are presented. In particular, the electrical behavior and viscoelastic properties of a commercial jam were modulated by loading the jam with carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplates. A new nanocomposite class based on commercial jam was studied, estimating the percolation threshold for each filler. The electrical characterization and the rheological measurements suggest that the behavior above the percolation threshold is influenced by the different morphology-i.e., one-dimensional or two-dimensional-of the fillers. These outcomes encourage further studies on the use of household materials in producing advanced and innovative materials, in order to reduce the environmental impact of new technologies, without giving up advanced devices endowed with different physical properties.

The Electrostatic Model of Homeopathy: The Mechanism of Physicochemical Activities of Homeopathic Medicines

This paper attempts to propose a model, called the electrostatic model of homeopathy, to explain a mechanism for the physicochemical activities of highly diluted homeopathic medicines (HMs). According to this proposed model, the source of HMs' action is dipole orientations as electrostatic imprints of the original molecules carried by diluent molecules (such as sugar molecules) or potentization-induced aqueous nanostructures. The nanoscale domains' contact charging and dielectric hysteresis play critical roles in the aqueous nanostructures' or sugar molecules' acquisition of the original molecules' dipole orientations. The mechanical stress induced by dynamization (vigorous agitation or trituration) is a crucial factor that facilitates these phenomena. After dynamization is completed, the transferred charges revert to their previous positions but, due to dielectric hysteresis, they leave a remnant polarization on the aqueous nanostructures or sugar molecules' nanoscale domains. This causes some nanoscale domains of the aqueous nanostructures or sugar molecules to obtain the original substance molecules' dipole orientations. A highly diluted HM may have no molecule of the original substance, but the aqueous nanostructures or sugar molecules may contain the original substance's dipole orientations. Therefore, HMs can precisely aim at the biological targets of the original substance molecules and electrostatically interact with them as mild stimuli.

A constant phase impedance sensor for measuring conducting liquid level

In the contact type capacitive liquid level sensors, when an electrode with the insulating film is immersed in polar/ionic medium, it shows constant phase behavior at metal-insulator interface due to the formation of the double layer. This double layer effect is frequently modeled by a pure capacitor but its capacitance value depends on signal frequency. Therefore, when such a sensor is excited by sinusoidal ac, the conducting liquid level measurement suffers from the error due to the fluctuation of input signal frequency. This is because the excitation frequency applied from the source meter may fluctuate. This important issue is rarely discussed for the capacitive level sensors. In addition, the design and realization of the capacitive level sensor require special arrangements for the minimization of parasitic earth capacitance, offset capacitance, and the capacitances due to leads and contact electrodes. In this paper, we propose a novel constant phase impedance sensor for the measurement of conducting liquid levels in the range of 0-4 cm for the first time. The phase angle of the device changes due to a change in the liquid level. Two important characteristics parameters of the sensor are the constant phase angle for a certain frequency range and the fractional order in the range of 0-1. Some important features of the sensor are significant sensitivity (2.1^∘/cm, probe 1) due to small change in conducting liquid, stable output due to fluctuation of input frequency, and the fabrication of the sensor is very simple and inexpensive. The device is finally interfaced to a phase detection circuit to convert the phase angle into a voltage signal.