Although battery technology is relatively mature, power sources continue to impose serious limitations for small, portable, mobile, or remote applications. A potentially attractive alternative to batteries is chemical fuel-to-electric conversion. Chemical fuels have volumetric energy densities 4 to 10 times those of batteries. However, realizing this advantage requires efficient chemical fuel-to-electric conversion. Direct electrochemical conversion would be the ideal, but, for most fuels, is generally not within the state-of-the-science. Next best, chemical-to-thermal-to-electric conversion can be attractive if efficiencies can be kept high. This small investigative project was an exploration into the feasibility of a novel hybrid (i.e., thermal-electrochemical) micropower converter of high theoretical performance whose demonstration was thought to be within near-term reach. The system is comprised of a hydrogen concentration electrochemical cell with physically identical hydrogen electrodes as anode and cathode, with each electrode connected to physically identical hydride beds each containing the same low-enthalpy-of-formation metal hydride. In operation, electrical power is generated by a hydrogen concentration differential across the electrochemical cell. This differential is established via coordinated heating and passive cooling of the corresponding hydride source and sink. Heating is provided by the exothermic combustion (i.e., either flame combustion or catalytic combustion) of a chemical fuel. Upon hydride source depletion, the role of source and sink are reversed, heating and cooling reversed, electrodes commutatively reversed, cell operation reversed, while power delivery continues unchanged. This 'regenerative flip' of source and sink hydride beds can be cycled continuously until all available heating fuel is consumed. Electricity is efficiently generated electrochemically, but hydrogen is not consumed, rather the hydrogen is regeneratively cycled as an electrochemical 'working fluid'.
The ability to detect Weapons of Mass Destruction biological agents rapidly and sensitively is vital to homeland security, spurring development of compact detection systems at Sandia and elsewhere. One such system is Sandia's microseparations-based pChemLab. Many bio-agents are serious health threats even at extremely low concentrations. Therefore, a universal challenge for detection systems is the efficient collection and selective transport of highly diffuse bio-agents against the enormous background of benign particles and species ever present in the ambient environment. We have investigated development of a ''front end'' system for the collection, preconcentration, and selective transport of aerosolized biological agents from dilute (1-10 active particles per liter of air) atmospheric samples, to ultimate concentrations of {approx}20 active particles per microliter of liquid, for interface with microfluidic-based analyses and detection systems. Our approach employs a Sandia-developed aerosol particle-focusing microseparator array to focus size-selected particles into a mating microimpinger array of open microfluidic transport channels. Upon collection (i.e., impingement, submergence, and liquid suspension), microfluidic dielectrophoretic particle concentrators and sorters can be employed to further concentrate and selectively transport bio-agent particles to the sample preparation stages of microfluidic analyses and detection systems. This report documents results in experimental testing, modeling and analysis, component design, and materials fabrication critical to establishing proof-of-principle for this collection ''front end''. Outstanding results have been achieved for the aerodynamic microseparator, and for the post-collection dielectrophoretic concentrator and sorter. Results have been obtained for the microimpinger, too, but issues of particle-trapping by surface tension in liquid surfaces have proven difficult. Subsequent particle submergence into liquid suspension for microfluidic transport has been demonstrated only inefficiently despite significant and varied effort. Importantly, the separate technologies whose development is described, (inertial microseparator, dielectrophoretic corduroy concentrator/sorter) should each, independently, prove greatly useful in a variety of additional applications.