Daryoosh Vashaee

Bio: Daryoosh Vashaee is an academic researcher from North Carolina State University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Thermoelectric effect & Thermoelectric materials. The author has an hindex of 48, co-authored 225 publications receiving 15724 citations. Previous affiliations of Daryoosh Vashaee include University of California, Santa Cruz & Oklahoma State University–Tulsa.

Detrimental influence of nanostructuring on the thermoelectric properties of magnesium silicide

Abstract: Nanostructuring techniques have steered the performance of many thermoelectric (TE) compounds towards significant improvement in performance in the last two decades. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study on the effect of bulk nanostructuring in magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) through simulation of thermoelectric properties using a multi-band semi-classical approach. It is shown that the magnitude of reduction in lattice thermal conductivity in nanostructured Mg2Si is comparable to that of reduction in charge carrier mobility for any chosen range of the grain sizes. The results are justified through a comparison with experimental data for both n-type and p-type Mg2Si characteristics versus temperature as well as doping concentration. In order to understand the underlying reasons for the detrimental effect of nanostructuring in Mg2Si, analogous calculations were performed on the well-known TE system of nanostructured Si0.8Ge0.2 and the results are compared. Model calculations show that in nanostructured Mg2Si a grain size of 20 nm results in approximately 40% reduction in lattice thermal conductivity, whereas the reduction in electrical conductivity is nearly 50% of its value in crystalline structures. For the case of nanostructured Si0.8Ge0.2, the loss in electrical conductivity was found to be a mere 20% of its magnitude in crystalline structures. The differential electrical and thermal conductivities versus charge carrier and phonon energies were calculated, respectively, and it was shown that the enhancement in Seebeck coefficient due to the energy filtering effect is also marginal. Therefore, it is conclusively shown that bulk nanostructuring in Mg2Si is not an efficient method to enhance ZT.

The effect of synthesis parameters on transport properties of nanostructured bulk thermoelectric p-type silicon germanium alloy

Abstract: Nanostructured silicon germanium thermoelectric materials prepared by mechanical alloying and sintering method have recently shown large enhancement in figure-of-merit, ZT. The fabrication of these structures often involves many parameters whose understanding and precise control is required to attain large ZT. In order to find the optimum parameters for further enhancing the ZT of this material, we have grown and studied both experimentally and theoretically different nanostructured p-type SiGe alloys. The effect of various parameters of milling process and sintering conditions on the thermoelectric properties of the grown samples were studied. The electrical and thermal properties were calculated using Boltzmann transport equation and were compared with the data of nanostructured and crystalline SiGe. It was found that the thermal conductivity not only depends on the average crystallite size in the bulk material, but also it is a strong function of alloying, porosity, and doping concentration. The Seebeck coefficient showed weak dependency on average crystallite size. The electrical conductivity changed strongly with synthesis parameters. Therefore, depending on the synthesis parameters the figure-of-merit reduced or increased by ∼60% compared with that of the crystalline SiGe. The model calculation showed that the lattice part of thermal conductivity in the nanostructured sample makes ∼80% of the total thermal conductivity. In addition, the model calculation showed that while the room temperature hole mean free path (MFP) in the nanostructured sample is dominated by the crystallite boundary scattering, at high temperature the MFP is dominated by acoustic phonon scattering. Therefore, the thermal conductivity can be further reduced by smaller crystallite size without significantly affecting the electrical conductivity in order to further enhance ZT.

Electroconductive Nanocomposite Scaffolds: A New Strategy Into Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Abstract: Nanocomposites are a combination of a matrix and a filler, where at least one dimension of the system is on the nanoscale being less than or equal to 100 nm. Much work has focused on the construction of nanocomposites due to the structural enhancements in physico-chem‐ ical properties, and functionality for any given system [1-6]. The physico-chemical enhance‐ ments result from the interaction between the elements being near the molecular scale. Nanocomposite materials have also received interest for tissue engineering scaffolds by be‐ ing able to replicate the extracellular matrix found in vivo. Currently, researchers have creat‐ ed composite materials for scaffold formation which incorporate two or more materials. Some of these materials consist of minerals for bone tissue engineering including calcium, hydroxyapatite, phosphate, or combinations of different polymers, such as poly (lactic acid), poly (ε-caprolactone), collagen and chitosan, and many other different combinations [7-9]. Other work has focused on doping the polymer scaffolds with specific growth hormones or adhesion sequences to influence how cells attach to the scaffold and cause the scaffold to be‐ come a drug delivery vehicle for different kind of tissue engineering applications [10]. Among different materials used in preparation of nanocomposits, conducting polymers are one of the effective materials that can be employed to facilitate communication with neural system for regenerative purposes.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

Abstract: Three parallel algorithms for classical molecular dynamics are presented. The first assigns each processor a fixed subset of atoms; the second assigns each a fixed subset of inter-atomic forces to compute; the third assigns each a fixed spatial region. The algorithms are suitable for molecular dynamics models which can be difficult to parallelize efficiently—those with short-range forces where the neighbors of each atom change rapidly. They can be implemented on any distributed-memory parallel machine which allows for message-passing of data between independently executing processors. The algorithms are tested on a standard Lennard-Jones benchmark problem for system sizes ranging from 500 to 100,000,000 atoms on several parallel supercomputers--the nCUBE 2, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, and Cray T3D. Comparing the results to the fastest reported vectorized Cray Y-MP and C90 algorithm shows that the current generation of parallel machines is competitive with conventional vector supercomputers even for small problems. For large problems, the spatial algorithm achieves parallel efficiencies of 90% and a 1840-node Intel Paragon performs up to 165 faster than a single Cray C9O processor. Trade-offs between the three algorithms and guidelines for adapting them to more complex molecular dynamics simulations are also discussed.

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Abstract: 抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

Complex thermoelectric materials.

Abstract: Thermoelectric materials, which can generate electricity from waste heat or be used as solid-state Peltier coolers, could play an important role in a global sustainable energy solution. Such a development is contingent on identifying materials with higher thermoelectric efficiency than available at present, which is a challenge owing to the conflicting combination of material traits that are required. Nevertheless, because of modern synthesis and characterization techniques, particularly for nanoscale materials, a new era of complex thermoelectric materials is approaching. We review recent advances in the field, highlighting the strategies used to improve the thermopower and reduce the thermal conductivity.