Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack is vital for storage of energy produced from different sources and has been extensively used for various applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), watches, cookers, etc. For an efficient real-time monitoring and fault diagnosis of battery operated systems, it is important to have a quantified information on the state-of-health (SoH) of batteries. This paper conducts comprehensive literature studies on advancement, challenges, concerns, and futuristic aspects of models and methods for SoH estimation of batteries. Based on the studies, the methods and models for SoH estimation have been summarized systematically with their advantages and disadvantages in tabular format. The prime emphasis of this review was attributed toward the development of a hybridized method which computes SoH of batteries accurately in real-time and takes self-discharge into its account. At the end, the summary of research findings and the future directions of research such as nondestructive tests (NDT) for real-time estimation of battery SoH, finding residual SoH for the recycled batteries from battery packs, integration of mechanical aspects of battery with temperature, easy assembling–dissembling of battery packs, and hybridization of battery packs with photovoltaic and super capacitor are discussed.

A centrifugal prototype turbine used in a supercritical CO₂-based solar Rankine cycle system (SRCS) is proposed and investigated by both experimental and analytical methods. The basic operation of the turbine is checked, and its performance is also systematically analyzed based on the CO₂ mass flow rate and temperature at the outlet of turbine, its rotational speed, and output torque. In addition, the choking phenomenon of the flow in the nozzle is also investigated when the inner diameter of nozzle in the turbine is increased from 0.5 to 1.0 mm. The results show that the choked flow does not occur, and the CO₂ flow can go smoothly in the nozzle when the inner diameter is bigger than 0.7 mm. It is also found that the turbine output torques related with electric power generation increase with the increase of inner diameter of nozzle. Present study reveals that current turbine provides a well performance for this SRCS and is helpful for the further development of solar thermal-energy technologies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Plasma separation is of high interest for lateral flow tests using whole blood as sample liquids. Here, we built a passive microfluidic device for plasma separation with high performance. This device was made by blood filtration membrane and off-stoichiometry thiol–ene (OSTE) pillar forest. OSTE pillar forest was fabricated by double replica moldings of a laser-cut polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) mold, which has a uniform microstructure. This device utilized a filtration membrane to separate plasma from whole blood samples and used hydrophilic OSTE pillar forest as the capillary pump to propel the plasma. The device can be used to separate blood plasma with high purity for later use in lateral flow tests. The device can process 45 $\mathsf{\mu }$L of whole blood in 72 s and achieves a plasma separation yield as high as 60.0%. The protein recovery rate of separated plasma is 85.5%, which is on par with state-of-the-art technologies. This device can be further developed into lateral flow tests for biomarker detection in whole blood.

Controlling capillary flow rate of sample liquid is of high interest for lateral flow tests, since the flow rate can affect the dissolution and mixing of the immunoreagents and the efficiency of immunoreactions. Here we develop a facile method to adjust the capillary flow rate on lateral flow test substrates by using tape to cover the surface of substrates. We test this method on the traditional lateral flow test substrate—nitrocellulose and a novel lateral flow test substrate—synthetic paper, which is a porous media made by interlocked off-stoichiometry thiol-ene (OSTE) micropillars. We found that after the surface was covered by tape, the average flow rate decreased to 61% of the original flow rate on nitrocellulose, while the average flow rate increased to at least 320% of the original flow rate on synthetic paper. More interesting, besides the increase of flow rate, the volume capacity of synthetic paper also increases after covered by tape. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of length and position of tape on the capillary flow rate for nitrocellulose. A longer tape will lead to a smaller flow rate. The influence of tape of same length on the flow rate is bigger when the tape is placed closer to the loading pad. These results can help in the flow rate control on lateral flow test substrates, and potentially improve the performance of lateral flow tests.