Aging experiments, electrochemical

Figure 10. Electrochemical anodic aging experiments on a lightly doped SrTi03 wafer. All experiments were performed in 1M NaOH. ((1) virgin SrTiO, (2) anodically aged 21 h at 5 V vs. SCE (3) annealed in air 16 h at 300°C)...

First electrochemical studies on structuring and modification of different high superconductor surfaces have recently been started [6.190]. One of the main problems is the instability of oxide ceramic material in neutral and acidic aqueous electrolyte solutions at room temperature [6.196-6.198]. HTSC surfaces corrode, and superconductivity was found to decrease within the topmost layers of IfTSC samples after water contact. This aging effect decreases in alkaline media [6.197]. However, sufficient long term stability of HTSC samples was only found in aprotic solvents such as acetonitrile. Therefore, experiments were carried out in acetonitrile-containing... 

Devices based on electrochemical phenomena represent a multimillion-dollar market annually for health care (15). Applications are probably most important in the sphere of population well-being. For example, experience with heart pacemakers shows that the typical use is for those in the 60- to 80-year age bracket who will lead a relatively active and normal life and have a "statistically average" life expectancy with the assistance of a pacemaker. Without this device, the person would be debilitated and have a life expectancy of only 1 to 2 years. The current market for pacemakers is estimated at nearly 300,000 per year worldwide, about half that in the United States (15). With a battery cost on the order of 100 for an implanted pacemaker, the dollar value ranges from 15 to 30 million for the batteries alone (predominantly lithium-iodine systems). The total cost associated with implanting pacemakers is a hundred times greater. 

The next step would be to assign slabs to the blocks based on the three levels of treatment (and control). Assignment should be random within the nine blocks defined by anode electrochemical age and anode type. A random process would assign three slabs within each of the nine blocks to the three levels of treatment/control remaining slabs would be dropped from the experiment. This process requires only 3 (anode type) x 3 (anode age) x 3 (treatment/contndl) = 27 slabs. Organization of the experiment is described in Table 3. 

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