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Exposure of a volatile organic vapour could set in powerful rotational motion a microdroplet composed of an aqueous salt solution loaded with metal nanoparticles. The solutal Marangoni motion on the surface originating from the sharp difference in the surface tension of water and organic vapour stimulated the strong vortices inside the droplet. The vapour sources of methanol, ethanol, diethyl ether, toluene, and chloroform stimulated motions of different magnitudes could easily be correlated to the surface tension gradient on the drop surface. Interestingly, when the nanoparticle laden droplet of aqueous salt solution was connected to an external electric circuit through a pair of electrodes, an ∼85-95% reduction in the electrical resistance was observed across the spinning droplet. The extent of reduction in the resistance was found to have a correlation with the difference in the surface tension of the vapour source and the water droplet, which could be employed to distinguish the vapour sources. Remarkably, the power density of the same prototype was estimated to be around 7 μW cm(-2), which indicated the potential of the phenomenon in converting surface energy into electrical in a non-destructive manner and under ambient conditions. Theoretical analysis uncovered that the difference in the ζ-potential near the electrodes was the major reason for the voltage generation. The prototype could also detect the repeated exposure and withdrawal of vapour sources, which helped in the development of a proof-of-concept detector to sense alcohol issuing out of the human breathing system.

A two-phase interleaved buck converter (IBC) providing a high step-down conversion ratio is proposed in this study. The proposed IBC uses a switch-capacitor cell to achieve a high step-down conversion ratio compared to the conventional IBC. The cell consists of two parallel switches and two crossly placed identical capacitors. These identical capacitors are charged in series and discharged in parallel by producing a lower output voltage compared to the conventional IBC at the same duty ratio. The proposed converter provides less voltage and current stresses. The operation principle, the ripple and the average current through the inductors are described in continuous conduction mode. The boundary load condition is also determined. By describing the charging and discharging of the two identical capacitors of the cell, the capacitance value is determined. The losses and efficiency are analysed, and 96.33% efficiency is achieved. Finally, the proposed converter is implemented and experimental results are provided.