Plasma treatment of indium tin oxide (ITO) has been studied to form metallic nanoparticles (NPs) for nanostructure-based solar cells. It is demonstrated that NPs can be formed at temperatures as low as 100 8C, and the size of NPs increases with temperature. An ITO layer treated at 100 8C has higher transmission than that treated at 200 8C for the same time. It is suggested that such NPs can be …
A low-cost micro-stereolithography technique with the ability to additively manufacture dense piezoelectric ceramic components is reported. This technique enables the layer-wise production of functional devices with a theoretical in-plane resolution of 20mm and an out-of-plane resolution of
The murine local lymph node assay (LLNA) is widely used to identify chemicals that may cause allergic contact dermatitis. Exposure to a dermal sensitizer results in proliferation of local lymph node T cells, which has traditionally been measured by in vivo incorporation of [3H]methyl thymidine. A more recent non-isotopic variation of the assay utilizes bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation in…
Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is used in a diverse array of products to improve fire safety. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) recently completed a 2-year bioassay for TBBPA. The objective of the present study was to develop a cancer-based and a non-cancer based toxicity value and to compare such to appropriate estimates of human exposure. Data from the NTP 2-year and 13-week studies were …
Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 absorbers were processed from metal salt solutions in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and annealed in reactive Se atmosphere. A simple way to introduce sodium doping by adding NaCl to the initial precursor solution is presented. The additional sodium has no significant effect on the absorber morphology, but it improves the device performance from 5.01% to 6.09%. The sodium doping clea…
We discuss the challenges of light-emitting diodes in view of their application to solid-state lighting. The requirement is to at least displace the quite efficient fluorescent, sodium, and high intensity discharge lamps used today in the main energy consuming lighting sectors, industrial, commercial and outdoors, with more efficient and better light quality lamps.We show that both from the poi…
In this article, an environmentally friendly and non-vacuum electrostatic spray assisted vapor deposition (ESAVD) process has been developed as an alternative and low cost method to deposit CIGS absorber layers. ESAVD is a non-vacuum chemical vapor deposition based process whereby a mixture of chemical precursors is atomized to form aerosol. The aerosol is charged and directed towards a heated…
An easy and green synthetic strategy for the one-pot large-scale preparation of carbon nanodots (C-dots) is demonstrated. The C-dots have a series of excellent optical features such as strong fl uorescence and excitationwavelength-dependent photoluminescence properties. Notably, C-dots can be rapidly and facilely achieved on a large scale (e.g., 0.3 g C-dots/25 min)by using cheap, accessible, a…
Solid-state lighting has made tremendous progress this past decade, with the potential to make much more progress over the coming decade. In this article, the current status of solid-state lighting relative to its ultimate potential to be “smart” and ultra-effi cient is reviewed. Smart, ultra-effi cient solid-state lighting would enable both very high “effective” effi ciencies and pote…
Electrodeposition followed by rapid thermal annealing is a favorable process for industrial solar thin film fabrication. In this regard, we attempt to develop a process for earth-abundant pure sulfide kesterite solar cells fabrication of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) at pre-industrial scale (1515 cm2). Synthesis at a large scale is a challenging issue that we attempt to address discussing the choice of ann…
The quality and specific energy consumption (SEC) of the biomass pellets produced depend upon pelleting process conditions. The present study includes understanding the effect of feedstock moisture in the range of 28–38% (wet basis [w.b.]) and preheating in the range of 30–110°C at two die speeds of 40 and 60 Hz on the physical properties and SEC. A flat die pellet mill fitted with a 6 mm…
We report on the fabrication, integration, and simulation, both optical and optoelectrical, of two-dimensional photonic nanostructures for advanced light trapping in thin crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. The photonic nanostructures are fabricated by the combination of various lithography (nanoimprint, laser interference, and hole mask colloidal) and etching (dry plasma and wet chemical) …
The research on novel, suitable materials for phosphorconverted light-emitting diodes (pc-LEDs) has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, due to their dramatically increased energy effi ciency compared to conventional light sources. The replacement of conventional sources, such as incandescent lamps, is considered a fundamental step toward reducing worldwide electrical energy consumpti…
The applications of synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and laser micro-Raman techniques in an examination of the dissolution, transformation,and gasification of pure cellulose and models for biomass residue under hydrothermal conditions in a diamond-anvil cell are reported. The results contribute to the measurement of in situ time-resolved profiles of biomass reactions, catalyst stabi…
Reducing wafer thickness while increasing power conversion efficiency is the most effective way to reduce cost per Watt of a silicon photovoltaic module. Within the European project 20 percent efficiency on less than 100-mm-thick, industrially feasible crystalline silicon solar cells (“20plms”), we study the whole process chain for thin wafers, from wafering to module integration and life-c…
Three-dimensional (3-D) computational code was implemented to solve conservation equations based on finite volume method as to simulate 1.8 L Ford diesel engine. Velocity and pressure of each computational cell is achieved by SIMPLE (semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations) algorithm. For the exergetic aspect, the initial condition is set at 0.1 MPa and 300 K. The engine modeling is…
The zooplankton Daphnia magna has been widely used as a test organism to assess the toxicity of chemical substances because of its important position in aquatic ecology and its ease of handling. Among the various endpoints for toxicity evaluation, growth rate is one of the most critical and many studies have been conducted. However, measurement of growth rate was time-consuming and not an idea…
Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) layers are deposited by a direct solution coating of metal salts dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)and thiourea as sulphur source. An intentional Sn-rich precursor is used and the influence of reactive and inert atmosphere on the layer morphology is investigated during high temperature sintering. Larger grain growth is observed when annealing the precursor in inert N2 atmos…
New corrole sensitizers having a triphenylamine moiety at the –meso position and a carboxylic anchoring group at the pyrroleb position, in both free-base and copper complex forms, have been designed, synthesized, and tried as sensitizers in dyesensitized solar cells. All the substituted carboxy-corroles were completely characterized from structural, optical and electrochemical points of view.…
In this study, the focus is on understanding organic thin-film transistor fabrication based on application-relevant processing techniques like inkjet printing for deposition of the semiconductor and patterning of top-contacts using conventional photolithography and etching. A clear relation between the morphology of the semiconductor film resulting from the printing process and the measured dev…
Detection of blade root moment sensor failures is an important problem for fault-tolerant individual pitch control, which plays a key role in reduction of uneven blade loads of large wind turbines. A new method for detection of blade root moment sensor failures which is based on variations induced by a vertical wind shear is described in this paper. The detection is associated with monitoring …
Two-dimensional glass model experiments are used to investigate the residual trapping mechanism of CO2 stored in saline aquifers. For this purpose, two proxy fluids are chosen to simulate the CO2-brine behavior under reservoir conditions. The first set of experiments is carried out by flooding n-heptane in a mixture of glycerol and water inside a glass bead porous media. Fluids and porous mate…
With strong optical absorptivity and a widely tunable bandgap,graphene is an attractive material for optical and optoelectronic devices. [ 1,2 ] Recently, emerging graphene quantum dots (GQDs), single- or few-layer graphene only several nanometers in size, have been implemented in bandgap engineering due to quantum confi nement [ 3,4 ] and edge effects, [ 5 ] which potentially can be exploited …
The effi cient photon management in nanowires coupled with tunable absorption can provide a signifi cant advancement in the current solar cell technology. Adding a shell on the nanowire (NW) offers an extra degree of freedom for tailoring the NW absorption. Calculations are performed to study the shell-induced changes in the core absorption of an ideal Si nanocylinder after enclosing it with co…
Fusion energy, based on the use of broadly available inexhaustible resources as lithium and deuterium and with minimal impact to the environment, aims at a change in the energy supply paradigm: instead of its current dependence on natural resources and environmental impact, energy would become a technology-dependent resource with unlimited adaptive availability and whose unit cost should decre…
Cylindrospermopsin (CYN) is a cytotoxin produced by different cyanobacterial species, increasingly detected in water reservoirs worldwide. There is very little information available concerning the effects of the toxin on fish immune cells.The aim of the study was to elucidate the potential impact of cylindrospermopsin on the selected parameters of a common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) leucocyte c…
A simultaneously “nuclear”, permanent, and in-time solution to mankind’s energy-related problems would require the relatively rapid manufacture of 10,000–30,000 genuinely sustainable, full-sized (~1 GWe) reactors. This “nuclear renaissance” would have to be implemented with breeder reactors because today’s commercial nuclear fuel cycle is unsustainable and based upon a fuel (235U…
Flexible supercapacitors, a state-of-the-art material, have emerged with the potential to enable major advances in for cutting-edge electronic applications.Flexible supercapacitors are governed by the fundamentals standard for the conventional capacitors but provide high flexibility, high charge storage and low tance of electro active materials to achieve high capacitance performance. Conductin…
We examined pilot-scale bioethanol production from rice straw using sodium carbonate pulping as the alkaline pulping method and enzymatic saccharification. The yield of prewashed rice straw after the crushing and prewashing stage decreased with an increase in the input in rice straw. The pulp yield after alkaline cooking was 66–68% at kappa number ranging from 32 to 36, which was comparative…
The lack of a dipolar second-order susceptibility (χ (2) ) in silicon due to the centrosymmetry of its diamond lattice usually inhibits effi cient second-order nonlinear optical processes in the silicon bulk. Recently, the deposition of stressed silicon nitride layers and the corresponding inhomogeneous strain in silicon lead to the demonstration of second harmonic generation and electrooptic…
FeMn/Co thin-films, a purely metallic exchange-bias system,were prepared on (100)-oriented MgO single crystals. The layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The crystalline and magnetic properties could be tuned by using sputtered Pt buffer layers deposited at variable temperatures. A transition of the crystalline orientation from (111)-terminated layers at lower deposition temperat…
The ever growing demand for wireless data communications is driving a need for new technologies to augment the existing radio frequency approaches (such as WiFi). Visible light communications (VLC) offers a means to do this, using the unlicensed visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum for wireless communications, where hundreds of terahertz of bandwidth are available. The adoption of l…
In this study, we investigate the formation of Mo(S,Se)2 layers in the interface region between the absorber and the back contact in electrodeposited CuIn(S,Se)2 (CISSe) solar cells, and its influence on the resulting devices. Mo(S,Se)2 layers are formed spontaneously in the Mo/CI(S,Se) interface during the annealing of the absorber, but have a serious impact on the solar cell performance, bein…
As a result of changes in the energy marketplace, the role of energy audits has greatly expanded. There is an increasing need in business and industry to more effectively man age energy use. Reducing utility costs is still one of the most effective and achievable strategies for lowering the operating costs. Today, many large energy consumers are contracting with energy service providers…
Gold nanocrystals and nanoassemblies have attracted extensive attention for various applications, including chemical and biological sensing, solar energy harvesting, and plasmon-enhanced spectroscopies, due to their unique plasmonic properties. It is of great importance to prepare shape-controlled Au nanocrystals with high monodispersity over a large range of sizes. In this work, Au nanosphere…
A project has been initiated in South Africa to design, model, build, and evaluate an easy to install solar fueled combined heat and power (micro-CHP) system to supply off-grid rural villages and eco-estate communities. This study describes the design of a model that offers a combined 3 kW peak electrical,12 kW peak thermal, stand-alone solar power technology solution with microgrid storage to…
A project has been initiated in South Africa to design, model, build, and evaluate an easy to install solar fueled combined heat and power (micro-CHP) system to supply off-grid rural villages and eco-estate communities. This study describes the design of a model that offers a combined 3 kW peak electrical,12 kW peak thermal, stand-alone solar power technology solution with microgrid storage to…
In order to improve the short-circuit current and the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells, Ag grid/ITO/(p)a-Si:H/(i) a-Si:H/(n)c-Si/(i)a-Si:H/(nþ)a-Si:H/Al, ZnO nanostructured (NS) array films are deposited by electrochemical method on the front side of the solar cells. Aqueous solutions of ZnCl2 and KCl at temperature of 80 8C were used as electrolyte, employing a three-electrode…
In this work the processing sequence for an integrated interconnection concept for crystalline silicon thin-films (c-Si TF) is introduced. This concept is designed to reduce cost in the production of large-area crystalline silicon thin-film modules. Combining the advantages of classical thin-film and wafer technologies, a soldering-free interconnection of cells in the module is realized. In or…
High carrier mobility and tunability in graphene enable fundamental studies for plasmonics and various applications. Despite its versatility, however,single-layer graphene (SLG) suffers from poor coupling effi ciency to electromagnetic waves, presenting a major challenge for photonic applications.Compared with visible or infrared radiation, terahertz (THz) waves exhibit higher absorption in SL…
Quebec’s large solar power potential markedly contrasts with its poor achievements in using solar energy in this large and wealthy region of the world. Reviewing recent developments and putting discussion in the socioeconomic context, we provide arguments that justify our viewpoint that solar energy will soon be a relevant source of power in this Province of Canada. The rapid fall in price o…
We investigate the value of solar photovoltaic (PV) power in the Italian wholesale electricity market (IPEX). A model is developed and applied to simulate and predict the monthly average electricity prices in peak hours, as well as to simulate scenarios without PV generation. The computed merit-order effect of the PV generation in Italy, around 2.9 €/MWh per each additional GWh of PV produc…
This study presents comprehensive thermoeconomic and thermoenvironomic modeling and analysis of selected gas turbine power plants in Nigeria using the first and second laws of thermodynamics (exergy) concept. Exergetic analysis was conducted using operating data obtained from the power plants to determine the exergy destruction and exergy efficiency of each major component of the gas turbine i…
An effi cient tandem organic light-emitting diode is realized by employing a novel light out-coupling structure with deterministic quasi-periodic nanocone arrays. The enhancement of color spatial uniformity and operational stability is simultaneously realized along with the remarkable effi ciency improvement in tandem devices by integrating multi-photon emission and light out-coupling techniqu…
This article presents an overview of the fabrication methods of black silicon,their resulting morphologies, and a quantitative comparison of their optoelectronic properties. To perform this quantitative comparison, different groups working on black silicon solar cells have cooperated for this study. The optical absorption and the minority carrier lifetime are used as benchmark parameters.The d…
In recent times, hybrid renewable energy systems are increasingly being utilized to provide electricity in remote areas especially where the grid extension is considered too expensive. This study presents the results of techno-economic analysis of hybrid system comprising of solar and wind energy for powering a specific remote mobile base transceiver station (BTS) in Nigeria. All the necessary …
ZnO nanorod arrays placed within the architecture of the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell present promising concepts to maximize photoconversion by optical and electrical enhancement. Three different Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell architectures utilizing ZnO nanorods are introduced. New technological insights are given for electrodeposited ZnO nanorod anti-reflection coatings,examining the reflectance of devi…
The energy supply characteristic of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell for houses is strongly influenced in a hydrogen supply unit. Therefore, a bioethanol reforming system (FBSR) with a sunlight heat source is developed as a potential fuel supply system for distributed fuel cells. However, the temperature distribution of a catalyst layer in the reactor is not stable under conditions of unst…
In this article, we present performance results and analysis of a novel rotary lobe expander device. This is part of a larger research effort into the analysis and design of a small-scale solar system that would compete with available distributed technologies for heat and electricity generation. To choose an appropriate working fluid and components for a distributed concentrating solar combined…
The aim of this study was to estimate the reference level of cadmium in rice as the benchmark doses (BMD) and their 95% lower confidence limits (BMDL) for various renal effects by applying an updated hybrid approach. The participants were 1120 men and 1274 women aged 50 years or older who lived in the environmentally exposed Kakehashi river basin for at least 30 years. As indicators of renal d…