Tunable silver-shell dielectric core nano-beads array for thin-film solar cell application

The absorbance spectra of thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) can be enhanced by constructing the tunable periodic Ag-shell nano-bead (PASNB) arrays in the active material. In this paper, we investigated a plasmonic thin-film solar cell (TFSC) which composed of the arrays of PASNB deposited onto a crystalline silicon layer. By performing three-dimensional finite element method, we demonstrate that near field coupling among the PASNB arrays results in SPR modes with enhanced absorbance and field intensity. The proposed structure can significantly enhance the plasmonic activity in a wide range of incident light and enlarge working wavelength of absorbance in the range of near-UV, visible and near-infrared. We show that the sensitivity of the PASNB arrays reveals a linear relationship with the thickness of Ag-shell nano-bead (ASNB) for both the anti-bonding and bonding modes in the absorbance spectra. The broadband of absorbance spectra could be expanded as a wide range by varying the thickness of ASNB while the particle size is kept constant. Simulation results suggest this alternative scheme to the design and improvements on plasmonic enhanced TFSCs can be extended to other nanophotonic applications.     

Protein foam application for enhanced oil recovery

Protein foam was explored as a foaming agent for enhanced oil recovery application in this study. The influence of salinity and oil presence on bulk stability and foamability of the egg white protein (EWP) foam was investigated. The results were compared with those of the classical surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) foam. The results showed that the EWP foam is more stable than the SDS foam in the presence of oil and different salts. Although, the SDS foam has more foamability than the EWP foam, however, at low to moderate salinities (1–3 wt% NaCl), both foam systems showed improvement in foamability. At a NaCl concentration of 4.0 wt% and above, foamability of the SDS foam started to decrease drastically while the foamability of the EWP foam remained the same. The presence of oil has a destabilizing effect on both foams but the EWP foam was less affected in comparison to the SDS foam. Moreover, increasing the aromatic hydrocarbon compound percentage in the added oil decreased the foamability and stability of the SDS foam more than EWP foams. This study suggests that the protein foam could be used as an alternative foaming agent for enhanced oil recovery application due to its high stability compared to the conventional foams.     

多光子过程中相位退相干时两原子布局数反转

利用全量子理论的方法,研究了存在相位退相干时多光子T-C模型中两个二能级原子与二项式光场相互作用系统中两原子的布居数反转。讨论了相位退相干系数、二项式光场系数、最大光子数、跃迁光子数对原子布居数反转的影响。结果表明：相位退相干减少了原子布居数反转的振幅、破坏了原子的量子特性。改变跃迁光子数,可以改变原子间布居数反转演化周期及演化强度。当二项式光场的最大光子数增大时,原子布居差的崩塌-回复现象就会逐渐消失。相位退相干因子不变时, 二项式光场从相干态过渡到数态过程中,原子布居的振荡频率由大变小,周期性的崩塌与回复现象逐渐消失。     

Sequential injection chromatography against HPLC and CE: Application to separation and quantification of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid

Sequential injection chromatography (SIC) has been recently proposed as an alternative separation technique. SIC has the advantages of inexpensiveness, rapid operation procedure, small dimension, short stabilization time, friendly maintenance process and less reagent consumption. In contrast, SIC has had suffered from some limitations. In the current study, a higher pressure resistant selection valve with additional ports than that available in commercially SIC systems was installed. This development allows achieving solution propulsion without showing leakage and linking more standard/sample solutions. In addition, a new method for the separation and quantification of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid in pharmaceutical formulations has been optimized and validated. A comparative study on the efficiency of the SIC method with previous HPLC and CE methods was conducted as well. Besides the benefits of the instrumentation of SIC, the proposed method has shown some advantages over previous HPLC and CE methods with respect to reagent consumption and sample frequency. Other such analytical characters of the SIC method as resolution, peak symmetry, number of theoretical plates, linearity range, accuracy, precision and limits of detection and quantification, recorded comparable results with those obtained from previous HPLC and CE methods.     

Developing new method for quantifying pindolol by sequential injection analysis

An inexpensive, rapid, safe and green method for pindolol assay in medicines was developed using sequential injection analysis (SIA) technique. The method was based on the oxidation of pindolol by dichromate in sulfuric acid media. A chromogenic form of pindolol was spectrophotometrically detected at 640 nm. The 3³ full-factorial design approach was applied to optimize acid concentration, pindolol volume and reaction time. The automation of SIA and the optimization process offered satisfactorily selectivity to the method. The recovery of pindolol in the presence of clopamide as a companion drug, besides excipients usually found in tablet formulation, was in the range of 96.5–98.4%. The automation also provided good repeatability, with a relative standard deviation value of 2.2% for seven replicates. Additionally, the miniaturization of SIA rendered the method reagent-saving (the total consumed reagent volumes was 120 μL) and environ-mentally-friendly (the total waste volume was 1320 μL). Furthermore, both the automation and miniaturization offered a rapid procedure (the sample frequency was 22 samples/h). On the other hand, the chemometric optimization improved the detectability of the method with the limits of detection and quantification of 0.57 and 1.9 μg/mL, respectively.     

The First Principles Investigations of the Thermoelectric Properties of GaN with p- and n-Type Doping

We investigate the thermoelectric properties of GaN with p-and n-type doping by the first principles calculation and the semi-classical Boltzmann theory. We find that the power factors (S2σof p-type GaN (-3500 W/mK2) is about twice that of the n-type (-1750 W/mK2), which indicates the thermoelectric properties of p-type GaN would be better. Thermal conductivity of GaN crystal decreases rapidly as the temperature increases, but it is still too large for thermoelectric applications. The figure of merit (ZT) estimated at 1500 K is 0.134 for p-type GaN crystal and 0.062 for the n-type.     

Pressure sensing utilizing linear cavity erbium-doped fiber laser

In this paper, we report a fiber laser pressure sensor based on linear cavity erbium-doped fiber laser. The fiber laser structure comprises of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier, a circulator, an optical coupler and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) which acts simultaneously as a lasing wavelength selecting components as well as a pressure sensor. The FBG is fitted to the shock tube where the pressure is applied. The fiber laser pressure sensor has a low threshold power of 7 mW, an output power of 2.28 mW and an optical signal to noise ratio over 55 dB. The proposed fiber laser sensor is expected to be an attractive choice for long-distance pressure monitoring.     

Early detection of diseases in plant tissue using spectroscopy – applications and limitations

Plant diseases can greatly affect the total production of food and agricultural materials, which may lead to high amount of losses in terms of quality, quantity and also in economic sense. To reduce the losses due to plant diseases, early diseases detection either based on a visual inspection or laboratory tests are widely employed. However, these techniques are labor-intensive and time consuming. In a view to overcome the shortcoming of these conventional approaches, several researchers have developed non-invasive techniques. Recently, spectroscopy technique has become one of the most available non-invasive methods utilized in detecting plant diseases. However, most of the studies on the application of this novel technology are still in the experimental stages, and are carried out in isolation with no comprehensive information on the most suitable approach. This problem could affect the advancement and commercialization of spectroscopy technology in early plant disease detection. Here, we review the applications and limitations of spectroscopy techniques (visible/infrared, electrical impedance and fluorescence spectroscopy) in early detection of plant disease. Particular emphasis was given to different spectral level, challenges and future outlook.     

Λ Production and Λ/p Ratio in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

The Λ multiplicity and Λ/p ratio are studied by hadron transportation-string fragmentation model in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Firstly, the dependence of Λ multiplicity and Λ/p ratio on the system size and the collision centrality is studied. It shows that the Λ and p multiplicities go up as the increase of system size and the increase of collision centrality. However, their ratio keeps almost a constant. The effect of Λ annihilation cross section to Λ multiplicity and Λ/p ratio is also studied. It is found that this effect is weak: Λ multiplicity and Λ/p ratio have a little amount of increase by the decrease of Λ annihilation cross section. Even the cross section is down to zero, Λ/p ratio is only 1.2 in 200A GeV AuAu head on collision. The Λ/p ratio is obtained to be 0.28 in pp collision, lying in the range of experimental data:0.2—0.3. It is also obtained that the ratio in AA collisions is 3—5 times of that in pp collision.     

相对论性核与乳胶(Ag)碰撞中灰粒子的系统研究 *

用描写相对论性核 核碰撞的LUCIAE模型和相应的事件产生器系统地研究了 1 4.6 ,6 0和 2 0 0AGeV的O核、2 0 0AGeV的Si和S核以及 1 1 .6AGeV的Au核与乳胶 (Ag)碰撞中灰粒子产生的平均多重数、多重数分布以及角分布 3个物理量同入射能量、射弹质量及碰撞中心度间的关系 ,还研究了再散射在灰粒子产生机制中的作用 .LUCIAE的这些研究结果与相应的EMU0 1乳胶实验结果都相一致 .