CHALCOGENIDE PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR CELLS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

Abstract

A brief review is given of those semiconducting selenides and tellurides that appear suitable for the absorber layer of a photovoltaic solar cell, with energy gaps in the range 1 to 2 eV. Furthermore, to obtain a lower cost cell, the semiconductor is also required to be used in the form of a thin polycrystalline film, necessitating a high optical absorption coefficient in the material. At the present time the two best chalcogenides meeting these requirements are the compounds CuInSe ₂ and CdTe, both of which have been used in polycrystalline thin film structures with CdS, as the window layer, yielding conversion efficiencies of over 10%. They have also demonstrated very good chemical stability.     

Ab initio Study of the Keto-Enol Equilibriumof Malonaldehyde

 The mechanism of the keto-enol tautomerism of malonaldehyde was studied by ab initio methods using 6-21G^** and 6-311G^** basis functions at the HF level. Two separate mechanisms were examined: through-space proton transfer in the ω-shaped form and through-space proton transfer in a sickle-shaped form obtained from the ω form by rotation. The transition state structure of the ω form is non-planar, whereas that of the sickle form is planar. The sickle form is connected with a 2^nd order saddle, indicating that there should exist a lower energy barrier, i.e. that the through-bond mechanism may be preferred. The calculated energy barriers of keto-enol tautomerism for the sickle form is twice as high as those for the omega form.     

Neuartige Isomeriefälle bei 1:2-CrIII- und CoIII-Komplexen von o,o'-Dihydroxyazoverbindungen: Pyramidal gebundener Stickstoff mit hoher Inversionsbarriere?

From the dimensions described in previously known X-ray structure analyses and from NMR.-spectroscopical datas of a 1:2 Co^III complex it is concluded that metal chelates of two and tri-dentated azo compounds are present in the diketo or quinone mono hydrazone form, provided that such a form is possible. As the metal atoms replaces the hydrazone proton the coordinating nitrogen atom can be predetermined. For the first time in the case of 1:2 Cr complexes from o,o'-dihydroxy azo compounds small amounts of byproducts have been observed which have the empirical composition of the main complexes. As the coordinated nitrogen atom is sp³-hybridized, its three bonds should be arranged in a pyramidal form. Therefore the ligands should be slightly bent. In the 1:2 Cr complexes where two of these ligands are coordinated to the metal atom perpendicularly to each other (Drew-Pfitzner-arrangement) 3 conformers (+ 3 mirror images) are possible. These conformers are ascribed to one group of the observed isomeric complexes. For another group it is supposed that at least one ligand is coordinated in the plane azo form. The postulated thrice bonded nitrogen atom possesses the requirements for a high inversion barrier: it is a member of two ortho condensed rings; moreover, it is bound to a Lewis acid. No such system seems to have been described, but in some published X-ray structure analyses, there is evidence to be found of its existence.     

Analysis of trace elements and their physico-chemical forms in natural waters

Trace elements in natural waters can be present in different physico-chemical forms, varying in size, charge and density properties. Knowledge of speciation is essential for understanding the transport, distribution, and biological uptake of trace elements in the environment. The development of techniques to provide reliable information on physico-chemical forms has, therefore, become a challenge within Analytical Chemistry.When selecting analytical methods for the determination of total concentrations or fractions of trace elements in natural waters, no exclusion of species should occur, or at least it must be accounted for. Furthermore, the determination limits must be sufficiently low to allow the actual concentrations to be determined with reasonable precision and accuracy. For very low concentrations, preconcentration techniques are applicable, provided the chemical yield of the spike represents that of the original species present. For methods meeting these criteria, the suitability for routine analysis should be considered.When the physico-chemical forms of trace elements are to be determined, the fractionation should take placein situ or shortly after sampling. As the concentrations involved in speciation studies may be extremely low, there is an increasing awareness of potential sources of errors influencing analytical results. Sample collection and separation/fractionation/concentration procedures prior to analysis are, therefore, essential within Analytical Chemistry, and the whole procedure must be taken into account when interpreting the results. There are, however, several requirements which should be met by techniques applicable for speciation purposes. In general, size fractionation techniques (e.g.in situ hollow fibre ultrafiltration) should be applied prior to the addition of any chemical reagents (charge fractionation techniques).     

Ab initio Study of the Keto-Enol Equilibriumof Malonaldehyde

Summary.  The mechanism of the keto-enol tautomerism of malonaldehyde was studied by ab initio methods using 6-21G^** and 6-311G^** basis functions at the HF level. Two separate mechanisms were examined: through-space proton transfer in the ω-shaped form and through-space proton transfer in a sickle-shaped form obtained from the ω form by rotation. The transition state structure of the ω form is non-planar, whereas that of the sickle form is planar. The sickle form is connected with a 2^nd order saddle, indicating that there should exist a lower energy barrier, i.e. that the through-bond mechanism may be preferred. The calculated energy barriers of keto-enol tautomerism for the sickle form is twice as high as those for the omega form. Received January 18, 1999. Accepted (revised) August 4, 1999     

Synthesis and Evaluation of 2-Deoxy-2-amino-β-cellobiosides as Cellulase Inhibitors

The cellulase mixture of Hypocrea jecorina (formerly Trichoderma reesei) contains a variety of exo- and endoglucanases that belong to different structural families. As such, these enzymes form an interesting model system to study the enzyme-ligand interactions in glycoside hydrolases. The nucleophilic carboxylate of retaining β-glycosidases is believed to form a hydrogen bond with the 2-hydroxyl group of their substrate. Consequently, replacing this hydroxyl group with an amino group should result in a stronger electrostatic interaction and thus an increased affinity for the ligand. In this study, several modified cellobiosides were synthesized and evaluated as cellulase inhibitors. The introduction of an amino group was found to have an unpredictable effect on the inhibitory power of the ligands. However, the enzymes display a very high affinity for the corresponding 2-azido compounds, precursors in the synthetic route. The new ligand m-iodobenzyl 2-deoxy-2-azido-β-cellobioside even is the strongest inhibitor of cellobiohydrolase I known to date (K_I = 1 μM).     

On the Structure of Poly-(Ethylene Oxide) When Immersed in Water

It can be shown that poly-(ethylene oxide) in its monomeric form, at molecular weights greater than about 1,000, cannot be soluble in water. Nonetheless, in actual practice poly-(ethylene oxide) is widely used for its hydrophilicity and for its unlimited aqueous solubility. The explanation for this apparent contradiction lies in the fact that poly-(ethylene oxide) molecules form a nonionic surfactant of a novel category, with its hydrophilic and hydrophobic chains attached to each other over their entire length so that its hydrophilic ethylene oxide side is exposed to the water interface while the hydrophobic poly-(ethylene) side remains hidden thanks to the formation of micelles.     

Some properties of the bivariational Hartree–Fock scheme for complex symmetric many-particle operators

The bivariational Hartree–Fock scheme for a general many-body operator T is discussed with particular reference to the complex symmetric case: T^? = T*. It shown that, even in the case when the complex symmetric operator T is real and hence also self-adjoint, the complex symmetric Hartree–Fock scheme does not reduce to the conventional real form, unless one introduces the constraint that the N-dimensional space spanned by the Hartree–Fock functions ? should be stable under complex conjugation, so that ?* = ?α. If one omits this constraint, one gets a complex symmetric formulation of the Hartree–Fock scheme for a real N-electron Hamiltonian having the properties H = H* = H^?, in which the effective Hamiltonian H_eff (1) may have complex eigenvalues ε_k. By using the method of complex scaling, it is indicated that these complex eigenvalues—at least for certain systems—may be related to the existence of so-called physical resonance states, and a simple example is given. Full details will be given elsewhere.     

Weak segregation in molten statistical copolymers

We present a qualitative argument suggesting that a statistical (AB) copolymer should display a certain form of weak segregation, with A rich and B rich regions of size comparable to the coil radius. This should occur if the Flory parameter χ is larger than unity (much larger than for the phase separation of A and B of homopolymers) in agreement with detailed calculations by Frederikson, Milner and Leibler. We achieve a certain qualitative insight for the resulting microphase.     

A validated RP‐HPLC method for the evaluation of the influence of grapefruit juice on liver S9 activation of sacubitril

Grapefruit juice inhibits esterase enzyme. Therefore, a possible interaction with ester prodrugs should be taken into consideration. In this study, the influence of grapefruit juice on sacubitril (SAC) rat liver S9 activation by esterase enzyme was evaluated. An RP‐HPLC method was developed and validated for estimation of SAC in rat liver S9 fraction using a C₁₈ Cyano column as stationary phase and acetonitrile–sodium di‐hydrogen phosphate buffer (0.02 m , pH 4 adjusted by o‐phosphoric acid, 40:60, v/v), as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1 mL/min and UV detection at 254 nm. The method was successfully applied to an in vitro study in which SAC was incubated with rat liver S9 fraction prepared from rats that had previously ingested grapefruit juice for a week. The calculated SAC concentration after incubation was compared with that of SAC incubated with rat liver S9 fraction from the rat control group. The statistical significance between the results of test and control incubation sets was assessed. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that grapefruit juice decreased SAC hydrolysis, hence delaying its activation to sacubitrilat (active form) in gut lumen. Based on this food–drug interaction, it may be required that grapefruit juice should be consumed with caution in patients receiving SAC.     

1H- and 13C-NMR. Studies of the molecular conformations of cyclo-tetraglycyl.

The ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR. spectra of cyclo-tetraglycyl show that the four peptide groups are magnetically equivalent, and different from either a standard trans or a standard cis peptide group. It is suggested that the observed NMR. features correspond to a non-planar form of the peptide groups. On the one hand these data confirm the earlier conclusions from theoretical investigations of the molecular geometry, that cyclic tetrapeptides could not contain four standard trans peptide groups. On the other hand they are not consistent with a previously suggested alternative molecular conformation according to which cyclo-tetraglycyl would adopt a conformation similar to cyclo-tetrasarcosyl, with two cis and two trans peptide bonds. The different behaviour of glycine and sarcosine under the steric strains of tetrapeptide ring closure would appear to suggest that with the exception of the X-Pro bonds, transoid peptide groups in polypeptide chains of the common amino acids should be more likely to occur than the cis form, which has as yet apparently not been observed for N-unsubstituted peptide groups in natural peptides or proteins.     

Role of dimeric and monomeric aluminum chlorides as catalysts is aromatic electrophilic substitution

Aromatic electrophilic substitution reactions were simulated by ab initio calculations of the intermediate complexes and transition states involving the dimeric and monomeric forms of aluminum chloride. With the monomeric form, breaking of the catalytic cycle should be expected due to formation of a stable intermediate complex. With the dimeric form, no such complex was revealed, implying a key role this form plays in the catalysis.Translated from Zhurnal Obshchei Khimii, Vol. 74, No. 9, 2004, pp. 1498–1503.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Volkov, Timoshkin, Suvorov.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

The shielding of H-α in the stabilized rotameric forms of α,α-di-tert-butylthioacetic esters. The electric and magnetic anisotropic effects of the thione group

The currently accepted geometry of carbonyl magnetic anisotropic effects, if regarded as extendable to the thione group, imply that the more deshielded of the two H-α lines in the ¹H NMR spectra of α,α-di-tert-butylthioacetic esters should be assigned to the ‘180° form’ in which C?S is antiperiplanar to C-α? H. CNDO results, however, indicate the opposite; the line should be assigned to the ‘O° form,’ in which C? S eclipses C-α? H, if the predicted considerable increase in 1s density at H-α on going from the 0° form to the 180° form is taken into account. A change in 1s density at H-α as a result of increased branching of alkylation at C-α is also found. These specific effects must be taken into account when discussing the anisotropic effects of C?O or C?S on H-α shifts.     

Solute alignment in liquid crystal solvents The Saupe ordering matrix for anthracene dissolved in uniaxial liquid crystals

Abstract

We have described a theory for U, the potential of mean torque of rigid solutes at infinite dilution in a uniaxial liquid crystal phase; this may be used to calculate (S _xx - S _yy) and S _zz, the principal elements of the Saupe ordering matrix. In its simplest form U(ω) contains only second-rank terms and the dependence of the biaxiality (S _xx - S _yy) is determined by ω, a parameter which describes the departure of the potential of mean torque from cylindrical symmetry, and is predicted to be temperature independent. If dispersion forces are responsible for the magnitude of the orientational order parameter then ω should be independent of the solvent and depend only on the anisotropy in the electric polarizability of the solute. Indeed, this independence should result for any pair potential which can be factorized into a product of solute and solvent properties. These predictions are tested here by determining values of S _zz and (S _xx - S _yy) for anthracene-d ₁₀ as a solute in several liquid crystal solvents, from the quadrupolar splittings obtained from the deuteron N.M.R. spectra. It is found that ω has a strong dependence on the nature of the solvent, which demonstrates that the solute ordering cannot be determined primarily by dispersion forces, or by a factorizable potential. There is also a weaker temperature dependence of λ observed for each binary mixture, and we show how this might be caused by a dependence of ω on solvent ordering, or by the inclusion of a fourth-rank term in U(ω).     

Epimerization of Lupinine to Epilupinine and vice versa. Reexamination of the Structures of Lupinal and Epilupinal

Although the epimerization of lupinine ( 1 ) has been largely investigated, a previously not observed compound of formula C₁₀H₁₇NO was now isolated from the mixture of alkaloids that remains after the separation of epilupinine ( 2 ). It is insoluble in dry Et₂O but soluble in EtOH, from which it is recovered as an Et₂O‐soluble oil that slowly returns to the Et₂O‐insoluble solid form. For these characteristics and based on GC/MS, ¹H‐NMR, and IR data, it is considered as the inner salt 6 of the common enolic form 5 of lupinal ( 3 ) and epilupinal ( 4 ), with which it is in equilibrium when standing in solution (see Scheme 1). The oily form, but not the solid one, is able to improve the conversion of 1 to 2 , establishing the role of the aldehydes in the epimerization process. It was observed that also 2 can be converted to 1 . Finally, the solid lupinal described by Zaboev should be considered as being identical to the now isolated inner salt 6 , while the oily epilupinal of Wicky and Schumann is, indeed, a mixture of epilupinal ( 4 ) with a minor amount of lupinal ( 3 ), which, on standing, is converted to the inner salt 6 of the common enolic form 5 .     

Degenerations of the moduli spaces of vector bundles on curves I

LetY be a smooth projective curve degenerating to a reducible curveX with two components meeting transversally at one point. We show that the moduli space of vector bundles of rank two and odd determinant on Ydegenerates to a moduli space onX which has nice properties, in particular, it has normal crossings. We also show that a nice degeneration exists when we fix the determinant. We give some conjectures concerning the degeneration of moduli space of vector bundles onY with fixed determinant and arbitrary rank.     

Ab initioMO investigation of the ethanolamine–formic acid complex

The title complex is considered a model for the interaction of catecholamine-type ligands with anionogenic sites of receptors. It is usually assumed that the ligands interact in the protonated form, but there is no direct evidence of this. Model computations of proton transfer processes should contribute to the elucidation of this important problem. As a first step in this direction we have made computations in the STO-4G base of the interaction energies, molecular electrostatic potentials, the proton potential curves, and the Mulliken population for three different arrangements of the acid and base molecules. Proton potential functions have also been computed for the complexes with two water molecules attached to the acid. The deeper potential well is nearer to the carboxylic oxygen in all cases examined.     

Some connections between viscoelastic properties of PVC and plasticized PVC and molecular kinetics

A coupling model that has been shown in the past to be capable of relating macroscopically measured relaxation parameters to molecular ones has been presented. In this article the coupling model is applied to the analysis of stress relaxation data collected by Cama and Sternstein on PVC and plasticized PVC. The Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts form, exp — (t/τ*)^1?n, using n = 0.77 is found to be capable of describing the stress relaxation master curve at temperatures below the glass transition, T_g. From the temperature-independent apparent activation energy found by Cama and Sternstein, the primitive activation energy of the α-relaxation was calculated to be 7.5 kcal/mol, which is a reasonable value for the energy barrier to internal rotational isomerism in PVC. Support for this value is found from the data on two plasticized PVCs with different T_gs and apparent activation energies. By applying the coupling model in a similar manner, the primitive activation energies were found to be 8.5 kcal/mol for PVC plasticized with 6 pph dioctylphthalate and 7.7 kcal/mol for PVC plasticized with 6 pph tricresyl phosphate. Within experimental uncertainties, the three primitive activation energies can be considered to be the same. This finding is consistent with the physical basis for primitive activation energy and its identification with the internal rotation barrier, which should be independent of the type and amount of plasticizer in the system. Analysis of Cama and Sternstein's data on the effect of repeated stress aging on stress relaxation of quenched samples of PVC and plasticized PVC show that the coupling constant n increases systematically with each successive stress-aging cycle until it approaches the value for slow-cooled samples. These results are consistent with the notion that stress-aging changes the structural state of the glass in ways similar to physical aging.     

SPECTROSCOPIC STUDIES OF CHLOROPHYLL a AGGREGATES FORMED BY AQUEOUS DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE

Characteristic chlorophyll (Chl) a aggregates formed in aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were investigated spectroscopically. Four chlorophyll forms were found with increasing DMSO concentration; they are called A-672, A-683, A-695 and A-665 according to the wavelengths of their absorption maxima. Transformation occurred only in this order. Reverse transformation could not be realized. A-683 and A-695 were apparently formed by the interaction of Chl a with DMSO in the linear dimer and linear polymer arrangements, respectively. Coordination of the Mg atom with a DMSO O atom and interaction between the S atom of one DMSO molecule and the O atom of an other DMSO molecule should lead to formation of a sandwich-type complex of partially overlapping chlorophyll macrocycles (Chl a-DMSO)_n. A-672 and A-665 were assigned to Chl a micelles and to dissolved monomeric Chl a in DMSO, respectively. Fluorescence spectra showed that the A-683 was highly fluorescent, while the A-695 was less fluorescent. Energy migration within the A-695 form to a trap with a low fluorescence yield might be responsible for this difference in the emission intensity.     

Orientation distribution functions for uniaxially oriented polymers

Most methods of studying molecular orientation in polymers can give only limited information about the distribution of molecular orientations, and this is particularly true of methods for studying the noncrystalline material. It is shown, however, that if the mean values P₂ and P₄ of the second-order and fourth-order Legendre polynomials in cosθ can be determined for the chains in a uniaxially oriented polymer, where - is the angle between the chain axis and the drawing or extrusion direction, some qualitative statements about the form of the distribution can be made with complete certainty for some, but not all, sets of values of P₂ and P₄. It is shown in addition, that if the distribution is fairly smooth a good estimate of its general form can also be obtained, and that a knowledge of P₆ and higher-order means will not improve this estimate appreciably unless they are known with great accuracy.