Multi‐crystalline silicon solar cells with metal‐assisted nano‐texturing using HNO3 as hole injection agent

In this study, metal‐assisted etching (MAE) with nitric acid (HNO₃) as a hole injecting agent has been employed to texture multi‐crystalline silicon wafers. It was previously proven that addition of HNO₃ enabled control of surface texturing so as to form nano‐cone shaped structures rather than nanowires. The process parameters optimized for optically efficient texturing have been applied to multi‐crystalline wafers. Fabrication of p‐type Al:BSF cells have been carried out on textured samples with thermal SiO₂/PECVD‐SiN_x stack passivation and screen printed metallization. Firing process has been optimized in order to obtain the best contact formation. Finally, j_sc enhancement of 0.9 mA/cm² and 0.6% absolute increase in the efficiency have been achieved. This proves that the optimized MAE texture process can be successfully used in multi‐crystalline wafer texturing with standard passivation methods.

J –V curves and SEM images of the nano and iso‐textured samples. j_sc enhancement of 0.9 mA/cm² together with 0.6% absolute efficiency gain was observed on nano‐textured samples.     

Electrochemical preparation of α-Ni(OH)2 ultrafine nanoparticles for high-performance supercapacitors

Well-dispersed nanoparticles of nickel hydroxide were prepared via a simple electrochemical method. Electrodeposition experiments were performed from 0.005 M Ni(NO₃)₂ bath at a constant current density of 0.1 mA cm^?2 on the steel cathode for 1 h. Recording the potential values during the deposition process revealed that the reduction of water has major role in the base electrogeneration at the applied conditions. The obtained deposit was characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR), differential scanning calorimeter–thermogravimetric analysis, carbon–nitrogen–hydrogen (CHN), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The CHN, XRD, and IR analyses showed that the obtained deposit has α phase of Ni(OH)₂ with intercalated nitrate ions in its structure. Morphological characterization by SEM and TEM revealed that the prepared α-Ni(OH)₂ is composed of well-dispersed ultrafine particles with the size of about 5 nm. The supercapacitive performance of the prepared nanoparticles was analyzed by means of cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge–discharge tests. The electrochemical measurements showed an excellent supercapacitive behavior of the prepared α-Ni(OH)₂ nanoparticles. It was also observed that the α-Ni(OH)₂ ultrafine particles have better electrochemical characteristic and supercapacitive behavior than β-Ni(OH)₂ ultrafine nanoparticles, including less positive charging potential, lower E _a???E _c value, better reversibility, higher E _OER???E _a, higher utilization of active material, higher proton diffusion coefficient, greater discharge capacity, and better cyclability. These results make the α-Ni(OH)₂ nanoparticles as an excellent candidate for the supercapacitor materials.     

Thermal dry reforming of methane over La2O3 co-supported Ni/MgAl2O4 catalyst for hydrogen-rich syngas production

Research on Chemical Intermediates - The excess emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO2 and CH4 is posing an acute threat to the environment, and efficient ways are being sought to utilize...     

Unusual products in the reactions of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazatriene with sodium aryloxides

Reactions of hexachlorocyclotriphosphazatriene, N₃P₃Cl₆ 1 , with sodium aryloxides have been studied. Compound 1 was found to react by the nucleophilic substitution pathway to yield monocyclophosphazenes [N₃P₃Cl₆(OC₆H₂Bu¹₃-2,4,6) 5 and N₃P₃Cl₄(OC₆H₂Me-4-Bu¹₂-2,6)₂ 6 ] and bi(cyclophosphazenes) ([Cl₅N₃P₃-P₃N₃Cl₄(OC₆H₃Bu¹₂-2,6)] 7 and [N₃P₃(OC₆H₃Bu¹₂-2,6)₅]₂ 8 ). The unusual bi(cyclophosphazenes) 7 and 8 are the first examples of two cyclotriphosphazene rings linked by a P(SINGLE BOND)P bond [2.193 (2) Å], which have been obtained by reacting 1 with ArONa. The structures of compounds 5–8 are ascertained by elemental analyses, ¹H-, ³¹P-¹³C-NMR, IR, and MS spectra. The molecular structure of monocyclic-phosphazene 5 was determined by X-ray diffraction techniques for further structural assignment. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/m with a = 6.144(2), b = 17.079(9), c = 13.181(9) Å, β = 92.79(7), and Z = 2, R = 0.074. Compound 5 is on a crystallographic mirror plane, and there is only a half molecule in the asymmetric unit. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYANILINE/PUMICE COMPOSITE SUSPENSIONS

Electrorheological （ER） properties of polyaniline （PAni）, pumice and polyaniline/pumice composites （PAPC） were investigated. Polyaniline and PAni/pumice composite were prepared by oxidative polymerization. PAni/pumice particlesbased ER suspensions were prepared in silicone oil （SO）, and their ER behavior was investigated as a function of shear rate, electric field strength, concentration and temperature. Sedimentation stabilities of suspensions were determined. It has been found that ER activity of all the suspensions increases with increasing electric field strength, concentration and decreasing shear rate. It has shown that the suspensions have a typical shear thinning non-Newtonian viscoelastic behavior. Yield stress of composite suspensions increased linearly with increasing applied electric field strength and with concentrations of the particles. The effect of high temperature on ER activity of purrfice/silicone oil systems was also investigated.     

Critical evaluation of electrode design and matrix effects on monitoring organophosphate pesticides using composite carbon nanotube-modified electrodes

Carbon nanotubes (CNT)/Nafion-modified glassy carbon (GC) electrodes were used to immobilize the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde. The CNT-modified electrodes exhibited a sensitive and stable electrocatalytic behavior towards thiocholine (TCh). Compared to ordinary GC electrodes modified with Nafion, a substantial (500-mV) decrease in the overvoltage of the TCh oxidation reaction is observed, along with a tenfold enhancement in the amperometric response. The CNT/Nafion/AChE electrode has very good stability of at least a month compared to surfaces made without crosslinking in the absence and presence of Nafion. Under optimal loadings of CNT, Nafion, AChE, and glutaraldehyde, a solution of CNT/Nafion in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) containing 4 mg/mL CNT and 0.01% Nafion was used to construct the electrodes in order to maximize the sensitivity of the biosensor for inhibition studies. An optimal enzyme loading of 0.137 U and crosslinking in 0.01% glutaraldehyde for 1 h was also needed to achieve this goal. The prepared electrodes had very good reproducibility to 1.0 mM acetylthiocholine (ATCh) (relative standard deviation [RSD] <5% for eight electrodes). Using paraoxon as a model pesticide, the biosensor was able to detect as low as 1.0 nM after 30 min of incubation at 30 °C. Using a log scale, the biosensor had good linearity in the concentration range 50?C800 nM, with a correlation coefficient of 0.99. The prepared biosensor was used to test real water samples spiked with paraoxon and showed good correlation with a calibration curve using phosphate buffer.     

Structural evolution of nanocrystalline/amorphous Fe/Ni75B25 multilayers: temperature dependence of electrical resistivity

X-ray specular-reflectivity measurements have been carried out on nanocrystalline/amorphous Fe/Ni₇₅B₂₅ multilayer films which were sputter-deposited on Si substrates, to investigate the evolution of interface roughness and the correlation between structure and transport properties. A significant interface roughness correlation with increasing Fe/NiB layer repetition was observed. The investigated films indicated a temperature dependent high electrical resistivity—10⁴ μΩ-cm at 10 K and 10³ μΩ-cm at 300 K—with a semiconductor-metal transition like behavior. Selected area electron diffraction revealed the presence of crystalline bcc Fe phase and NiB in amorphous state. The structural and transport properties of the multilayers are discussed.     

A boundary only procedure for time-dependent diffusion equations

In the recent literature, the boundary element method (BEM) is extensively used to solve time-dependent partial differential equations. However, most of these formulations yield algorithms where one has to include all interior points in the computation process if finite difference procedures are used to approximate the temporal derivative. This obviously restricts the advantages of the BEM, which is mainly considered to be a boundary only algorithm for time-independent problems. A new algorithm is demonstrated here, which extends the boundary only nature of the method to time-dependent partial differential equations. Using this procedure, one can reduce the finite difference time integration algorithm, generated in a standard manner, to a boundary only process. The proposed method is demonstrated with considerable success for diffusion problems. Results obtained in these applications are presented comparatively with analytical and other boundary element time integration procedures. The algorithm proposed may utilize several coordinate functions in the secondary reduction phase of the formulation. A summary of such functions is described here and performances of these functions are tested and compared in three applications. It is shown that some coordinate functions perform better than others under certain conditions. Using these results, we propose a general coordinate function, which may be used with satisfactory results in all parabolic partial differential equation applications.     

Some properties of Hermite-based Sheffer polynomials

In this paper, the concepts and the formalism associated with monomiality principle and Sheffer sequences are used to introduce family of Hermite-based Sheffer polynomials. Some properties of Hermite-Sheffer polynomials are considered. Further, an operational formalism providing a correspondence between Sheffer and Hermite-Sheffer polynomials is developed. Furthermore, this correspondence is used to derive several new identities and results for members of Hermite-Sheffer family.