Photovoltaic cells technology: principles and recent developments

Solar energy is one of the renewable energy resources that can be changed to the electrical energy with photovoltaic cells. This article accomplishes a comprehensive review on the emersion, underlying principles, types and performance improvements of these cells. Although there are some different categorizations about the solar cells, but in general, all of them can be divided to crystalline silicon solar cells, thin film technology, III–V multijunction cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, polymer solar cells and quantum structured solar cells. Thin film technology is investigated in two non-crystalline silicon solar cells and chalcogenide cells. We present a complete categorization of solar cells and discuss the recent developments of different types of solar cells. Indeed, this paper covers almost all of the development processes of solar cells from their emersion in 1939 up to now. Also, due to substantial effects of the light trapping techniques on the improvements of the solar cells, a comprehensive study has been carried out.     

Strong versus weak local minimizers for the perturbed Dirichlet functional

Let be a bounded domain and . In this paper we consider functionals of the form where the admissible function belongs to the Sobolev space of vector-valued functions and is such that the integral on the right is well defined. We state and prove a sufficiency theorem for local minimizers of where . The exponent is shown to depend on the dimension and the growth condition of and an exact expression is presented for this dependence. We discuss some examples and applications of this theorem. Received: 20 July 2000 / Accepted: 7 June 2001 / Published online: 19 October 2001     

Nanomolar detection limit for determination of norepinephrine in the presence of acetaminophen and tryptophan using carbon nanotube-based electrochemical sensor

A carbon paste electrode modified by carbon nanotubes and a synthesized hydroquinone derivative (abbreviated as DHB) was fabricated. It was used as an electrochemical sensor for simultaneous determination of norepinephrine (NE), acetaminophen (AC), and tryptophan (Trp). Oxidation potential of NE decreased about 220 mV at the modified electrode in comparison with unmodified electrode because of electrocatalysis of oxidation of NE via E? mechanism at the modified electrode. Differential pulse voltammetry was used for obtaining the calibration plot of NE and two linear range of 0.2–20.0 μM and 20.0–1,500.0 μM and an interesting detection limit (3σ) of 40.0 nM were obtained for NE. Also, simultaneous determination of NE, AC, and Trp was described by the proposed sensor and linear range of 20.0–800.0 μM was found for AC and Trp. Finally, the electrochemical sensor was used for the determination of NE, AC, and Trp in mixture.     

A note on quaternion matrices and split quaternion matrix pencils

In this paper, localization theorems for left and right eigenvalues of a quaternion matrix are presented. Some differences between quaternion matrices and split quaternion matrices are summarized. A counter example for Gerschgorin theorems for left and right eigenvalues of a split quaternion matrix is given. Finally, a method for finding right eigenvalues of a split quaternion matrix pencil is presented.     

Krasnoselski-Mann type iterative method for hierarchical fixed point problem and split mixed equilibrium problem

In this paper, we suggest and analyze a Krasnoselski-Mann type iterative method to approximate a common element of solution sets of a hierarchical fixed point problem for nonexpansive mappings and a split mixed equilibrium problem. We prove that sequences generated by the proposed iterative method converge weakly to a common element of solution sets of these problems. Further, we derive some consequences from our main result. Furthermore, we extend the considered iterative method to a split monotone variational inclusion problem and deduce some consequences. Finally, we give a numerical example to justify the main result. The method and results presented in this paper generalize and unify the corresponding known results in this area.     

Tri-polarized MIMO systems in real-world channels: Channel investigation and performance analysis

Polarized multi-antenna systems are an effective solution for reducing inter-antenna spacing while still maintaining low inter-antenna correlation. Traditionally, only dual-polarized antenna systems are used for polarized transceivers. In this paper, tri-polarized antenna systems are investigated. Starting from the polarization mechanisms in the wireless propagation channel, it is shown that dual-polarized MIMO systems show high sensitivity to the transmitter and receiver orientation, which may be very critical in practical applications. Tri-polarized MIMO systems are introduced as a solution to obtain a robust MIMO performances, which are independent of the transmitter and receiver orientation. The performances of dual- and tri-polarized MIMO systems are evaluated on real-world measured channels, and the limits of each of these systems is highlighted.     

Exact boundary controllability of vibrating non-classical Euler–Bernoulli micro-scale beams

This study investigates the exact controllability problem for a vibrating non-classical Euler–Bernoulli micro-beam whose governing partial differential equation (PDE) of motion is derived based on the non-classical continuum mechanics. In this paper, it is proved that via boundary controls, it is possible to obtain exact controllability which consists of driving the vibrating system to rest in finite time. This control objective is achieved based on the PDE model of the system which causes that spillover instabilities do not occur.     

Spectral methods for pantograph-type differential and integral equations with multiple delays

We analyze the convergence properties of the spectral method when used to approximate smooth solutions of delay differential or integral equations with two or more vanishing delays. It is shown that for the pantograph-type functional equations the spectral methods yield the familiar exponential order of convergence. Various numerical examples are used to illustrate these results.      

The Ensemble Quantum State of a Single Particle

The derivation of the statistical nature of the quantum mechanical wave function is presented within the formalism of quantum mechanics and the second quantization. The statistical wave function may be derived for non relativistic bosons, non relativistic fermions, and relativistic bosons by employing the commuting field operator . For relativistic electrons a strictly anticommuting must be employed to derive the statistical wave function (spinor). The discussion at the end of the paper aims to show the physical plausibility of a statistical wave function.     

New ordered MAX phase Mo_2 TiAlC_2: Elastic and electronic properties from first-principles

First-principles computation on the basis of density functional theory(DFT) is executed with the CASTEP code to explore the structural, elastic, and electronic properties along with Debye temperature and theoretical Vickers' hardness of newly discovered ordered MAX phase carbide Mo_2TiAlC_2. The computed structural parameters are very reasonable compared with the experimental results. The mechanical stability is verified by using the computed elastic constants. The brittleness of the compound is indicated by both the Poisson's and Pugh's ratios. The new MAX phase is capable of resisting the pressure and tension and also has the clear directional bonding between atoms. The compound shows significant elastic anisotropy. The Debye temperature estimated from elastic moduli(B, G) is found to be 413.6 K. The electronic structure indicates that the bonding nature of Mo_2TiAlC_2 is a mixture of covalent and metallic with few ionic characters. The electron charge density map shows a strong directional Mo–C–Mo covalent bonding associated with a relatively weak Ti–C bond.The calculated Fermi surface is due to the low-dispersive Mo 4d-like bands, which makes the compound a conductive one.The hardness of the compound is also evaluated and a high value of 9.01 GPa is an indication of its strong covalent bonding.