Nanocrystalline ceramic films for efficient conversion of light into electricity

Transparent nanocrystalline films of oxide semiconductors such as TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ have been prepared on a conducting glass support employing a sol-gel procedure. The films are composed of nanometer-sized particles sintered together to allow for percolative charge carrier transport. The internal surface of these films is very high, roughness factors of the order of 1000 being readily obtained. Electric polarization was applied for forward and reverse biasing of the films and the resulting optical changes have been analyzed to derive their flat band potential. Band gap excitation of such nanocrystalline semiconductors produces electron-hole pairs which migrate through the film to be collected as electric current. Steady state photolysis and time resolved laser techniques have been applied to scrutinize the mechanism of light induced charge separation within the nanostructure. When derivatized with a suitable chromophore, TiO₂ films give extraordinary efficiencies for the conversion of incident photons into electric current, exceeding 90% for certain transition metal complexes within the wavelength range of their absorption band. The underlying physical principles of these astonishing findings will be discussed. Exploiting this discovery, we have developed a new type of photovoltaic device whose overall light to electric energy conversion yield is 10% under simulated AM 1.5 solar radiation.     

Nitro musks in cosmetic products—determination by headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography with atomic-emission detection

Summary The combination of headspace solid-phase microextraction with atomic-emission detection enables highly selective and sensitive determination of itro musk compounds in cosmetic products. Sample preparation is considerably simplified; there is no solvent extraction step. Enrichment is influenced by the type and amount of cosmetic product investigated. The lowest amount giving well detectable peaks is 1 mg musk compound per kg sample. Calibration curves obtained from spiked solutions of selected reference cosmetics in water show very good linearity. Relative standard deviations of peak areas from repeated measurements are usually <10%. Presented at the 21^st ISC held in Stuttgart, Germany, 15^th–20^th September, 1996     

On top-down splaying

The splay tree is a self-adjusting binary search tree which has a good amortized performance. This paper studies some properties of top-down splay trees. Different ways to charge for the primitive operations of top-down splaying are discussed. We also give some empirical results concerning the behaviour of different top-down restructuring algorithms.This work was supported by the Academy of Finland.     

The influence of photodissociated N2O in pulsed-laser deposition of Y-Ba-Cu-O films

Pulsed-laser deposition of YBa₂Cu₃O₇ in N₂O permits lowering of the substrate temperature with respect to deposition in O₂ atmosphere. Additional photodissociation of N₂O near the substrate surface deteriorates the superconducting properties of deposited films.On leave from: Institute of Applied Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, SU-603600 Nishni Nowgorod, USSR     

Paramagnetic defects in BaTiO3 and their role in light-induced charge transport — Optical studies

On the basis of a previous identification of paramagnetic defects in nominally undoped as grown BaTiO₃ single crystals, we have investigated the changes of the concentrations of these centers and their optical absorptions under illumination with light of varying wavelengths. The most pronounced charge transfers occur by hole ionization of Fe⁴⁺ and — to a lesser extent — of Cr⁵⁺ and Cr⁴⁺. At low temperatures the created holes are trapped in the form of O^–-ions next to Al³⁺ or unknown acceptor defects. Corresponding Fe⁴⁺ and O^– absorptions have been identified.     

Calculation of photoionization cross sections of small metal clusters

In this paper we present photoionization cross sections of the Cu and Al dimers and tetramers. The local spin density method is applied to calculate the electronic structure and the ground state potential. The cross sections are calculated using the continuum multiple scattering method, and a basic analysis of the photoionization process is given within the independent particle picture.     

Ein Verfahren zur Synthese enantiomerenreiner Alkanole durch reduktive Entschwefelung von Thiophenalkoholen

Summary Acetals3 and4 of alkylthienylcarbinols1 were prepared using an enantiomerically pure lactol2. In the key step these compounds were desulfurized. After deprotection the target compounds7 andent-7 were obtained.

Herrn Prof. Dr. H. Oelschläger zum 70. Geburtstag gewidmet     

Cross sections for multi-particle final states at a linear collider

In this paper total cross sections for signals and backgrounds of top- and Higgs-production channels in e ⁺ e^- collisions at a future linear collider are presented. All channels considered are characterized by the emergence of six-particle final states. The calculation takes into account the full set of tree-level amplitudes in each process. Two multi-purpose parton level generators, HELAC/PHEGAS and AMEGIC + + , are used, and their results are found to be in perfect agreement.Received: 26 November 2003, Revised: 15 January 2004, Published online: 3 March 2004     

Fluorimetric determination of the levels of urinary neopterin and serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in the nonagenarians

Twelve self-sustaining nonagenarians, 10 women and two men, aged 94+/-3 years, and eight institutionalised nonagenarians, eight women, aged 91+/-1 year as well as 11 control subjects, seven women and four men, aged 84+/-5 years entered the study. Urinary neopterin, an indicator of systemic immune activation, and serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), a marker of lipoperoxidation, were determined initially, and collection of the blood and urine samples was repeated at 3-month interval. Neopterin was measured in the urine specimens by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. A C(18) reversed-phase column 3.3x150 mm, 5 mum-diameter packing Separon SGX was used. Potassium phosphate buffer (15 mmol l(-1), pH 6.4) at flow rate of 0.8 ml min(-1) was used as mobile phase. After centrifugation (5 min, 1300xg) and diluting 100 mul of urine specimens with 1.0 ml of mobile phase containing 2 g of disodium-EDTA per litre, a 20 mul sample was injected on a column. Neopterin was identified by its native fluorescence (353 nm excitation, 438 nm emission). Creatinine was determined by Jaffé kinetic reaction after dilution of sample 1:50 (v/v). The concentration of neopterin in urine was expressed as neopterin/creatinine ratio (mumol mol(-1) creatinine). TBARS were determined spectrofluorometrically using LS-5 spectrofluorimeter (excitation wavelength 528 nm, emission wavelength 558 nm) after extraction with n-butanol treatment with thiobarbituric acid. The significance of differences between nonagenarians and control group was examined by ANOVA-Kruskal-Wallis tests, using statistical software NCSS 6.0.21 (Kaysville, UT, 1996). The decision on significance was based on P=0.05. Urinary neopterin was significantly higher in institutionalised compared to self-sustaining subjects and controls (625+/-565 vs. 203+/-63 mumol mol(-1) creatinine, and 198+/-128 mumol mol(-1) creatinine, respectively, P=0.006). The serum TBARS were higher in both groups of nonagenarians (3.23+/-1.16 mumol l(-1) and 2.69+/-0.39 vs. 2.12+/-0.83 mumol l(-1) for the self-sustaining, institutionalised and controls, respectively, P=0.023). We conclude that the fluorimetric determinations of urinary neopterin and serum TBARS can be useful for the monitoring health status in the elderly patients.