Enhancement of photo‐conversion efficiency in Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin‐film solar cells by control of ZnS precursor‐layer thickness

CZTSSe thin‐film absorbers were grown by stacked ZnS/SnS/Cu sputtering with compound targets, and the precursors were annealed in a furnace with a Se atmosphere. We controlled the thickness of the ZnS precursor layer for the CZTSSe thin films in order to reduce the secondary phases and to improve the performance of the devices. The optimal value of the ZnS precursor thickness was determined for the CZTSSe absorbers, and this configuration showed an efficiency of up to 9.1%. In this study, we investigated the depth profiles of the samples in order to determine the presence of secondary phases in the CZTSSe thin films by Raman spectroscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy. Cu₂SnSe₃, ZnSe, and MoSe₂ secondary phases appeared near the back contact, and the work function distribution of the CZTSSe thin‐film surface and the secondary phase distribution were different depending on the depths of the absorber layer. This phase characterization allows us to describe the effects that changes in the thickness of the ZnS precursor can have on the performance of the CZTSSe thin‐film solar cells. Although it is important to identify the phases, the effects of secondary phases and point defects are not yet fully understood, even in optimal devices. Therefore, phase identification that is based on the work function and the results obtained from the Raman spectra in terms of the depth profile are instrumental to improve the surface and interface of CZTSSe thin‐film solar cells. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Highly Porous Hydroxyapatite/Graphene Oxide/Chitosan Beads as an Efficient Adsorbent for Dyes and Heavy Metal Ions Removal

Dye and heavy metal contaminants are mainly aquatic pollutants. Although many materials and methods have been developed to remove these pollutants from water, effective and cheap materials and methods are still challenging. In this study, highly porous hydroxyapatite/graphene oxide/chitosan beads (HGC) were prepared by a facile one-step method and investigated as efficient adsorbents. The prepared beads showed a high porosity and low bulk density. SEM images indicated that the hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were well dispersed on the CTS matrix. FT-IR spectra confirmed good incorporation of the three components. The adsorption behavior of the obtained beads to methylene blue (MB) and copper ions was investigated, including the effect of the contact time, pH medium, dye/metal ion initial concentration, and recycle ability. The HGC beads showed rapid adsorption, high capacity, and easy separation and reused due to the porous characteristics of GO sheets and HA nanoparticles as well as the rich negative charges of the chitosan (CTS) matrix. The maximum sorption capacities of the HGC beads were 99.00 and 256.41 mg g⁻¹ for MB and copper ions removal, respectively.     

Synthesis of Polyethylene Glycol–Chitosan–Nano Ag Composites and their Antibacterial Properties

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy - This study showed the synthesis of polyethylene glycol–chitosan–nano Ag (PEG–Chi–Ag) composites to improve the homogeneous distribution of...     

Catalytic Synthesis of Trifluoromethyl Cyclopropenes and Oligo-Cyclopropenes

The synthesis of trifluoromethylated cyclopropenes is often associated with important applications in drug discovery and functional materials. In this report, we describe the use of readily available chiral rhodium(II) catalysts for a highly efficient asymmetric cyclopropenation reaction of fluorinated donor–acceptor diazoalkanes with a broad variety of aliphatic and aromatic alkynes. Further studies highlight the unique reactivity of fluorinated donor–acceptor diazoalkanes in the synthesis of oligo-cyclopropenes. Subsequent C−H functionalization of trifluoromethyl cyclopropenes furnishes densely substituted cyclopropene frameworks and also allows the alternative synthesis of bis-cyclopropenes.     

Enhancing diversity of OFDM with joint spread spectrum and subcarrier index modulations

Wireless Networks - This paper proposes a novel spread spectrum and sub-carrier index modulation (SS-SIM) scheme, which is integrated to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) framework...     

A max-conflicts based heuristic search for the stable marriage problem with ties and incomplete lists

In this paper, we propose a heuristic search algorithm based on maximum conflicts to find a weakly stable matching of maximum size for the stable marriage problem with ties and incomplete lists. The key idea of our approach is to define a heuristic function based on the information extracted from undominated blocking pairs from the men’s point of view. By choosing a man corresponding to the maximum value of the heuristic function, we aim to not only remove all the blocking pairs formed by the man but also reject as many blocking pairs as possible for an unstable matching from the women’s point of view to obtain a solution of the problem as quickly as possible. Experiments show that our algorithm is efficient in terms of both execution time and solution quality for solving the problem.

     

Syntheses and reactivity of naphthalenyl-substituted arenediynes

A series of naphthalenyl-substituted arenediynes were prepared to examine photochemical reactivity. For naphthalen-1-ylethynyl arenediyne, 350 nm photolysis resulted in a tandem [2 + 2] photocycloaddition to afford cyclobutene adducts. For naphthalen-2-ylethynyl derivatives, electron-donating methoxy substituents were found to facilitate C(1)-C(6) Bergman cyclization at 300 nm. Theoretical calculations provided further insight into thermal and photochemical reactivity.