The Role of Oxygen in the Degradation of Methylammonium Lead Trihalide Perovskite Photoactive Layers

In this paper we report on the influence of light and oxygen on the stability of CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite‐based photoactive layers. When exposed to both light and dry air the mp‐Al₂O₃/CH₃NH₃PbI₃ photoactive layers rapidly decompose yielding methylamine, PbI₂, and I₂ as products. We show that this degradation is initiated by the reaction of superoxide (O₂^?) with the methylammonium moiety of the perovskite absorber. Fluorescent molecular probe studies indicate that the O₂^? species is generated by the reaction of photoexcited electrons in the perovskite and molecular oxygen. We show that the yield of O₂^? generation is significantly reduced when the mp‐Al₂O₃ film is replaced with an mp‐TiO₂ electron extraction and transport layer. The present findings suggest that replacing the methylammonium component in CH₃NH₃PbI₃ to a species without acid protons could improve tolerance to oxygen and enhance stability.     

Laguerre functions on symmetric cones and recursion relations in the real case

In this article we derive differential recursion relations for the Laguerre functions on the cone Ω$\Omega$ of positive definite real matrices. The highest weight representations of the group Sp(n,R)$\mathrm{Sp}(n,\mathbb{R})$ play a fundamental role. Each such representation acts on a Hilbert space of holomorphic functions on the tube domain Ω+iSym(n,R)$\Omega +i\mathrm{Sym}(n,\mathbb{R})$. We then use the Laplace transform to carry the Lie algebra action over to L²(Ω,d_μν)$L^2(\Omega ,\mathrm{d}{\mu }_{\nu })$. The differential recursion relations result by restricting to a distinguished three-dimensional subalgebra, which is isomorphic to sl(2,R).$\mathfrak{sl}(2,\mathbb{R}).$     

On-line monitoring of continuous beer fermentation process using automatic membrane inlet mass spectrometric system

A fully automatic membrane inlet mass spectrometric (MIMS) on-line instrumentation for the analysis of aroma compounds in continuous beer fermentation processes was constructed and tested. The instrumentation includes automatic filtration of the sample stream, flushing of all tubing between samples and pH control. The calibration standards can be measured periodically. The instrumentation has also an extra sample line that can be used for off-line sample collection or it can be connected to another on-line method. Detection limits for ethanol, acetic acid and eight organic beer aroma compounds were from μg l⁻¹ to low mg l⁻¹ levels and the standard deviations were less than 3.4%. The method has a good repeatability and linearity in the measurement range. Response times are shorter than or equal to 3 min for all compounds except for ethyl caproate, which has a response time of 8 min. In beer aroma compound analysis a good agreement between MIMS and static headspace gas chromatographic (HSGC) measurements was found. The effects of different matrix compounds commonly present in the fermentation media on the MIMS response to acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and ethanol were studied. Addition of yeast did not have any effect on the MIMS response of ethanol or ethyl acetate. Sugars, glucose and xylose, increased the MIMS response of all studied analytes only slightly, whereas salts, ammonium chloride, ammonium nitrate and sodium chloride, increased the MIMS response of all three studied compounds prominently. The system was used for on-line monitoring of continuous beer fermentation with immobilised yeast. The results show that with MIMS it is possible to monitor the changes in the continuous process as well as delays in the two-phase process.