Influence of Urbach Energy,Temperature, and Longitudinal Position in the Active Layer on Carrier Diffusion Length in Perovskite Solar Cells

The diffusion length of charge carriers in the active layer of a perovskite solar cell (PSC) of the structure Glass/PEDOT: PSS/CH₃NH₃PbI₃/PC60BM/Al is modelled. It is found that the diffusion length depends on the position x in the active layer measured from the PEDOT: PSS interface, Urbach energy and temperature. By varying the voltage in the range from zero to , it is shown that the dependence of diffusion length on the position x in the active layer reduces at higher voltage. The combined influence of applied voltage and temperature on the diffusion length of charge carriers is investigated and it is found that in the low voltage range the diffusion length is temperature independent, but it becomes significantly temperature dependent at higher voltages. Also, it is found that the diffusion length decreases as the applied voltage increases and this reduction becomes much more significant at higher voltage and temperatures. The combined influence of applied voltage and Urbach energy on diffusion length of charge carriers reveals that the diffusion length decreases when both the applied voltage and Urbach energy increase. However, the reduction in the diffusion length due to the increase in Urbach energy becomes less significant at higher voltage.     

Green synthesis and characterization of monodispersed silver nanoparticles obtained using oak fruit bark extract and their antibacterial activity

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) has been achieved using oak fruit bark extract as a reducing, capping and stabilizing agent. The biosynthesized Ag NPs were characterized using various techniques. UV–visible spectrum of prepared silver colloidal solution showed absorption maximum at 433 nm. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed that Ag NPs have a face‐centred cubic structure being spherical in shape with an average particle size of 20–25 nm. The toxicity of the Ag NPs was tested on bacterial species such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli by comparison based on diameter of inhibition zone in disc diffusion tests and minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of NPs dispersed in liquid cultures. The antimicrobial activity of Ag NPs was greater towards Gram‐positive bacteria (S. aureus and B. subtilis) compared to Gram‐negative bacteria as determined using standard Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion assay and serial dilution. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nicotinic acid-supported cobalt ferrite-catalyzed one-pot synthesis of substituted chromeno[3,4-b]quinolines

One-pot synthesis of substituted chromeno[3,4-b]quinoline derivatives was developed by three-component reaction of aldehydes, dimedone or 1,3-cyclohexadione, and 4-aminocoumarin in the presence of nicotinic acid-supported cobalt ferrite [CoFe₂O₄@SiO₂@Si(CH₂)₃Cl@NA] as a novel magnetic catalyst in chloroform at reflux conditions. Nicotinic acid-supported cobalt ferrite was characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermal gravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometry. Moreover, the catalyst could be easily recovered by magnetic separation and recycled up to five times without significant loss of its catalytic activity. The products formed in excellent yields over appropriate reaction times under environmentally friendly conditions. High efficiency and easy isolation of the catalyst from products by simple magnetic attraction are some of the considerable advantages of this procedure.     

Highly Regioselective Ring Opening of Epoxides with Thiols Catalyzed by SbCl3 Under Solvent-Free Conditions

The ring-opening reaction of epoxides with thiols by SbCl ₃ supported on Kieselguhr under solvent-free conditions, afforded high yields of β-hydroxy sulfides. Nucleophilic attack of the thiols occurs regioselectively at the less hindered side of the epoxides.     

A green and efficient procedure for one-pot synthesis of xanthenes and acridines using silica boron–sulfuric acid nanoparticles (SBSANs) as a solid Lewis-protic acid

Silica boron–sulfuric acid nanoparticles (SBSANs) as a solid Lewis-protic acid have been found to be an efficient heterogeneous catalyst in the synthesis of xanthene and acridine derivatives. The SBSAN-catalyzed reaction between carbonyl compound (aldehyde/ketone/ethyl orthoformate) and 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione (dimedone) for synthesis of xanthene derivatives is performed under mild conditions with the excellent isolated yield. Also, we can apply a broad scope of carbonyl compounds and amines for efficient synthesis of various acridine derivatives in the presence of SBSAN catalyst. In these multicomponent approaches the SBSAN catalyst can be reused for several times without any treatment in its catalytic activity.     

Experimental versus predicted affinities for ligand binding to estrogen receptor: iterative selection and rescoring of docked poses systematically improves the correlation

The computational determination of binding modes for a ligand into a protein receptor is much more successful than the prediction of relative binding affinities (RBAs) for a set of ligands. Here we consider the binding of a set of 26 synthetic A-CD ligands into the estrogen receptor ERα. We show that the MOE default scoring function (London dG) used to rank the docked poses leads to a negligible correlation with experimental RBAs. However, switching to an energy-based scoring function, using a multiple linear regression to fit experimental RBAs, selecting top-ranked poses and then iteratively repeating this process leads to exponential convergence in 4–7 iterations and a very strong correlation. The method is robust, as shown by various validation tests. This approach may be of general use in improving the quality of predicted binding affinities.     

Cosmology with light axions from technicolor

We consider cosmological consequences of the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry that is anomalous under technicolor interactions, leading to the emergence of a light axion-like particle. Avoiding overclosure of the universe by such axions yields the upper bound fa?¹⁰¹⁰ GeV$f_a?{10}^{10}\text{GeV}$ on the symmetry breaking scale, corresponding to keV-scale axions. However, diffuse X-ray background data typically require larger values of fa$f_a$. The overclosure and X-ray bounds can be reconciled if the axion initial amplitude of oscillations Ai∼fa/10$A_i\sim f_a/10$. In this case, a viable axionic dark matter candidate with a mass in the 50–100 eV range emerges. The detection of this type of dark matter may pose a challenge.     

Flow visualization and analysis of thermal distribution for the nanofluid by the integration of fuzzy c-means clustering ANFIS structure and CFD methods

Journal of Visualization - A nanofluid containing copper (Cu) nanoparticles was simulated in a rectangular cavity using computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The upper and lower walls of the cavity...     

带鳍通道性能的遗传算法优化

与光滑通道相比,带鳍通道有更高的传热系数,附加的鳍,极大地增强了通道的传热.然而,传热的增强又与压降的升高相关联,这又导致泵动力需求的增加,因此应该寻求对该系统的优化设计.该文的主要目的是,通过如下方式来精确地确定鳍的位置和尺寸:利用遗传算法实现最小压降时达到最优传热.鳍的每种布局作为问题(遗传算法中的一个个体)的一个解.通常,首先随机地产生一个初始种群,然后该算法在所有这些解中搜索,利用布局函数迭代出新解,最后得到鳍的优化设计.     

Improving the differential transform method: A novel technique to obtain the differential transforms of nonlinearities by the Adomian polynomials

Although being powerful, the differential transform method (DTM) yet suffers from a drawback which is the lack of a systematic methodology for derivation of the differential transforms for nonlinear expressions. In the current paper, it is shown that this defect can be overcome with the help of the Adomian polynomials perfectly. The application of the proposed technique in treatment of nonlinear differential equations is well illustrated by a number of examples. In addition, the transformed analogues of some frequent nonlinearities are presented.