Novel quinoxaline-based organic sensitizers using vertical (RC-21) and horizontal (RC-22) conjugation between an electron-donating triphenylamine unit and electron-accepting quinoxaline unit have been synthesized and used for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), leading to the relatively high power conversion efficiencies of 3.30 and 5.56% for RC-21 and RC-22, respectively. This result indicates...

We propose to create ultracold ground state molecules in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate by adiabatic crossing of an optical Feshbach resonance. We envision a scheme where the laser intensity and possibly also frequency are linearly ramped over the resonance. Our calculations for (87)Rb show that for sufficiently tight traps it is possible to avoid spontaneous emission while retaining adiaba...

The first examples of thiocyanate-free thiophene-substituted Ru(II) cyclometalated complexes, based on thiophene-derived 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine ligands, are presented and investigated as photosensitizers in DSCs. Upon thiophene substitution the complexes presented enhanced optical properties compared to the reference dye with no thiophene substitution. DSCs based on the dithienyl-derive...

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are emerging as promising technology for the treatment of wastewaters. The potential energy conversion efficiencies are examined. The rates of energy recovery (W/m3 reactor) are reviewed and evaluated. Some recent data relating to potato-processing wastewaters and a hospital wastewater effluent are reported. Finally, a set of process configurations in which MFCs coul...

It has recently been proposed that designing selective emitters with photonic crystals (PhCs) or plasmonic metamaterials can suppress low-energy photon emission, while enhancing higher-energy photon emission. Here, we will consider multiple approaches to designing and fabricating nanophotonic structures concentrating infrared thermal radiation at energies above a critical threshold. These are b...

Two-component self-assembly supramolecular coordination complexes with particular photo-physical property, wherein unique donors are combined with a single metal acceptor, can be utilized for many applications including in photo-devices. In this communication, we described the synthesis and characterization of two-component self-assembly supramolecular coordination complexes (SCCs) bearing tria...

Prion diseases are associated with the conversion of the normal cellular prion protein, PrP(c), to the abnormal, disease-associated form, PrP(Sc). This conversion can be mimicked in vitro by using a cell-free conversion assay. It has recently been shown that this assay can be modified to use bacterial recombinant PrP as substrate and mimic the in vivo transmission characteristics of rodent scra...

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) biomass was evaluated for biochemical conversion into ethanol using dilute-acid and ammonia pretreatments. The two alfalfa lines compared were a reduced S-lignin transgenic cultivar generated through down regulation of the caffeic acid O-methyltransferase gene and a wild-type control. Both were harvested at two maturities. All the samples had similar carbohydrate co...

We describe a model for a-Si:H based pin solar cells derived primarily from valence bandtail properties. We show how hole drift-mobility measurements and measurements of the temperature-dependence of the open-circuit voltage VOC can be used to estimate the parameters, and we present VOC(T) measurements. We compared the power density under solar illumination calculated with this model with publi...

Pursuing a high power conversion efficiency with no sacrifice of cost-effectiveness has been a persistent objective for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). One promising solution to this impasse is increased light harvesting. Previous efforts in light harvesting have been made on setting blocking layers or reflecting layers, or adding a light harvester, resulting in tedious procedures without r...