High power laser – total emissivity method (HPL-TE method) for determination of coatings relative total emissivity dependent on the temperature is introduced. Method principle, experimental and evaluation parts of the method are described. Computer model of HPL-TE method is employed to perform the sensitivity analysis of the effect of method parameters on the sample surface temperature in the p...

Endothermic animals, such as birds and mammals, regulate their body temperature balancing the amount of heat metabolically produced and that exchanged with the environment. Thus, whenever ambient temperature rises and/or metabolic heat production increases (such as during exercise), adjustments to promote heat dissipation are activated to defend body temperature. One of such adjustments modulat...

We use a state-of-the-art non-equilibrium quantum transport simulation code, NEMO1D, to address the device physics and performance benchmarking of cross-plane superlattice Peltier coolers. Our findings show quantitatively how barriers in cross-plane superlattices degrade the electrical performance, i.e. power factor. The performance of an In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As cross-plane SL Peltier coo...

Heavy heteroatom substitution of the backbone is an effective strategy to improve molecular packing and charge delocalization in polymer semiconductors. Such a modification also facilitates oxidative doping as result reduced ionization potential (IP). Here, effect single-atom selenium on transport properties class polythiophene copolymers explored. The room temperature (RT) conductivities doped...

The response of whole-plant water-use efficiency, termed transpiration efficiency (TE), to variation in soil fertility was assessed in a tropical pioneer tree, Ficus insipida Willd. Measurements of stable isotope ratios (delta(13)C, delta(18)O, delta(15)N), elemental concentrations (C, N, P), plant growth, instantaneous leaf gas exchange, and whole-plant water use were used to analyse the mecha...

PbTe is a well-known thermoelectric material. Recent x-ray total scattering studies suggest that Pb moves off center along 100 in PbTe, by ∼0.2  Å at 300 K, producing a split Pb-Te pair distribution. We present an extended x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (EXAFS) study of PbTe (and Tl doped PbTe) to determine if Pb or Te is off center. EXAFS provides sensitive r- or k-space phase in...

Thermoelectric (TE) materials are a kind of energy material which can directly convert waste heat into electricity based on TE effects. Ternary Cu2SnSe3 material with diamond-like structure has become one of the potential TE materials due to its low thermal conductivity and adjustable electrical conductivity. In this study, the Cu2SnSe3 powder was prepared by vacuum melting-quenching-annealing-...

The solid-state transformation phenomena of spinodal decomposition and nucleation and growth are presented as tools to create nanostructured thermoelectric materials with very low thermal conductivity and greatly enhanced figure of merit. The systems (PbTe)(1-x)(PbS)(x) and (Pb(0.95)Sn(0.05)Te)(1-x)(PbS)(x) are not solid solutions but phase separate into PbTe-rich and PbS-rich regions to produc...

Thermoelectric (TE) materials, which can convert unused waste heat into useful electricity or vice versa, could play an important role in solving the current global energy challenge of providing sustainable and clean energy. Nevertheless, thermoelectrics have long been too inefficient to be utilized due to the relatively low energy conversion efficiency of present thermoelectrics. One way to ob...