Availability analysis is an effective approach to studying energy conversion in systems and identifying inefficiency. In the present study, a single-zone model was used to examine energy performance parameters and heat release rates. The governing equation of availability analysis was applied in the model, and the possibility of using biodiesel produced from sunflower oil as diesel engine was i...

We show that germanium-doped graded-index multimode silica fibers can exhibit relatively high conversion efficiencies (∼6.5%) for second-harmonic generation when excited at 1064 nm. This frequency-doubling behavior is also found to be accompanied by an effective downconversion. As opposed to previous experiments carried out in single- and few-mode fibers where hours of preparation were required...

The effects of SbI3, PbCl2, and NH4Cl addition to perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 precursor solutions on photovoltaic properties were investigated. TiO2/CH3NH3Pb(Sb)I3(Cl)-based photovoltaic devices were fabricated by a spin-coating technique, and the microstructures of the devices were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Current density-voltage characteristics and inciden...

A solution processed method for fabricating transition metal sulfides on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) as efficient counter electrodes in iodine/iodide based solar cells has been demonstrated. Conversion efficiencies of 7.01% and 6.50% were obtained for nickel and cobalt sulfides, respectively, comparable to the conventional thermally platinised FTO electrodes (7.32%). A comparable charge tran...

The feasibility of using catalytic conversion of methanol to formaldehyde to produce standard amount of substance fractions of formaldehyde was examined. The conversion efficiencies of several catalysts were measured as a function of temperature, balance gas, catalyst bed length, and methanol amount of substance fraction in an effort to identify conditions which yield high and consistent conver...

The area of organic photovoltaic materials has elicited great interest in both the scientific and technological communities due to its potential to deliver cheap and highly efficient solar cells [1]. To date, however, such so-called molecular wires have typically yielded energy conversion efficiencies of only ~5-6% despite a theoretical maximum of 13% [2]. We present an approach that uses a gen...

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) as deposited by PECVD at low temperatures (around 200°C) can be used to fabricate stable pin-type solar cells with conversion efficiencies over 8 %. The variety of growth forms and microstructural patterns observed for different deposition conditions is described; the requirements to be met by layers for use in μc-Si:H solar cells are listed. A pa...

Lead halide perovskites have emerged as successful optoelectronic materials with high photovoltaic power conversion efficiencies and low material cost. However, substantial challenges remain in the scalability, stability and fundamental understanding of the materials. Here we present the application of radiative thermal annealing, an easily scalable processing method for synthesizing formamidin...

Solar thermal, thermoelectric, and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems have high maximum theoretical efficiencies; experimental systems fall short because of losses by selective solar absorbers and TPV selective emitters. To improve these critical components, we study a class of materials known as cermets. While our approach is completely general, the most promising cermet candidate combines nanop...