Hard carbons(HCs)are recognized as potential anode materials for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)because of their low cost,environmental friendliness,and the abundance of their precursors.The presence of graphitic domains,n...Hard carbons(HCs)are recognized as potential anode materials for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)because of their low cost,environmental friendliness,and the abundance of their precursors.The presence of graphitic domains,numerous pores,and disordered carbon layers in HCs plays a significant role in determining their sodium storage ability,but these structural features depend on the precursor used.The influence of functional groups,including heteroatoms and oxygen-containing groups,and the microstructure of the precursor on the physical and electrochemical properties of the HC produced are evaluated,and the effects of carbonization conditions(carbonization temperature,heating rate and atmosphere)are also discussed.展开更多
Organic solar cells with stacked bulk heterojutaction(BHJ) are investigated based on conjugated polymer. By using the solution spin-coating method, Poly[2-methoxy, 5-(2' -ethyl-hexyloxy) -1,4-phenylene vinylene] ...Organic solar cells with stacked bulk heterojutaction(BHJ) are investigated based on conjugated polymer. By using the solution spin-coating method, Poly[2-methoxy, 5-(2' -ethyl-hexyloxy) -1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and ZnO nanoparticles (50 nm) are mixed as the optical sense layer. Ag is used as inter-layer to connect the upper BHJ cell and the lower cell. The structures are ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MEH-PPV lAg / MEH-PPV:ZnO/Al. The open circuit voltage (Voc) of a stacked cell is about 3.7 times of that of an individual organic solar cell (ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MEH-PPV/Al). The short circuit current (Jsc) of a stacked cell is increased by about 1.6 times of that of individual one.展开更多
NaxCoO2 is a commonly used cathode material for sodium ion batteries because of its easy synthesis, high reversible capacity and good cyclability. The structural and electrochemical properties of NaxCoO2 during sodium...NaxCoO2 is a commonly used cathode material for sodium ion batteries because of its easy synthesis, high reversible capacity and good cyclability. The structural and electrochemical properties of NaxCoO2 during sodium ion insertion/extraction process are studied based on first principles calculations. The calculation results of crystal structure parameters and average intercalation voltage are in good agreement with experiment data. Through calculation of the geometric structure and charge transfer in charging and discharging processes of NaxCoO2, it is found that the oxygen atom surrounding Co of the CoO6 octahedral screens the coulomb potential produced by sodium vacancy in NaxCoO2, and the charge is removed from the entire Co-O layer instead of the Co atom adjacent to sodium vacancy when sodium ions are extracted from the Na CoO2 lattice. Thus, during the insertion/extraction of sodium ion from Na CoO2, the CoO6 octahedral structure undergoes small lattice distortion, which makes the local structure quite stable and is beneficial to the cycling stability of the material for the application of sodium ion batteries.展开更多
Windbelt generators have been proposed as small, green power sources for battery charging applications. Some of the reported results lack detailed information about how key parameters influence the output power of the...Windbelt generators have been proposed as small, green power sources for battery charging applications. Some of the reported results lack detailed information about how key parameters influence the output power of the generator. In this work, we built prototypes with different architectures to study the voltage generation and power delivery as functions of belt tension, length, and electrical load at various wind speeds. We also studied the maximum power delivery conditions before the breakdown of the belt oscillation occurs. Our results are obtained from windbelt generators with two types of architectures: a conventional design with an adjustable belt that uses weight for tension control, and a revised design with a belt oscillation perpendicular to the coil axis. We have concluded that the breakdown of the belt oscillation at lower output resistances is a primary bottleneck that will limit windbelt systems to only very low power applications.展开更多
Mesoscopic lead halide perovskite solar cells typically use TiO2 nanoparticle films as the scaffolds for electron-transport pathway and perovskite deposition. Here, we demonstrate that swelling-induced mesoporous bloc...Mesoscopic lead halide perovskite solar cells typically use TiO2 nanoparticle films as the scaffolds for electron-transport pathway and perovskite deposition. Here, we demonstrate that swelling-induced mesoporous block copolymers can be templates for producing three- dimensional TiO2 networks by combining the atomic layer deposition technique. Thickness adjustable TiO2 network is an excellent alternative scaffold material for efficient per- ovskite solar cells. Our best performing cells using such a 270 nm thick template have achieved a high efficiency of 12.5 % with pristine poly-3-hexylthiophene as a hole transport material. The high performance is attributed to the direct transport pathway and high absorption of scaf- folds, small leakage current and largely reduced recombi- nation rate at interfaces. The results show that TiO2 network architecture is a promising scaffold for meso- scopic perovskite solar cells.展开更多
Three-dimensional (3D) porous V2O5 octahedrons have been successfully fabricated via a solid-state conversion process of freshly prepared ammonium vanadium oxide (AVO) octahedrons. The formation of AVO octahedrons...Three-dimensional (3D) porous V2O5 octahedrons have been successfully fabricated via a solid-state conversion process of freshly prepared ammonium vanadium oxide (AVO) octahedrons. The formation of AVO octahedrons is a result of the selective adsorption of capping reagents and the favourable supersaturation of growth species. Subsequently, 3D porous V2O5 octahedrons were obtained by simple thermolysis of the AVO octahedrons via a calcination treatment. As cathode material for lithium batteries, the porous V2O5 octahedron cathode exhibits a capacity of 96 mAh·g^-1 at high rate up to 2 A·g^-1 in the rang of 2.4 4 V and excellent cyclability with little capacity loss after 500 cycles, which can be ascribed to its high specific surface area and tunable pore architecture. Importantly, this facile solid-state thermal conversion strategy can be easily extended to controllably fabricate other porous metal oxide micro/nano materials with specific surface textures and morphologies.展开更多
We report on the growth of geometric feature tuned semiconductor nanotubes on a transparent substrate through the application of an anodic aluminum oxide membrane-assisted method. Three-dimensional nanotube solar cell...We report on the growth of geometric feature tuned semiconductor nanotubes on a transparent substrate through the application of an anodic aluminum oxide membrane-assisted method. Three-dimensional nanotube solar cells are developed in which semiconductor absorbers are not only used to fill the inner core of the nanotubes, but also to replace the membrane and to fill the intertube space between the nanotubes. The nanotube solar cells generate and separate carriers in three dimensions, namely, inside the cores of the nanotubes, in the intertube space between the nanotubes along the radial direction, and above the nanotubes along the axial direction. In preliminary experiments conducted to demonstrate the potential of this approach, nanotube CdS-CdTe solar cells were fabricated. CdS nanotubes with an inner diameter, wall thickness and intertube spacing of 35, 20, and 35 nm, respectively, were grown; the porosity and CdS nanotube density were 36.5% and 2.26 × 10^10 nanotubes/cm^2, respectively. These features of CdS nanotubes enable more efficient carrier collection because of the reduced recombination, especially in those cases in which the minority carrier lifetime is short, thus resulting in a diffusion length of less than 100 nm. Nanotube CdS-CdTe solar cells exhibit a wide and strong spectral response and quantum efficiency, indicating enhanced light absorption and carrier generation and collection. Without the benefit of an antireflection coating, the cells exhibited a wide and strong spectral response of quantum efficiency, and a short current density of 25.5 mA/cm^2, an open circuit voltage of 750 mV, and a power conversion efficiency of 10.7% under 1-sun illumination. The materials and electro-optical characterizations indicated well-defined junction and interface behavior in these 3D nanotube solar cell configurations.展开更多
The effective conductivity (aeff) of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important parameter for predicting the ohmic loss in SOFC. This paper investigates the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes re...The effective conductivity (aeff) of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important parameter for predicting the ohmic loss in SOFC. This paper investigates the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes recon- structed numerically by packing spherical particles in a computational domain, followed by a dilation process to simulate the sintering procedure. The effects of various parameters on the effective conductivity of the electrodes are investigated, including material composition, porosity, particle size and contact angle. Results show that the effective conductivity ratio (aeff/ao) of the computed con- ducting phase is mainly affected by its total volume frac- tion (VF) in electrode (including the porosity). The effective conductivity can be improved by increasing the VF, electrode particle size or the contact angle between electrode particles. Based on the numerical results, the conventional percolation model for the calculation of O'eft is improved by adjusting the Bruggeman factor from 1.5 to 2.7. The results are useful for understanding the microstructure properties of SOFC composite electrode and for subsequent electrode optimization.展开更多
Nanostructure-textured solar cell owns unique properties but has some shortages especially in its fabrication and passivation.In this paper,nanostructures for crystalline silicon solar cell have been synthesized by co...Nanostructure-textured solar cell owns unique properties but has some shortages especially in its fabrication and passivation.In this paper,nanostructures for crystalline silicon solar cell have been synthesized by controllable method based on silver catalyzed chemical etching.In this way,only the front surface of cell is etched and rear surface is protected.It was found that cells textured via the new method obtained equally excellent optical while superior electrical properties compared with those textured via traditional HF/AgNO3 etching.The V OC and I SC of the cell were improved by 6% and 11%,respectively.Then the cells were passivated via a bi-layer passivation(SiO2 & SiN x),in contrast to traditional SiN x passivation.It was also found that cells with new passivation exhibited improved V OC and I SC by 4% and 25%,respectively.The encouraging results can provide fundamental data for developing the nanostructure-textured crystalline silicon solar cell in following researches.展开更多
文摘Hard carbons(HCs)are recognized as potential anode materials for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs)because of their low cost,environmental friendliness,and the abundance of their precursors.The presence of graphitic domains,numerous pores,and disordered carbon layers in HCs plays a significant role in determining their sodium storage ability,but these structural features depend on the precursor used.The influence of functional groups,including heteroatoms and oxygen-containing groups,and the microstructure of the precursor on the physical and electrochemical properties of the HC produced are evaluated,and the effects of carbonization conditions(carbonization temperature,heating rate and atmosphere)are also discussed.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 60576016 and 10774013)National "863" Program (2006AA03Z0412)"973" Program(2003CB314707)
文摘Organic solar cells with stacked bulk heterojutaction(BHJ) are investigated based on conjugated polymer. By using the solution spin-coating method, Poly[2-methoxy, 5-(2' -ethyl-hexyloxy) -1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and ZnO nanoparticles (50 nm) are mixed as the optical sense layer. Ag is used as inter-layer to connect the upper BHJ cell and the lower cell. The structures are ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MEH-PPV lAg / MEH-PPV:ZnO/Al. The open circuit voltage (Voc) of a stacked cell is about 3.7 times of that of an individual organic solar cell (ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MEH-PPV/Al). The short circuit current (Jsc) of a stacked cell is increased by about 1.6 times of that of individual one.
基金Project(51472211)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject(2012CK1006)supported by Scientific and Technical Achievement Transformation Fund of Hunan Province,China
文摘NaxCoO2 is a commonly used cathode material for sodium ion batteries because of its easy synthesis, high reversible capacity and good cyclability. The structural and electrochemical properties of NaxCoO2 during sodium ion insertion/extraction process are studied based on first principles calculations. The calculation results of crystal structure parameters and average intercalation voltage are in good agreement with experiment data. Through calculation of the geometric structure and charge transfer in charging and discharging processes of NaxCoO2, it is found that the oxygen atom surrounding Co of the CoO6 octahedral screens the coulomb potential produced by sodium vacancy in NaxCoO2, and the charge is removed from the entire Co-O layer instead of the Co atom adjacent to sodium vacancy when sodium ions are extracted from the Na CoO2 lattice. Thus, during the insertion/extraction of sodium ion from Na CoO2, the CoO6 octahedral structure undergoes small lattice distortion, which makes the local structure quite stable and is beneficial to the cycling stability of the material for the application of sodium ion batteries.
文摘Windbelt generators have been proposed as small, green power sources for battery charging applications. Some of the reported results lack detailed information about how key parameters influence the output power of the generator. In this work, we built prototypes with different architectures to study the voltage generation and power delivery as functions of belt tension, length, and electrical load at various wind speeds. We also studied the maximum power delivery conditions before the breakdown of the belt oscillation occurs. Our results are obtained from windbelt generators with two types of architectures: a conventional design with an adjustable belt that uses weight for tension control, and a revised design with a belt oscillation perpendicular to the coil axis. We have concluded that the breakdown of the belt oscillation at lower output resistances is a primary bottleneck that will limit windbelt systems to only very low power applications.
文摘Mesoscopic lead halide perovskite solar cells typically use TiO2 nanoparticle films as the scaffolds for electron-transport pathway and perovskite deposition. Here, we demonstrate that swelling-induced mesoporous block copolymers can be templates for producing three- dimensional TiO2 networks by combining the atomic layer deposition technique. Thickness adjustable TiO2 network is an excellent alternative scaffold material for efficient per- ovskite solar cells. Our best performing cells using such a 270 nm thick template have achieved a high efficiency of 12.5 % with pristine poly-3-hexylthiophene as a hole transport material. The high performance is attributed to the direct transport pathway and high absorption of scaf- folds, small leakage current and largely reduced recombi- nation rate at interfaces. The results show that TiO2 network architecture is a promising scaffold for meso- scopic perovskite solar cells.
文摘Three-dimensional (3D) porous V2O5 octahedrons have been successfully fabricated via a solid-state conversion process of freshly prepared ammonium vanadium oxide (AVO) octahedrons. The formation of AVO octahedrons is a result of the selective adsorption of capping reagents and the favourable supersaturation of growth species. Subsequently, 3D porous V2O5 octahedrons were obtained by simple thermolysis of the AVO octahedrons via a calcination treatment. As cathode material for lithium batteries, the porous V2O5 octahedron cathode exhibits a capacity of 96 mAh·g^-1 at high rate up to 2 A·g^-1 in the rang of 2.4 4 V and excellent cyclability with little capacity loss after 500 cycles, which can be ascribed to its high specific surface area and tunable pore architecture. Importantly, this facile solid-state thermal conversion strategy can be easily extended to controllably fabricate other porous metal oxide micro/nano materials with specific surface textures and morphologies.
基金Acknowle dgements This work was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (Nos. NSF-NIRT-ECS- 0609064 and NSF-EPCOR EPS-0447479) and by grants from the Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation (Nos. KSEF-148-502-02-27 and KSEF-148-502-03-68). The authors would like to thank PV measurements, Inc for quantum efficiency measurement.
文摘We report on the growth of geometric feature tuned semiconductor nanotubes on a transparent substrate through the application of an anodic aluminum oxide membrane-assisted method. Three-dimensional nanotube solar cells are developed in which semiconductor absorbers are not only used to fill the inner core of the nanotubes, but also to replace the membrane and to fill the intertube space between the nanotubes. The nanotube solar cells generate and separate carriers in three dimensions, namely, inside the cores of the nanotubes, in the intertube space between the nanotubes along the radial direction, and above the nanotubes along the axial direction. In preliminary experiments conducted to demonstrate the potential of this approach, nanotube CdS-CdTe solar cells were fabricated. CdS nanotubes with an inner diameter, wall thickness and intertube spacing of 35, 20, and 35 nm, respectively, were grown; the porosity and CdS nanotube density were 36.5% and 2.26 × 10^10 nanotubes/cm^2, respectively. These features of CdS nanotubes enable more efficient carrier collection because of the reduced recombination, especially in those cases in which the minority carrier lifetime is short, thus resulting in a diffusion length of less than 100 nm. Nanotube CdS-CdTe solar cells exhibit a wide and strong spectral response and quantum efficiency, indicating enhanced light absorption and carrier generation and collection. Without the benefit of an antireflection coating, the cells exhibited a wide and strong spectral response of quantum efficiency, and a short current density of 25.5 mA/cm^2, an open circuit voltage of 750 mV, and a power conversion efficiency of 10.7% under 1-sun illumination. The materials and electro-optical characterizations indicated well-defined junction and interface behavior in these 3D nanotube solar cell configurations.
基金supported by a grant from Research Grant CouncilUniversity Grants CommitteeHong Kong SAR(Poly U 152127/14E)
文摘The effective conductivity (aeff) of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important parameter for predicting the ohmic loss in SOFC. This paper investigates the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes recon- structed numerically by packing spherical particles in a computational domain, followed by a dilation process to simulate the sintering procedure. The effects of various parameters on the effective conductivity of the electrodes are investigated, including material composition, porosity, particle size and contact angle. Results show that the effective conductivity ratio (aeff/ao) of the computed con- ducting phase is mainly affected by its total volume frac- tion (VF) in electrode (including the porosity). The effective conductivity can be improved by increasing the VF, electrode particle size or the contact angle between electrode particles. Based on the numerical results, the conventional percolation model for the calculation of O'eft is improved by adjusting the Bruggeman factor from 1.5 to 2.7. The results are useful for understanding the microstructure properties of SOFC composite electrode and for subsequent electrode optimization.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China ("973" Project)(Grant No. 2009CB939703)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11104319,51172268)the Chinese Academy of Solar Energy Action Plan
文摘Nanostructure-textured solar cell owns unique properties but has some shortages especially in its fabrication and passivation.In this paper,nanostructures for crystalline silicon solar cell have been synthesized by controllable method based on silver catalyzed chemical etching.In this way,only the front surface of cell is etched and rear surface is protected.It was found that cells textured via the new method obtained equally excellent optical while superior electrical properties compared with those textured via traditional HF/AgNO3 etching.The V OC and I SC of the cell were improved by 6% and 11%,respectively.Then the cells were passivated via a bi-layer passivation(SiO2 & SiN x),in contrast to traditional SiN x passivation.It was also found that cells with new passivation exhibited improved V OC and I SC by 4% and 25%,respectively.The encouraging results can provide fundamental data for developing the nanostructure-textured crystalline silicon solar cell in following researches.