A Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for the Selection of Low-Cost Green Building Materials and Components

The necessity of having an effective computer-aided decision support system in the housing construction industry is rapidly growing alongside the demand for green buildings and green building products. Identifying and defining financially viable low-cost green building materials and components, just like selecting them, is a crucial exercise in subjectivity. With so many variables to consider, the task of evaluating such products can be complex and discouraging. Moreover, the existing mode for selecting and managing, often very large information associated with their impacts constrains decision-makers to perform a trade-off analysis that does not necessarily guarantee the most environmentally preferable material. This paper introduces the development of a multi-criteria decision support system (DSS) aimed at improving the understanding of the principles of best practices associated with the impacts of low-cost green building materials and components. The DSS presented in this paper is to provide designers with useful and explicit information that will aid informed decision-making in their choice of materials for low-cost green residential housing projects. The prototype MSDSS is developed using macro-in-excel, which is a fairly recent database management technique used for integrating data from multiple, often very large databases and other information sources. This model consists of a database to store different types of low-cost green materials with their corresponding attributes and performance characteristics. The DSS design is illustrated with particular emphasis on the development of the material selection data schema, and application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) concept to a material selection problem. Details of the MSDSS model are also discussed including workflow of the data evaluation process. The prototype model has been developed with inputs elicited from domain experts and extensive literature review, and refined with feedback obtained from selected expert builder and developer companies. This paper further demonstrates the application of the prototype MSDSS for selecting the most appropriate low-cost green building material from among a list of several available options, and finally concludes the study with the associated potential benefits of the model to research and practice.

Low-cost dopant-free fluoranthene-based branched hole transporting materials for efficient and stable n-i-p perovskite solar cells

It has been widely recognized that hole transporting materials(HTMs)play a key role in the rapid progress of perovskite solar cells(PVSCs).However,common organic HTMs such as spiro-OMe TAD not only suffer from high synthetic costs,but also usually require the additional chemical doping process to improve their hole transport ability,which unfortunately induces the terrible stability issue.Therefore,it is urgent to develop low-cost dopant-free HTMs for efficient and stable PVSCs.In this work,we have successfully developed a new class of efficient dopant-free fluoranthene-based HTMs(TPF1–5)with quite low lab synthetic costs by combining donor-acceptor and branched structure designs.The detailed structure-property study revealed that tuning the twisted arms at different substitution sites would regulate the intermolecular interactions and film-forming ability,thereby significantly affecting the performance of the HTMs.By applying these HTMs in conventional PVSCs,the dopant-free TPF1-based devices not only achieved the best efficiency of 21.76%,which is comparable to that of the doped spiro-OMeTAD control devices,but also showed much better operational stability,which maintained over 87%of the initial efficiency under maximum power point tracking after 1038 h.

Low-Cost Preparation of Boron Nitride Ceramic Powders

The amorphous boron nitride ceramic powders were prepared at 750-950 ℃ by the low-cost urea route, and the effects of preparation temperatures, molar ratios of the raw materials and oxidation treatment on the composition, structure and surface morphology of the products were investigated through FT-IR, XRD and SEM. The results show that the products ceramize and crystallize gradually with the increase of the temperature. When the molar ratio and reaction temperature are 3：2 and 850 ℃, respectively, the products have high purity, compact structure and nice shape. The oxidation treatment at 450 ℃ will not impair the composition and structure of boron nitride but effectively remove the impurities.

Low-cost organic photovoltaic materials with great application potentials enabled by developing isomerized non-fused ring acceptors

Benefitting from low cost and simple synthesis,simple structured non-fused ring acceptors(NFRAs)and polymer donors are crucial for the application of organic solar cells(OSCs).Herein,two isomerized NFRAs,namely 4T-FCl FCl and 4T-2F2Cl,are designed with end-group engineering,which modulates the electrostatic potential distributions and crystallinity of acceptors,and accordingly,the A/A and D/A intermolecular interactions.The OSC based on 4T-2F2Cl with strong D/A interactions shows a record-high efficiency of 16.31%in blending with a low-cost polymer donor PTQ10,which shapes obviously improved bulkheterojunction(BHJ)networks blade-coated by non-halogenated solvent o-xylene,and thus significantly diminishes nonradiative recombination loss.A higher industrial figure of merit(i-FOM)of 0.46 for PTQ10:4T-2F2Cl in comparison with PTQ10:4T-FCl FCl(i-FOM=0.29)is demonstrated owing to its superior device efficiency and operational stability.Note that the i-FOM of PTQ10:4T-2F2Cl is the highest value for OSCs reported so far.This work deepens the synergistic effect of the A/A and D/A interactions on achieving desired bulk heterojunction morphology and demonstrates a printable photovoltaic system for low-cost,high-efficiency,stable,and eco-friendly OSCs.

Oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuel oil using supported Fenton catalysts and assisted with ultrasonic energy

An ultrasound-assisted heterogeneous catalytic oxidation process was applied to eliminate sulfur from commercial diesel fuel oil.The studied variables were catalyst concentration,type of catalyst(homogeneous or heterogeneous),oxidizing agent concentration,and the application of ultrasound energy.Supported catalysts were prepared by impregnation of coal fly ash with an iron(Ⅱ)sulfate aqueous solution using ultrasound energy.After drying,the catalyst was calcined at 500℃for 4 h.The oxidizing agent was hydrogen peroxide.Ultrasound energy was applied with a frequency of 47 kHz and an intensity of 147 W.Ethanol was employed for extracting the oxidized compounds from the hydrocarbon mixture.Coal fly ash and ethanol were used with the purpose of applying low-cost raw materials in chemical processes.It was found that under the studied conditions,increasing oxidizing agent concentration and the application of ultrasound energy can enhance the sulfur removal from commercial diesel fuel oil.Catalyst concentration did not play a significant role in the process.Similar results were obtained using homogeneous or heterogeneous catalyst,which is important since the heterogeneous catalyst could be recovered,reactivated,and used in many cycles.

Prospects of Low Cost Housing in India

The paper presents work on low-cost and sustainable alternative building materials having advantages on areas such as India where concrete or steel housing is expensive. The project addresses the challenges and stereotypes of using these materials as a structural component for low-cost housing and their same capacity for adaptation to the broad spectrum of factors—physical, ecological, social, economic and technical—through different products developed which can dictate the production of the construction environment.

Efficient perovskite solar cells employing a solution-processable copper phthalocyanine as a hole-transporting material

The development of alternative low-cost and high-performing hole-transporting materials(HTMs) is of great significance for the potential large-scale application of perovskite solar cells(PSCs) in the future.Here,a facilely synthesized solution-processable copper tetra-(2,4-dimethyl-3-pentoxy) phthalocyanine(CuPc-DMP) via only two simple steps,has been incorporated as a hole-transporting material(HTM) in mesoscopic perovskite solar cells(PSCs).The optimized devices based on such a HTM afford a very competitive power conversion efficiency(PCE) of up to 17.1%measured at 100 mW cm^(-2) AM 1.5G irradiation,which is on par with that of the well-known 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N'N'-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene(spiro-OMeTAD)(16.7%) under equivalent conditions.This is,to the best of our knowledge,the highest value reported so far for metal organic complex-based HTMs in PSCs.The advantages of this HTM observed,such as facile synthetic procedure,superior hole transport characteristic,high photovoltaic performance together with the feasibility of tailoring the molecular structure would make solution-processable copper phthalocyanines as a class of promising HTM that can be further explored in PSCs.The present finding highlights the potential application of solution processed metal organic complexes as HTMs for cost-effective and high-performing PSCs.

Upgraded antisolvent engineering enables 2D@3D quasi core-shell perovskite for achieving stable and 21.6%efficiency solar cells

Perovskite solar cells(PSCs)have become a promising alternative to sustainable energy due to their high power conversion efficiency(PCE)and low-cost processing.However,the practical applications of PSCs are still limited by the trade-off between high performance and poor stability under operation.Here,a2D@3D perovskite with quasi core-shell architecture linking the superiorities of both two-dimensional(2D)and three-dimensional(3D)perovskite is prepared through a novel upgraded antisolvent approach.The basic properties as well as the phase distribution and the charge transport behavior of the 2D@3D perovskite were systematically elucidated.A high PCE of 21.60%for 2D@3D PSCs is achieved due to the enhanced surface and grain boundaries passivation,improved energy level alignment and efficient holes transport.The 2D@3D perovskite device without encapsulation shows significantly improved stability at the room temperature(90%of initial PCE for 45 d with a relative humidity of 50%±5%)and relative thermal conditions(83%of initial PCE for 200 h under 85℃).Compared with traditional 3D PSCs,it proved that such 2D@3D perovskite configuration is an effective architecture for enhancing efficiency and improving stability and therefore will facilitate the further industrialization of PSCs.