Electrospun Composite Nanofiber Transparent Conductor Layer for Solar Cells

2011 ◽  
Vol 1323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Ritchie ◽  
Joël Mertens ◽  
Heejae Yang ◽  
Peyman Servati ◽  
Frank K. Ko

ABSTRACTDeveloping a durable and scalable transparent conductor (TC) as an electrode with high optical transmission and low sheet resistance is a significant opportunity for enabling next generation solar cell devices. High performance fibrous composite materials based on a carrier polymer with embedded functional nanostructures have the potential to serve as a TC with high surface area that can be deposited by the novel and scalable process of electrospinning. This work presents the development of a fibrous TC, where polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is used as a carrier polymer for multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to create electroactive nanofibers 200-500nm in diameter. Once carbonized, thin layers of this material have a low sheet resistance and high optical transmission. It is shown that in a two stage carbonization process, the second stage temperature of above 700C is the primary factor in establishing a highly conductive material and single layers of nanofibers are typically destabilized at high temperatures. A high performance TC has been developed through optimizing carbonization rates and temperatures to allow for single nanofiber layers fabricated by electrospinning MWCNT/PAN solutions onto quartz. These TCs have been optimized for concentrations of MWCNTs less than 20% volume fraction with well above 90% transmissivity and sheet resistances of between .5-1kohm/square. The required MWCNT loading is well below that for TCs based on random networks of MWCNTs.

RSC Advances ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (33) ◽  
pp. 20601-20611
Author(s):  
Md. Mijanur Rahman ◽  
Kenta Inaba ◽  
Garavdorj Batnyagt ◽  
Masato Saikawa ◽  
Yoshiki Kato ◽  
...  

Herein, we demonstrated that carbon-supported platinum (Pt/C) is a low-cost and high-performance electrocatalyst for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Mei Wang ◽  
Xinxin Zhang ◽  
Dingyi Yang ◽  
Liting Wu ◽  
Jiaojiao Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract The high porosity, controllable size, high surface area, and chemical versatility of a metal-organic framework (MOF) enable it a good material for a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), and some MOFs have been incorporated in the fabrication of TENGs. However, the understanding of effects of MOFs on the energy conversion of a TENG is still lacking, which inhibits the improvement of the performance of MOF-based TENGs. Here, UiO-66-NH2 MOFs were found to significantly increase the power of a TENG and the mechanism was carefully examined. The electron-withdrawing ability of Zr-based UiO-66-family MOFs was enhanced by designing the amino functionalized 1,4-terephthalic acid (1,4-BDC) as ligand. The chemically modified UiO-66-NH2 was found to increase the surface roughness and surface potential of a composite film with MOFs embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. Thus the total charges due to the contact electrification increased significantly. The composite-based TENG was found to be very durable and its output voltage and current were 4 times and 60 times higher than that of a PDMS-based TENG. This work revealed an effective strategy to design MOFs with excellent electron-withdrawing abilities for high-performance TENGs.


RSC Advances ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (31) ◽  
pp. 19117-19123 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. R. Pistillo ◽  
K. Menguelti ◽  
D. Arl ◽  
F. Addiego ◽  
D. Lenoble

Deposition of conformal polymer thin layers is a key point for many applications where a high surface area is required. PRAP-CVD is emerging as an efficient technique to synthesise and deposit conjugated polymers on 3D complex shape substrates.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soukaina Akel ◽  
Redouan Boughaled ◽  
Ralf Dillert ◽  
Mohamed El Azzouzi ◽  
Detlef W. Bahnemann

Pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics, constitute an important group of aquatic contaminants given their environmental impact. Specifically, tetracycline antibiotics (TCs) are produced in great amounts for the treatment of bacterial infections in both human and veterinary medicine. Several studies have shown that, among all antibiotics, oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OTC HCl) is one of the most frequently detected TCs in soil and surface water. The results of the photocatalytic degradation of OTC HCL in aqueous suspensions (30 mg·L−1) of 0.5 wt.% cobalt-doped TiO2 catalysts are reported in this study. The heterogeneous Co-TiO2 photocatalysts were synthesized by two different solvothermal methods. Evonik Degussa Aevoxide P25 and self-prepared TiO2 modified by the same methods were used for comparison. The synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV/vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and N2 adsorption (BET) for specific surface area determination. The XRD and Raman results suggest that Ti4+ was substituted by Co2+ in the TiO2 crystal structure. Uv/visible spectroscopy of Co-TiO2-R showed a substantial redshift in comparison with bare TiO2-R. The photocatalytic performance of the prepared photocatalysts in OTC HCL degradation was investigated employing Uv/vis spectroscopy and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The observed initial reaction rate over Co-TiO2-R was higher compared with that of Co-TiO2-HT, self-prepared TiO2, and the commercial P25. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to the high surface area (153 m2·g−1) along with the impurity levels within the band gap (2.93 eV), promoting the charge separation and improving the charge transfer ability. From these experimental results, it can be concluded that Co-doping under reflux demonstrates better photocatalytic performances than with the hydrothermal treatment.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Xu ◽  
Chan Chen ◽  
Zhifei Han ◽  
Yuanyuan Yang ◽  
Junsheng Li ◽  
...  

Electrochemical oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution are two key processes that limit the efficiency of important energy conversion devices such as metal–air battery and electrolysis. Perovskite oxides are receiving discernable attention as potential bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts to replace precious metals because of their low cost, good activity, and versatility. In this review, we provide a brief summary on the fundamentals of perovskite oxygen electrocatalysts and a detailed discussion on emerging high-performance oxygen electrocatalysts based on perovskite, which include perovskite with a controlled composition, perovskite with high surface area, and perovskite composites. Challenges and outlooks in the further development of perovskite oxygen electrocatalysts are also presented.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dengchao Xia ◽  
Junpeng Quan ◽  
Guodong Wu ◽  
Xinling Liu ◽  
Zongtao Zhang ◽  
...  

Novel N-doped carbon nanonet flakes (NCNFs), consisting of three-dimensional interconnected carbon nanotube and penetrable mesopore channels were synthesized in the assistance of a hybrid catalytic template of silica-coated-linear polyethyleneimine (PEI). Resorcinol-formaldehyde resin and melamine were used as precursors for carbon and nitrogen, respectively, which were spontaneously formed on the silica-coated-PEI template and then annealed at 700 °C in a N2 atmosphere to be transformed into the hierarchical 3D N-doped carbon nanonetworks. The obtained NCNFs possess high surface area (946 m2 g−1), uniform pore size (2–5 nm), and excellent electron and ion conductivity, which were quite beneficial for electrochemical double-layered supercapacitors (EDLSs). The supercapacitor synthesized from NCNFs electrodes exhibited both extremely high capacitance (up to 613 F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and excellent long-term capacitance retention performance (96% capacitive retention after 20,000 cycles), which established the current processing among the most competitive strategies for the synthesis of high performance supercapacitors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (44) ◽  
pp. 25297-25304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Yan ◽  
Xiao-Feng Hao ◽  
Li-guo Gao ◽  
Si-si Lin ◽  
Nan Cui ◽  
...  

The graphene-based hierarchical porous carbon GGI has high surface area, dual-doping, micro/meso-pores and exhibits good compatibility with the ionic liquid electrolyte EmimTFSI.


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