Synergistic Roll‐to‐Roll Transfer and Doping of CVD‐Graphene Using Parylene for Ambient‐Stable and Ultra‐Lightweight Photovoltaics

A roll‐to‐roll (R2R) transfer technique is employed to improve the electrical properties of transferred graphene on flexible substrates using parylene as an interfacial layer. A layer of parylene is deposited on graphene/copper (Cu) foils grown by chemical vapor deposition and are laminated onto ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/poly(ethylene terephthalate). Then, the samples are delaminated from the Cu using an electrochemical transfer process, resulting in flexible and conductive substrates with sheet resistances of below 300 Ω sq^?1, which is significantly better (fourfold) than the sample transferred by R2R without parylene (1200 Ω sq^?1). The characterization results indicate that parylene C and D dope graphene due to the presence of chlorine atoms in their structure, resulting in higher carrier density and thus lower sheet resistance. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the binding energy between parylene and graphene is stronger than that of EVA and graphene, which may lead to less tear in graphene during the R2R transfer. Finally, organic solar cells are fabricated on the ultrathin and flexible parylene/graphene substrates and an ultra‐lightweight device is achieved with a power conversion efficiency of 5.86%. Additionally, the device shows a high power per weight of 6.46 W g^?1 with superior air stability.     

Light Management in Organic Photovoltaics Processed in Ambient Conditions Using ZnO Nanowire and Antireflection Layer with Nanocone Array

Low carrier mobility and lifetime in semiconductor polymers are some of the main challenges facing the field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) in the quest for efficient devices with high current density. Finding novel strategies such as device structure engineering is a key pathway toward addressing this issue. In this work, the light absorption and carrier collection of OPV devices are improved by employment of ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays with an optimum NW length (50 nm) and antireflection (AR) film with nanocone structure. The optical characterization results show that ZnO NW increases the transmittance of the electron transporting layer as well as the absorption of the polymer blend. Moreover, the as‐deposited polymer blend on the ZnO NW array shows better charge transfer as compared to the planar sample. By employing PC70BM:PV2000 as a promising air‐stable active‐layer, power conversion efficiencies of 9.8% and 10.1% are achieved for NW devices without and with an AR film, indicating 22.5% and 26.2% enhancement in PCE as compared to that of planar device. Moreover, it is shown that the AR film enhances the water‐repellent ability of the OPV device.     

Binary nanocomposite of Fe3O4/MWCNTs for adsorption of Reactive Violet 2: Taguchi design,kinetics and equilibrium isotherms

Binary nanocomposite of magnetite/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs) was synthesized through the chemical reduction method at room temperature and employed for adsorptive removal of Reactive Violet 2 (RV2) from aqueous solutions. The experiments were carried out based on a Taguchi experimental design with four variables of the adsorbent dosage, pH, contact time and ionic strength. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the adsorbent dosage with contribution of 79.14% was the most effective factor on the process efficiency. Percent contributions of solution pH and contact time were found to be 9.85 and 6.16, respectively. The ionic strength showed no considerable contribution to the response. The optimal dye removal conditions were determined as the adsorbent dosage of 2.0?g?L^?1, pH = 6, contact time of 30?minutes and ionic strength of 0.1?mol?L^?1 which resulted in the average efficiency of 98.23% for RV2 removal. The results showed that RV2 adsorption onto Fe₃O₄/MWCNTs followed the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Moreover, the intraparticle diffusion model suggested a two-step adsorption process, including macropore diffusion of about 94% of RV2 molecules into the nanocomposite surface during ～10?minutes and a micropore diffusion as the rate-limiting step. Fitting of the experimental data to six isotherms (Langmuir, Harkins-Jura, Freundlich, Tempkin, Halsey and Redlich-Peterson) was also investigated and Redlich-Peterson and Halsey isotherms provided the best quality of fitting for the dye-nanocomposite system with R² values of 0.9992 and 0.9906, respectively.     

A multi-period scheduling method for trading-off between skilled-workers allocation and outsource service usage in dynamic CMS

In this paper, a new method is proposed for short-term period scheduling of dynamic cellular manufacturing systems in a dual resource constrained environment. The aim of this method is to find best production strategy of in-house manufacturing using worker assignment (both temporary and skilled workers) and outsourcing, while part demands are uncertain and can be varied periodically. For this purpose, a multi-period scheduling model has been proposed which is flexible enough to use in real industries. To solve the proposed problem, a number of metaheuristics are developed including Branch and Bound; a hybrid Tabu Search and Simulated Annealing algorithms and a hybrid Ant Colony Optimization and Simulated Annealing algorithms. A Taguchi method (L₂₇ orthogonal optimisation) is used to estimate parameters of the proposed method in order to solve experiments derived from the literature. For evaluating the system imbalance in dynamic market demands, a new measuring index is developed. Our findings indicate that the uncertain market demands affects the part allocating which may induce workstation-load variations that yield to cell-load variation accordingly. To solve this problem, two methods are offered. The results show that promoting staff and using freezing technique are promising ways to reduce system imbalance while confronting with the mentioned condition. The outcomes also show the superiority of the proposed hybrid method in providing solutions with better quality.     

Printable Fabrication of a Fully Integrated and Self‐Powered Sensor System on Plastic Substrates

Wearable and portable devices with desirable flexibility, operational safety, and long cruising time, are in urgent demand for applications in wireless communications, multifunctional entertainments, personal healthcare monitoring, etc. Herein, a monolithically integrated self‐powered smart sensor system with printed interconnects, printed gas sensor for ethanol and acetone detection, and printable supercapacitors and embedded solar cells as energy sources, is successfully demonstrated in a wearable wristband fashion by utilizing inkjet printing as a proof‐of‐concept. In such a “wearable wristband”, the harvested solar energy can either directly drive the sensor and power up a light‐emitting diode as a warning signal, or can be stored in the supercapacitors in a standby mode, and the energy released from supercapacitors can compensate the intermittency of light illumination. To the best of our knowledge, the demonstration of such a self‐powered sensor system integrated onto a single piece of flexible substrate in a printable and additive manner has not previously been reported. Particularly, the printable supercapacitors deliver an areal capacitance of 12.9 mF cm^?2 and the printed SnO₂ gas sensor shows remarkable detection sensitivity under room temperature. The printable strategies for device fabrication and system integration developed here show great potency for scalable and facile fabrication of a variety of wearable devices.     

Comparative Study of Conventional and Computerized Reconstruction Techniques for Flow Time Series Data of Hydrometric Station

Water Resources Management - One of the undeniable requirements in hydrological forecasting and water resources studies is the availability of reliable information. Due to the various reasons, time...     

Capacity and Channel Coding for Wireless Point-to-Point <Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis><Superscript>2</Superscript> Channel

In this paper, we derive the capacity of the asymmetric \({\text{Z}}^{2}\)-channel, which has been presented for the first time as an optimization problem. Similar to the Z-Channel, the proposed \({\text{Z}}^{2}\)-channel can be modelled as a practical interference wireless channel. In addition, the capacity behavior of \({\text{Z}}^{2}\)-channel is discussed and some examples and simulation results for the capacity is presented. Also a code plan has been applied for \({\text{Z}}^{2}\)-channel, based on repetition code to simulate its performance and compare it with the original Z-channel. In conclusion, simulation results show that the \({\text{Z}}^{2}\)-channel can be used widely for different operating points.     

Facile synthesis of extremely biocompatible double‐network hydrogels based on chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) with enhanced mechanical properties

An easy and ecofriendly method for designing double‐network (DN) hydrogels based on chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with high mechanical performance is described. When covalent bonds in the networks are used as crosslinking agents in the achievement of a higher mechanical strength, the irreversible deformation of these hydrogels after a large force is applied is still one of the most important obstacles. To overcome this problem, we used physical crosslinking for both networks. The mechanical strength, surface morphology, and cytotoxicity of the films were studied by tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy analysis, and an MTT assay. The synthesized chitosan–PVA DN hydrogels showed a large improvement in the tensile strength to 11.52 MPa with an elongation of 265.6%. The surface morphologies of the films demonstrated the effective interactions between the two networks and a suitable porosity. Also, because of the use of a natural polymer and honey as a plasticizer, the cell culture indicated that the synthesized DN hydrogels had good biocompatibility (with 327.49 ± 11.22% viability) and could be used as capable biomaterials. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45752.     

Conductive poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyethylene/graphene blend‐nanocomposites: Relationship between rheology,morphology, and electrical conductivity

Relationship between rheology, morphology, and electrical conductivity of the poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyethylene/graphene nano‐platelets ternary system (PVDF/PE/GnP) were investigated. All the blend nanocomposites were prepared via a two‐step melt mixing method. GnP (0.75 and 1.5 wt %) was first compounded with PVDF and then the resulted premixtuers were melt mixed with PE to achieve the desired compositions. The corresponding reference nanocomposites and filler‐less blends were also prepared. Effect of an interfacial agent (PEMA; maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene) was also studied in this work. The results of rheological analysis in conjunction with the Raman spectroscopy experiments revealed that GnP had higher affinity to PVDF than PE, which in turn led to creation of conductive networks of GnP (1.5 wt %) in PVDF matrix exhibiting the electrical conductivity of about 10^?2 (S/cm). Double percolated micro‐structure was predicted for the PE/PVDF 40/60 (wt/wt) blend containing low GnP content (0.9 wt %) and confirmed via direct electron microscopy and conductivity analysis. Using 5 wt % of the PEMA reduced the conductivity to 10^?5 (S/cm) and further increase in PEMA content to 10 wt % led to non‐conductive characteristics. The latter was attributed to the migration of GnP from the PVDF phase to PE/PEMA phase and hence disturbance of double percolated micro‐structure. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46333.     

Photonic crystal-based permutation switch for optical networks

We present, for the first time, the design of a low-cross talk scalable permutation switch employing photonic crystal ring resonators in an optical network. Through this novel approach, the transition between different states of the \(2 \times 2\) optical switch, as the basic element, is achieved by applying different operating wavelengths. Subsequently, the shuffling mechanisms in \(3 \times 3\) and \(4 \times 4\) optical networks are realized by controlling the position of photonics crystal ring resonators. Lowest cross talk levels of 6 and 5% are obtained for “bar” and “cross” switching states, respectively.