Dielectric behavior of polyaniline–CNTs composite in microwave region

Films of polyaniline (PANI) and polyaniline–CNTs composites have been synthesized by solution casting technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic studies of PANI and PANI–CNTs composite films indicated the presence of interaction between CNTs and molecular chains of PANI. Dielectric properties of PANI and composite films have been investigated in the frequency range of 8.0–12.0 GHz. The real part of permittivity (ε′) and loss factor (tan δ) were found to be higher in PANI–CNTs composite films as compared to the PANI film. The increasing behavior of ε′ and tan δ has been attributed to the interaction present between CNTs and PANI molecular chains and increase of conductivity of PANI films after incorporation of CNTs.     

Detection of latent fingerprints using luminescent Gd0.95Eu0.05PO4 nanorods

Lanthanide ions doped luminescent materials are widely studied for latent fingerprint detection. However, most of these materials are synthesized at very high temperatures and use UV C light for visualization, which is harmful to eye, skin, etc. Herein, the Gd_0.95Eu_0.05PO₄ nanorods synthesized by a simple co-precipitation method at 185 °C were reported for latent fingerprint visualization under 395 nm light. The Gd_0.95Eu_0.05PO₄ nanomaterial has monoclinic crystal structure and shows rod-shaped morphology. Further, these Gd_0.95Eu_0.05PO₄ nanorods exhibit excellent photoluminescence properties and strong fuchsia emission under UV light. These nanorods have been employed for developing latent fingerprints on various porous and non-porous substrates by the powder dusting technique, which exhibits clear and well defined details with high contrast, selectivity and sensitivity under 395 nm UV light. Latent fingerprints developed after 72 h of their deposition also show clear contrast with these nanorods. Therefore, the Gd_0.95Eu_0.05PO₄ nanorods can be used for latent fingerprint visualization applications.     

Greenly synthesized porous carbon nanoparticle (bio-waste-based)-doped nematic liquid crystal composite with optimized electric and electro-optical properties for devices

The present investigation on the impact of porous carbon nanoparticles (PCNPs) on a room temperature nematic liquid crystalline compound (TP-188-01) reports extensive electro-optical analysis of composite followed by dielectric and luminescence study as well. The pure nematic compound has been doped with 0.1%, 0.25%, and 0.5% of PCNPs (spherical), which have been synthesized by green synthesis technique without use of any activating agents. Low-frequency dielectric analysis (50 Hz to 1 kHz) has been done to confirm ion generation with increase in PCNS concentration. The dielectric data also indicate preferential orientation of molecules from homogeneous to homeotropic alignment, which can be used in performance optimization of electro-optical devices. The analysis of dielectric data also illustrates the application of PCNS-doped systems in circuits operating at high voltages. Diffusion coefficient, mobility, and DC conductivity have been further examined to support the above observations. A significant decrease (of about 47%) in the response time of porous carbon nanoparticle liquid crystal (NP-LC) composites has also been observed. The photoluminescence spectrum of NP-LC composites as a function of carbon nanosphere (CNS) concentration has shown Quenching (following the Stern–Volmer quenching mechanism) in the luminescence intensity with increasing CNS concentration. The highly improved response time and quenching in the luminescence intensity further make the PCNS-doped LC composites as ideal materials to be used in devices, encouraging LC-aided green nanotechnology.     

Machine Learning Assisted Analysis,Prediction, and Fabrication of High-Efficiency CZTSSe Thin Film Solar Cells

The Earth-abundant element-based Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) absorber is considered as a promising material for thin-film solar cells (TFSCs). The current record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of CZTSSe TFSCs is ≈13%, and it's still lower than CdTe and CIGS-based TFSCs. A further breakthrough in its PCE mainly relies on deep insights into the various device fabrication conditions; accordingly, the experimental–oriented machine learning (ML) approach can be an effective way to discover key governing factors in improving PCE. The present work aims to identify the key governing factors throughout the device fabrication processes and apply them to break the saturated PCE for CZTSSe TFSCs. For realization, over 25,000 data points were broadly collected by fabricating more than 1300 CZTSSe TFSC devices and analyzed them using various ML techniques. Through extensive ML analysis, the i-ZnO thickness is found to be the first, while Zn/Sn compositional ratio and sulfo-selenization temperature are other key governing factors under thin or thick i-ZnO thickness to achieve over 11% PCE. Based on these key governing factors, the applied random forest ML prediction model for PCE showed Adj. R² = >0.96. Finally, the best-predicted ML conditions considered for experimental validation showed well-matched experimental outcomes with different ML models.     

Cascaded Multi-level Inverter Topology Developed from a Modified H-bridge

In this paper, a single-phase cascaded multi-level inverter topology is proposed. It is basically developed from a modified H-bridge module. This topology reduces the switch count, the gate drive requirement, and voltage stress. The significant advantages of the proposed inverter are modular structure, simpler control, and lower number of switches. The Nearest Level Control algorithm is employed to generate the gating signals for the power switches. To verify the performance of the proposed structure, simulation results are carried out by MATLAB (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA)/SIMULINK. Experimental results are presented to validate the simulation results.     

A Comparative Performance Evaluation of Extended AANF with Different Parameter Estimation Techniques for Renewable Energy Integration

This paper presents real time performance evaluation of three phase extension of an amplitude adaptive notch filter (AANF) for online estimation of frequency, amplitude, and sequence components of the input grid voltage signal. The performance of an extended AANF is compared with conventional synchronous reference frame-phase lock loop (SRF-PLL), enhanced phase lock loop (EPLL), and existing adaptive notch filter (ANF). Comparative analysis has been carried out based on their ability in extracting frequency and amplitude of input grid voltage signal under balanced and unbalanced voltage sag/swell, frequency shift and distorted grid condition. Three phase AANF method provides high degree of accuracy than SRF-PLL, EPLL, and ANF in extracting appropriate signal information for unbalanced and harmonically distorted grid condition. The important feature of this method is its amplitude adaptability, which improves its speed of response and accuracy when grid signal is of variable amplitude. OPAL-RT’s (OP4500) real time controller with an in-built Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA processor is used for real time implementation. Experimental results validate fast and accurate performance of an extended AANF in extracting frequency, amplitude, and sequence components of the utility grid voltage signal, which can be further used for performance improvement of grid connected renewable energy systems, custom power devices, and flexible ac transmission systems (FACTS) devices.     

A fault‐tolerant modular multilevel inverter topology

Multilevel inverter topologies have received an increasing importance for their modular structures with better integration of renewable energy sources and reduced filtering requirements. But reliability is compromised in the process of decreasing the number of switches to produce the maximum number of voltage levels. This paper elevates a single‐phase fault‐tolerant inverter topology, which is modular in structure. The proposed inverter is analyzed for open‐ or short‐circuit faults in sources and open‐circuit faults in switches. Sine Pulse Width Modulation with multicarriers technique is used to control the circuit. The carrier signals are reconfigured under fault conditions based on levels to be generated by bypassing the faulted switch or source. The circuit is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and experimental setup is developed to claim the fault tolerance of proposed inverter.