Encapsulation of Orange Essential Oil Using Cross-linked Electrospun Gelatin Nanofibers

The aim of this study was to prepare electrospun gelatin (G) and gelatin-cross-linked tannic acid (GT) nanofibers loaded with orange essential oil. Four G/GT-to-orange essential oil ratios (1:0.25, 1:0.5, 1:0.74, and 1:1) were used to prepare orange oil-loaded nanofibers. The best encapsulation efficiency (69 and 52.6%) and oil content (34.45 and 26.26%) were observed at the ratio of 1:1 for both G and GT, respectively. The morphology and thermal properties of the electrospun fibers as well as the release and storage stability of loaded orange essential oil were investigated at the selected ratio. The results indicated that the fibrous structure of the orange essential oil-loaded samples was maintained. It is found that both G and GT provided suitable controlled release of orange essential oil and were successful in improving its storage stability.     

Surface decorations to abrupt change performance,robustness, and stability of electrodes for solid oxide cells

Solid oxide cell electrodes need to display a wide range of combined properties, for example, electronic and ionic conductivities, catalytic activity, chemical compatibility with other parts, thermal expansion match, phase stability, and tolerance to foreign species/contaminants. It is extremely challenging for a single material to meet all these features required. Surface decoration is a remarkably adaptive strategy to provide needed features to the electrodes by introducing functioning materials through various target-guided methods. This review provides an overview of typical and novel techniques to create surface decoration on the electrodes to abruptly improve the drawbacks of the electrodes of solid oxide cells, including performance enhancement, stability of long-term operation, and tolerance to poisoning foreign species. It starts with the introduction of surface decoration experimental procedure, proceeds to crucial characterization methods that are particularly effective in identifying the properties of the surface coating, continues with target-oriented practice in terms of surface decoration materials choice and microstructure manipulation, and ends with the explorations of functioning mechanisms for the resultant behavior. With hope, the review will spark more novel utilizations of surface decoration practice to promote the technical status of the solid oxide cells for widespread commercialization in the future.     

Efficient and Stable Inverted Wide-Bandgap Perovskite Solar Cells and Modules Enabled by Hybrid Evaporation-Solution Method

Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells (WBG-PSCs), when partnered with Si bottom cells in tandem configuration, can provide efficiencies up to 44%; yet, the development of stable, efficient, and scalable WBG-PSCs is required. Here, the utility of the hybrid evaporation-solution method (HESM) is investigated to meet these demanding requirements via its unique advantages including ease of control and reproducibility. A PbI₂/CsBr layer is co-evaporated followed by coating of organic-halide solutions in a green solvent. Bandgaps between 1.55–1.67 eV are systematically screened by varying CsBr and MABr content. Champion efficiencies of 21.06% and 20.35% in cells and 19.83% and 18.73% in mini-modules (16 cm²) for perovskites with 1.64 and 1.67 eV bandgaps are achieved, respectively. Additionally, 18.51%-efficient semi-transparent WBG-PSCs are implemented in 4T perovskite/bifacial silicon configuration, reaching a projected power output of 30.61 mW cm⁻² based on PD IEC TS 60904-1-2 (BiFi200) protocol. Despite similar bandgaps achieved by incorporating Br via MABr solution and/or CsBr evaporation, PSCs having a perovskite layer without MABr addition show significantly higher thermal and moisture stability. This study proves scalable, high-performance, and stable WBG-PSCs are enabled by HESM, hence their use in tandems and in emerging applications such as indoor photovoltaics are now within reach.