Plasma‐modified poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes for the dehydrationof ethanol

Non‐porous poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes prepared by a cast‐evaporating technique were covered with an allyl alcohol or acrylic acid plasma‐polymerized layer. The wettability and the surface energy, as well as the chemical nature of the deposit, were assigned by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The ability of the modified membranes for dehydrating the water/ethanol azeotropic mixture by pervaporation was studied at 25, 40 and 60 °C. The best selectivity (α = 250 at 25 °C) was obtained in the case of the allyl alcohol plasma treatment. The results obtained are discussed on the basis of the hydrophilicity as well as in terms of the weakly crosslinked superficial layer that favoured the membrane swelling. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Modelling solar effects on the heat and mass transfer in a street canyon, a simplified approach

In urban areas, the climatic loads on buildings in summer conditions are largely affected by solar radiation. In this paper a modified simplified method for radiant interchange determination is used in a solar energy study. The good agreement with the radiosity method allows one to use this simplified method in the street canyon case. In a building pilot study, parametric analysis and building thermal behaviour can be assessed by simplified models which are useful for long-period simulation. Then this radiant interchange model is introduced in a zonal model of a canyon street and performed with a variable climatic conditions show case. The solar radiation is the only driving force in the street air movement. The interest of such approach for complex coupled phenomena studies is highlighted by obtained results and the assessment of variable climatic loads for different building zones can be considered with the model detailed herein. Future developments are planned in order to improve simulation accuracy by the addition of other local phenomena.     

Rubrene as an additive in M-phthalocyanine/fullerene organic solar cells

Photovoltaic devices made from metallo-phthalocyanine/fullerene (M-Pc/C₆₀) with 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (rubrene) as an additive are fabricated and characterized. The effect of rubrene is examined for 4 different M-phthalocyanines – H₂Pc, ZnPc, ClInPc, and VOPc – to represent 4 different valencies of the central moiety of M-Pc. In each case, rubrene has shown a notable increase in the open circuit voltage and in the case of the ClInPc and VOPc results in an increase in the overall power conversion efficiency. Through measurement of external quantum efficiency, it is shown that the increased efficiency is due to increased V_oc and not due to the photocurrent contribution from the complementary absorption profile of rubrene. Finally, the photostability of rubrene-based cells is studied, showing that unencapsulated devices decay rapidly in air as a result of the formation of rubrene peroxide, as evidenced by significant decay of the UV–vis absorption and direct measurement of the cell performance over a time period as short as several minutes.     

Application of passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) to non-domestic buildings

The applicability of Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) for reducing energy consumption in hot dry climates is reviewed. A new EC Joule project explaining the application of PDEC in non-domestic buildings is described. The building performance assessment methodology which employs dynamic thermal simulation programs for thermal analysis, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes for airflow modelling is discussed. The role which wind tunnel tests and field measurements have in producing improved models is noted. Preliminary results from CFD benchmark trials are presented.     

Performance and reliability of advanced High-K/Metal gate stacks (Invited Paper)

This paper provides a systematic study of mobility performance and Bias Temperature Instabilities (BTI) reliability in advanced dielectrics stacks. By studying a large variety of dielectric stacks we clearly demonstrate that mobility performance, interface defects Nit and Negative BTI reliability are strongly correlated. All are affected by nitrogen species N which is clearly identified as the main mobility killer when it reaches unintentionally the Si interface during the deposition of nitrided gates or the nitridation steps.     

Heteromorphic chloroindium phthalocyanine films for improved photovoltaic performance

A new structure incorporating multiple phases of chloroindium phthalocyanine (ClInPc) is fabricated and tested in photovoltaic devices. This so-called heteromorphic structure includes as-deposited and THF vapor treated ClInPc films to improve absorption and photovoltaic (PV) performance in devices. Absorption of the polymorphic phases of ClInPc are complementary and lead to improved current generation. Short circuit current is improved by over 70% using the heteromorphic structure, while power conversion efficiency (PCE) improves by more than 40% versus solely as-deposited devices. Advantages of the heteromorphic structure include broader spectral response, improved interfacial contact area and an intermediary open circuit voltage (V_oc).     

Synthesis of zinc oxide nanocrystals by thermal decomposition of Zn-oleate in organic medium

We report the synthesis of uniform-sized hexagonal ZnO nanocrystals by the thermolysis of Zn-oleate complex, which was prepared from the reaction of inexpensive and environmentally friendly reagents such as zinc nitrate and sodium oleate. Two organic compounds with different boiling points, octadecene and octylether, were selected as the medium for thermolysis of Zn-oleate complex. Under optimized reaction conditions, we were able to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles with the size being about 10 nm. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron micrograph (TEM) images confirmed the high crystallinity of the nanocrystals.     

Purification process for cod liver oil polyunsaturated fatty acids

The polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20∶5n−3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22∶6n−3), which have several pharmaceutical properties, have been purified from cod liver oil. The process consisted of four main steps: (i) saponification of the oil, (ii) use of urea inclusion adducts method to obtain PUFA, (iii) PUFA methylation, and (iv) argentation silica gel column chromatography of the methylated PUFA. Argentation silica gel chromatography yielded highly pure DHA in the process (100% purity, 64% yiild). For EPA, the recovery in the combined process was 29.6%, and the final purity was 90.6%, owing to the simultaneous elution of other polyunsaturated fatty esters. The recovery in the urea inclusion method was strongly enhanced by application of orbital agitation during the crystallization process, in which EPA yield increased from 60–70% without agitation to 90–97% at 800 rpm; stearidonic acid (18∶4n−3) yield ranged from 60–75% without agitation to 87–95% at 800 rpm, and DHA yield varied from 53–73% without agitation to 85–99% at 800 rpm     

Multi‐agent distributed intelligent system based on fuzzy decision making

Generally decision making for solving ill‐structured problems in DSS takes place in uncertain situations. The main drawbacks of existing traditional DSS are inefficiencies associated with dealing with complex models and large databases. Usually a fuzzy DSS has many input variables and, hence, its knowledge base, containing the totality of fuzzy rules, is very large. Large rule base leads to disadvantages in speed, reliability, and complexity of DSS. This paper introduces an alternative concept for designing fuzzy DSS based on multi‐agent distributed artificial intelligent technology and fuzzy decision making. The main idea of the proposed DSS is based on granulation of the overall system intelligence between cooperative autonomous intelligent agents capable of competing and cooperating with each other in order to propose a total solution to the problem and organization (combining individual solutions) of the proposed solution into the final solution. It is supposed that every agent in DSS is characterized by a set of fuzzy criteria of unequal importance and definition of a “winner” agent is based on multi‐criteria fuzzy decision making involving unequal objectives. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.