Optical assessment of silicon nanowire arrays fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching

Silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays were prepared on silicon substrates by metal-assisted chemical etching and peeled from the substrates, and their optical properties were measured. The absorption coefficient of the SiNW arrays was higher than that for the bulk silicon over the entire region. The absorption coefficient of a SiNW array composed of 10-μm-long nanowires was much higher than the theoretical absorptance of a 10-μm-thick flat Si wafer, suggesting that SiNW arrays exhibit strong optical confinement. To reveal the reason for this strong optical confinement demonstrated by SiNW arrays, angular distribution functions of their transmittance were experimentally determined. The results suggest that Mie-related scattering plays a significant role in the strong optical confinement of SiNW arrays.     

Improvement of carrier diffusion length in silicon nanowire arrays using atomic layer deposition

To achieve a high-efficiency silicon nanowire (SiNW) solar cell, surface passivation technique is very important because a SiNW array has a large surface area. We successfully prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD) high-quality aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) film for passivation on the whole surface of the SiNW arrays. The minority carrier lifetime of the Al₂O₃-depositedSiNW arrays with bulk silicon substrate was improved to 27 μs at the optimum annealing condition. To remove the effect of bulk silicon, the effective diffusion length of minority carriers in the SiNW array was estimated by simple equations and a device simulator. As a result, it was revealed that the effective diffusion length in the SiNW arrays increased from 3.25 to 13.5 μm by depositing Al₂O₃ and post-annealing at 400°C. This improvement of the diffusion length is very important for application to solar cells, and Al₂O₃ deposited by ALD is a promising passivation material for a structure with high aspect ratio such as SiNW arrays.     

Kinetic study on free radical polymerization of alkyl acylamidoacrylates by pulsed laser polymerization using nitrogen laser

Radical polymerization of captodatively substituted alkyl acylamidoacrylates was studied by pulsed laser polymerization using a N₂ laser. Propagation rate coefficient of the acrylates was varied with solvents used in spite of a radical mechanism, but little varied with methyl, n-propyl, and isopropyl substituents on the acrylates. Arrhenius parameters for the propagation indicated that a solvent affected mostly on a frequency factor rather than a activation energy. In addition, it was suggested that these captodatively substituted propagating radicals were thermodynamically persistent but kinetically active in propagation, which resulted in rather smooth propagation in spite of bulky 1,1-disubstituted olefins. The mechanism of the polymerizations was discussed in detail on the basis of the kinetic studies and ESR spectroscopy.     

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to ethylene with high Faradaic efficiency at a Cu electrode in CsOH/methanol

The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ with a Cu electrode in CsOH/methanol-based electrolyte was investigated. The main products from CO₂ were methane, ethylene, ethane, carbon monoxide and formic acid. A maximum Faradaic efficiency of ethylene was 32.3% at −3.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl saturated KCl. The best methane formation efficiency was 8.3% at −4.0 V. The ethylene/methane current efficiency ratio was in the range 2.9–7.9. In the CsOH/methanol, the efficiency of hydrogen formation, being a competitive reaction against CO₂ reduction, was depressed to below 23%.     

An economic and energy analysis on bio-hydrogen fuel using a gasification process

Recently, in Japan, recycling technologies have been developed using waste biomass material. Waste biomass is traded in the waste materials market between users and a third-party, who receives a fee for processing them. This study is an environmental and economic analysis of a biomass energy system, which can produce hydrogen fuel for fuel cells (purity of 99.99%) as an example of an environmental business model. The experimental apparatus was made based on the moving-bed gasifier by the German company, DM2 Inc., and the hydrogen gas yield was measured. Finally, the economic viability of the future hydrogen business was estimated.The experimental results obtained gave the gas concentration of 57.5% in a Steam/Carbon ratio of 1.40 at 900 °C.Assuming the plant scale of 10 t/d, the production amount of hydrogen gas would be 21.3 kg/h. Based on the law concerning waste processing in Japan, a sizeable amount of waste biomass could be expected. Therefore, if the processing fee which is paid to the group (contractor) ranges between 5.0 and 10.0 $/t, and if the whole investment cost is 6 million dollars and the depreciation period is 15 years, the bio-hydrogen production cost using the experimental data would be 5.75–7.86 $/kg-H₂ without receiving related subsidies. In a one-third grant proportion, the cost would become 4.60–6.72 $/kg-H₂.     

Coexisting phenomena of surge and rotating stall in an axial flow compressor

The unsteady inner flow structure of a single-stage axial flow compressor under the coexisting conditions of surge and rotating stall was experimentally investigated via detailed measurements of the unsteady characteristics and the internal flow velocity fluctuations. The main relevant feature of the tested compressor is a shock tube with a capacity tank connected in series to the compressor outlet through slits and a concentric duplex pipe： surge and rotating stall can both be generated by connecting the shock tube. Research attention is focused on the unsteady behavior of a rotating stall during the surge cycle. The size of the rotating stall cell during the recovery process of an irregular surge cycle was experimentally determined by the circumferential flow velocity fluctuations ahead of the rotor blade. The results suggested that the size of the rotating stall cell at the switching point of the performance curve between large and small cycles is considered to be the key parameter in determining the following surge cycle. In addition, the surge cycle is largely influenced by the unsteady behavior of the rotating stall cell.     

Spectrum sharing method for secondary systems using frequency priority table to reduce inter-secondary interference

Because of the rapid development of cognitive radio technologies, research on sharing frequency resources allocated to primary users with secondary users has attracted much attention. If a frequency band is unused by the primary users, multiple secondary users are expected to share the spectrum in a future wireless communication network. To efficiently share the spectrum among secondary systems, we propose a novel channel allocation method that uses a frequency priority table generated based on the location of the secondary system. By using this method, the interference with other systems is autonomously reduced by selecting channels. Moreover, a power control method is also proposed for protecting the secondary systems that are allocated to the channels with higher priority.