Increased conversion efficiency in cadmium telluride photovoltaics by luminescent downshifting with quantum dot/poly(methyl methacrylate) films

Commercially available quantum dots have been encapsulated in a poly(methyl methacrylate) film and used as a luminescent downshifting layer on cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride photovoltaic devices. Application of these films has resulted in a relative improvement to the short‐circuit current of over 4% by I–V measurement, with a significant increase in the contribution of short‐wavelength light resulting in 25% of the current available in this part of the spectrum being captured. The films have been shown to be highly scattering and the associated difficulties this provides to external quantum efficiency measurements have been discussed. A range of optical characterisation techniques, particularly laser beam induced current, have been used to probe the effect the films have on a cadmium sulfide/cadmium telluride device. An alternate methodology for performing external quantum efficiency measurements with the quantum dot films has been proposed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sex- and Genotype-Dependent Nicotine-Induced Behaviors in Adolescent Rats with a Human Polymorphism (rs2304297) in the 3′-UTR of the CHRNA6 Gene

In human adolescents, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs2304297, in the 3′-UTR of the nicotinic receptor subunit gene, CHRNA6, has been associated with increased smoking. To study the effects of the human CHRNA6 3′-UTR SNP, our lab generated knock-in rodent lines with either C or G SNP alleles. The objective of this study was to determine if the CHRNA6 3′-UTR SNP is functional in the knock-in rat lines. We hypothesized that the human CHRNA6 3′-UTR SNP knock-in does not impact baseline but enhances nicotine-induced behaviors. For baseline behaviors, rats underwent food self-administration at escalating schedules of reinforcement followed by a locomotor assay and a series of anxiety tests (postnatal day (PN) 25-39). In separate cohorts, adolescent rats underwent 1- or 4-day nicotine pretreatment (2×, 30 μg/kg/0.1 mL, i.v.). After the last nicotine injection (PN 31), animals were assessed behaviorally in an open-field chamber, and brain tissue was collected. We show the human CHRNA6 3′-UTR SNP knock-in does not affect food reinforcement, locomotor activity, or anxiety. Further, 4-day, but not 1-day, nicotine exposure enhances locomotion and anxiolytic behavior in a genotype- and sex-specific manner. These findings demonstrate that the human CHRNA6 3′-UTR SNP is functional in our in vivo model.     

Off-axis tensile properties and fracture in a unidirectional graphite/polyimide composite (celion 6000/PMR 15)

Tensile properties of unidirectional Celion 6000 graphite/PMR 15 polyimide composites prepared by hot molding and cold molding processes were measured at room temperature and 316°C, the upper use temperature of the polyimide resin, at both 45 and 90° to the fiber axis. The resulting fractures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and materialographic techniques. Variation in tensile properties with processing history occurred in the elastic modulus and strain to failure for specimens loaded at 90° at 316°C, and in the fracture stress, and hence the in-plane shear stress, for those loaded at 45° at room temperature. Significant plastic deformation was observed in the 45° orientation at 316°C for material produced by both processing methods. In general, fracture occurred by both failure within the matrix and at the fiber-matrix interface; the degree of interfacial failure increased with temperature. Secondary cracking below the primary fracture surface also was observed.     

Forced torsional properties of PMR composites with varying nadic ester concentrations and processing histories

PMR polyimide resin was prepared from 4,4′-methylenedianiline (MDA), the dimethyl ester of 3,3′,4,4′- benzophenonetetracarboxylic acid (BTDE) and the monomethyl ester of 5-norbornene-2,3-dicarboxylic acid (NE). The NE group serves as a chain terminator and crosslinking site. PMR/Celion 6000 composites were fabricated from resins having varying NE concentrations using two molding processes, and the laminates characterized in forced torsion. Glass transition temperatures (T_g) of 360–390°C were observed in the crosslinked resins, as compared with the literature value of 284°C reported for the uncrosslinked systemT_g did not decrease with decreasing NE concentrations over the range from 2.0 to 1.25 moles. Stoichiometry, within the range studied, showed little influence on shear properties; however, a 25% variation in matrix shear modulus with processing was observed. The G₁₂ values determined in forced torsion were in excellent agreement with those reported from tensile tests of ±45° laminates. A branching and possible secondary crosslink mechanism is proposed based on dynamic mechanical behavior and infrared spectra of the composites.     

Phase development and pore stability of yttria- and ytterbia-stabilized zirconia aerogels

High-porosity yttria- and ytterbia-stabilized zirconia aerogels offer the potential of extremely low thermal conductivity materials for high-temperature applications. Yttria- and ytterbia-doped zirconia aerogels were synthesized using a sol-gel approach over the dopant range of 0-20 atomic percent. Surface area, pore volume, and morphology of the as-dried aerogels and materials thermally exposed for short periods of time to temperatures up to 1200°C were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The aerogels as supercritically dried all were X-ray amorphous. At a 5% dopant level, a tetragonal structure with a smaller monoclinic phase developed on thermal exposure. Mixed tetragonal and cubic phases or predominantly cubic materials were observed at higher dopant levels, depending on the dopant level, temperature and exposure time. The formation of crystalline phases was accompanied by loss of surface area and pore volume, although some mesoporous structure was maintained on short-term exposure to 1000°C. Incorporation of the smaller Yb atom into the lattice structure resulted in smaller lattice dimensions on crystallization than was seen with Y doping and favored a more highly equiaxed structure. Aerogels synthesized with 15% Y maintained the smallest particle size without evidence of sintering at 1100°C. Largest shrinkage and loss of pore volume occurred on crystallization from the amorphous phase, with further loss of pores at temperatures above 1000°C attributable to changes in lattice parameters.     

Wind speed variability across the UK between 1957 and 2011

By using surface data from 57 UK meteorological stations, a national [British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC)‐57] and regional wind index for the UK has been calculated for the period 1983–2011. For a subset of seven stations, an additional national index (BADC‐7) has been calculated for the period 1957–2011. The indices show an annual variability of 4% over their respective periods, corresponding to a variation in typical wind turbine capacity factor of 7%. These indices are compared with indices calculated from other sources, namely an index generated using a gridded dataset of observed values interpolated across the UK, an index calculated from an area bounding the UK using the ERA‐40 re‐analysis dataset, indices calculated from bilinear interpolation of the ERA‐40 re‐analysis dataset to the 57 and 7 stations and another independent UK wind index. The indices show variation in trends, with all showing some level of decline with the exception of that generated using the ERA‐40 re‐analysis dataset averaged over the UK, which shows a significant increase. The various indices show varying degrees of agreement with correlation coefficients, after trends are removed, ranging between 0.611 and 0.979. The effect of changes in site exposure, instrument bias and measuring height was considered for the BADC‐7 and BADC‐57 indices. The change in instrument measurement height appears to have a significant biasing effect, and it is likely that this along with changes in exposure at urban sites has caused the decline in annual wind speeds observed for some of the indices. There does not appear to be evidence for significant changes in large‐area (mesoscale) surface roughness. The correlation between annual mean wind speeds at the seven surface station sites used to calculate the BADC‐7 index is seen to be quite weak, indicating very localized variations in inter‐annual variability. When regional differences in the index are investigated, it is seen that wind speeds show a very slight decline across the UK in all regions except the south‐east, which shows a slight increase. The greatest decrease is seen in the north‐west. These changes are in the same direction as the tentative predictions given by climate models for future changes in wind speed across the UK, although the uncertainty is large given the large degree of inter‐annual variation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Making Large‐Area Titanium Disulfide Films at Reduced Temperature by Balancing the Kinetics of Sulfurization and Roughening

The synthesis of large‐area TiS₂ thin films is reported at temperatures as low as 500 °C using a scalable two‐step method of metal film deposition followed by sulfurization in an H₂S gas furnace. It is demonstrated that the lowest‐achievable sulfurization temperature depends strongly on the oxygen background during sulfurization. This dependence arises because Ti? O bonds present a substantial kinetic and thermodynamic barrier to TiS₂ formation. Lowering the sulfurization temperature is important to make smooth films, and to enable integration of TiS₂ and related transition metal dichalcogenides—including metastable phases and alloys—into device technology.     

W-Hierarchies Defined by Symmetric Gates

The classes of the W-hierarchy are the most important classes of intractable problems in parameterized complexity. These classes were originally defined via the weighted satisfiability problem for Boolean circuits. Here, besides the Boolean connectives we consider connectives such as majority, not-all-equal, and unique. For example, a gate labelled by the majority connective outputs true if more than half of its inputs are true. For any finite set C\mathcal{C} of connectives we construct the corresponding W( C\mathcal{C} )-hierarchy. We derive some general conditions which guarantee that the W-hierarchy and the W( C\mathcal{C} )-hierarchy coincide levelwise. If C\mathcal{C} only contains the majority connective then the first levels of the hierarchies coincide. We use this to show that a variant of the parameterized vertex cover problem, the majority vertex cover problem, is W[1]-complete.     

The magnetics diagnostic set for ITER

The current status of the ITER magnetics diagnostic is summarised. The various risks are discussed on the basis of when they could be present during ITER operation and appropriate mitigation is reviewed. An implementation risk or common mode operation failure risk to the magnetic diagnostic can only be mitigated by diversity. All identified risks are being handled with ongoing research and development to minimise these risks. A reasonable level of design and manufacturing diversity has been therefore introduced in the procurement and installation plans, in order to optimise overall reliability avoiding dispersion of resources.     

Ion bombardment induced surface electrical degradation monitoring by means of luminescence in aluminas

Oxide ceramics for use as electrical insulators in future fusion devices, will be exposed to ionization and displacement damage (neutrons, gammas, ion bombardment). Enhanced oxygen loss due to ion bombardment increases surface electrical conductivity, and at the same time the surface emits light due to ion beam induced luminescence (IBIL). Results for 3 types of α-alumina and sapphire measuring electrical surface conductivity and IBIL as a function of dose at different temperatures between 20 and 200 °C, show a clear correlation between luminescence and surface electrical degradation. This indicates the potential to remotely monitor insulating material degradation not only in ITER and beyond, but also in the more immediate in-reactor experiments required for materials testing. Partial reduction of degradation by heating in air suggests the possibility for in situ recovery of the insulating properties.