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In this paper, we explore the dynamics of the global quantum discord (GQD) and quantum Fisher information (QFI) of a multipartite two-level stationary and moving atomic system under the Stark shift effect. The system interacts with a thermal field with a different number of average thermal photons. For a fixed Stark parameter value, the GQD magnitudes increase as the system size (N) increases for both static and moving atomic systems. However, in the instance of a stationary atomic system and lower Stark parameter values, the QFI preserves a constant magnitude for different N values. When atomic motion is taken, the quantifier dynamics exhibit periodic oscillations. Additionally, increasing the Stark parameter led to a suppression in the magnitude of both GQD and QFI. With in the sight of intrinsic decoherence (ID), the quantifiers show a damping in their oscillations. Interestingly, the atomic motion assists to mitigate the damping effects caused by ID. Moreover, if the average thermal photons are increased, the magnitude of the GQD and QFI are decreased.

Perovskite materials are getting attention day by day due to their numerous optoelectronic properties. Lead-free perovskites are well-known for various applications in photovoltaic devices due to their non-toxicity which has no impacts on both the environment and health. Cs2PtI6, a lead-free halide perovskite, is renowned for its broad-spectrum light absorption and remarkably high absorption coefficient. Its stability under ambient conditions surpasses that of numerous other halide perovskites, rendering it exceptionally appealing for photovoltaic applications. The device configuration with FTO/ETL/Cs2PtI6/HTL/Au is used in this study where 4 different ETLs and 10 HTLs are used to investigate the best device configuration. The impact of different device parameters like thickness, acceptor density, donor density, and defect density are optimized to attain the best efficient device configuration. SCAPS-1D simulator is used to perform numerical analysis under light intensity of AM 1.5 light spectrum (100 mW/cm2). After the optimization of different device parameters, the device configured with FTO/SnS2/Cs2PtI6/MoTe2/Au shows the best performance among four devices where PCE is 32.98 %, VOC is 1.11 V, JSC is 33.19 mA/cm2, FF is 88.89 %. This suggested Cs2PtI6-based perovskite solar cells demonstrate superior performance compared to numerous lead perovskite-based solar cells, highlighting Cs2PtI6 as a promising alternative for photovoltaic applications while mitigating toxicity concerns.

In perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the charge carrier recombination obstacles mainly occur at the ETL/perovskite and HTL/perovskite interfaces, which play a decisive role in the solar cell performance. Therefore, this study aims to enhance the flexible PSC (FPSC) efficiency by adding the newly designed CBz-PAI-interlayer (simply CBz-PAI-IL) at the perovskite/HTL interface. In addition, substantial work has been carried out on five different HTLs (Se/Te–Cu2O, CuGaO2, V2O5, and CuSCN, including conventional Spiro-OMeTAD as a reference HTL with and without CBz-PAI-IL), using drift-diffusion simulation to find suitable FPSC design to attain the maximum PCE. Interestingly, PET/ITO/AZO/ZnO NWs/FACsPbBrI3/CBz-PAI/Se/Te–Cu2O/Au device architecture demonstrates the highest achievable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 27.9 %. The findings of this study confirmed that the reference device (without IL) displays a large valence band edge (VBE)/highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level misalignment compared to the modified interface device (with CBz-PAI-IL that reduces VBE/HOMO level mismatch) that eases the hole transport, simultaneously, it reduces the charge carrier recombinations at the interface, resulting in diminished Voc losses in the device. Furthermore, the influence of perovskite absorber thickness and defect density, parasitic resistances, and working temperature are systematically examined to govern the superior FPSC efficiency and concurrently understand the device physics.

In order to improve results, this work investigates how the Freelance Model (FM), Fractional Derivative (FD), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) may all function together. We suggest a new method that combines the varied skills of freelancers with the precision of fractional derivatives and the adaptability of neural networks to maximize the benefits of each. This proposed strategy provides a new perspective to the computational methodologies and holds a promising impact on diverse industries. Future developments and applications can be made possible by this promising path toward enhanced performance in complex systems and data-driven areas. Twenty neurons have been selected and data has been trained and validated in the, following manner 70 %, 15 % and 15 %. The consistency of method has been shown using the correlation/regression and histograms in order to solve the model. The results presented here not only validate the efficacy of our approach but also open avenues for further exploration and advancements in the dynamic field of advanced computation.

Contaminants are repeatedly being released into the land, water and air about the world as a consequence of the high levels of human movement and development, which causes a fast an increase in the growing of pollution. In this assessment, activated charcoals supported on Ag–In2O3 nanomaterials were blended by hydrothermal system. The morphology constitution, surface assets and optical description of synthesized nanomaterials were characterized by XRD, UV-DRS, PL, HR-SEM and EDAX, HR-TEM, SAED pattern, FT-IR, XPS, BET, CV and VSM techniques. The optimized heterogeneous catalyst AC/Ag–In2O3 depicts high electro catalytic activity, fast-charge transport development, weak ferromagnetism, brilliant accessibility and stability for Rh6G dye degradation, which is endowed for application in the alkaline medium. The prepared photocatalytic activity towards AC/Ag–In2O3 have been revealed as the degradation of Rhodamine 6G (Rh6G) dye in the presence of aqueous solution directed to solar light irradiation. AC/Ag–In2O3 is initiated to maintain some more efficient than synthesized Ag–In2O3 and In2O3 by pH9 positively mineralizing of Rh6G dye under sun light irradiation. The mineralization of Rh6G dye has been confirmed by measuring COD analysis. It is suggested that Rh6G degrades in the presence of solar light via a particular mechanism, which was discovered that the catalyst remained more stable and reusable. It has been effectively determined that the AC/Ag–In2O3 nanomaterial achieves photocatalytic effects.

Minerals and nutrients are vital to life, but their excess can harm health and sometimes lead to life risks. Harmful impact of nutrients in water can be a threat to marine life as well. Waquoit Bay linked with its eight rivers and ponds is becoming the reason for excess nutrient passage into the Bay. Excess amounts of nutrients were found in Waquoit Bay from coastal areas and therefore analyzed in this work by a system of nine differential equations. The main objective of this paper is to develop a mathematical model to assess the situation of pollution in Waquoit Bay and suggest some solutions using optimal control theory with Hamiltonian system. Mathematical Model of water pollution will be evaluated numerically, with different input models to track environmental contamination in a water body. To prove the accuracy of this model, its numerical results will be compared with real data and the impact of control strategies i.e. nutrient control from housing area and bio dredging will be studied. Benefit of developing such mathematical models can be a decision support for planning restrictions in coastal areas near Waquoit Bay.

Perovskite photovoltaics have an immense contribution toward the all-round development of the solar cell. Apart from the flexibility, stability, and high efficiency, more stress has been given to using lead-free as well as eco-friendly, inexpensive materials in the fabrication of PSC devices. The utilization of non-volatile material, such as cesium tin iodide (CsSnI3), can be proposed for designing the PSC device, which not only makes it eco-friendly but also offers better optoelectronic characteristics due to its smaller bandgap of 1.27 eV. The inclusion of Sn in the perovskite material also functions as an increment in the stability of the perovskite. In the present simulation, CsSnI3 is used as an active absorber layer while the ZnMgO is used as an ETL for a cost-effective nature. Similarly, graphene oxide (GO) is used as HTL for a superior collection of holes. The comprehensive numerical modeling of the ZnMgO can be utilized in solar cell designing with appropriate CsSnI3 thickness, working temperature, total defectivity, and resistance impact, respectively. The presently simulated device offers an excellent efficiency of 17.37 % with CsSnI3-based PSC. These results of the study also show an effective route to develop highly efficient lead-free PSC devices.

Conventional Copper Indium Gallium Di Selenide (CIGS)-based solar cells are more efficient than second-generation technology based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) or cadmium telluride (CdTe). So, herein the photovoltaic (PV) performance of CIGS-based solar cells has been investigated numerically using SCAPS-1D solar simulator with different buffer layer and less expensive tin sulfide (Sn2S3) back-surface field (BSF). At first, three buffer layer such as cadmium sulfide (CdS), zinc selenide (ZnSe) and indium-doped zinc sulfide ZnS:In have been simulated with CIGS absorber without BSF due to optimized and non-toxic buffer. Then the optimized structure of Al/FTO/ZnS:In/CIGS/Ni is modified to become Al/FTO/ZnS:In/CIGS/Sn2S3/Ni by adding a Sn2S3 BSF to enhanced efficiency. The detailed analysis have been investigated is the influence of physical properties of each absorber and buffer on photovoltaic parameters including layer thickness, carrier doping concentration, bulk defect density, interface defect density. This study emphasizes investigating the reasons for the actual devices' poor performance and illustrates how each device's might vary open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC), fill factor (FF), power conversion efficiency (PCE), and quantum efficiency (QE). The optimized structure offers outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.83 % with only 0.80 μm thick CIGS absorber. The proposed CIGS-based solar cell performs better than the previously reported conventional designs while also reducing CIGS thickness and cost.

Lead-free halide perovskites are a crucial family of materials in the fabrication of solar cells. At present, Solar cells are facing several challenges such as mechanical and thermodynamic instability, toxicity, unsuitable optical parameters, bandgap, and absorption coefficient. Ba3AsI3 is a halide perovskite which has demonstrated good efficiency and tremendous promise for usage in solar cell applications, and it offers a possible solution to these issues. In this study, the properties of the Ba3AsI3 perovskite solar cell were investigated using first-principles density functional theory (FP-DFT) calculations with the CASTEP (Cambridge serial total energy package) formulation. Most of its physical qualities, including its elasticity, electrical composition, bonding, optoelectronic characteristics, and optical characteristics have not yet been explored. In this work, these unexplored properties have been thoroughly investigated using density functional theory-based computations. The Born-Huang criterion and phonon dispersion characteristics have revealed that the material is mechanically stable. The bonding nature has been investigated using the density of states curves, Mulliken population analysis, and electronic charge density. Additionally, different elastic parameters demonstrate that Ba3AsI3 has reasonably high machinability and is mechanically isotropic. ELATE's three-dimensional visualization and optical properties also show isotropic behavior in all directions. The band structure shows that the bandgap is direct. Based on its direct bandgap, stability, large range of absorption coefficient, and suitable optical parameters, Ba3AsI3 is recommended as an absorber layer for solar cell fabrication in a near future.

This study employs Machine Learning (ML) techniques to optimize the performance of Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) by identifying the ideal materials and properties for high Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE). Utilizing a dataset of 3000 PSC samples from previous experiments, the Random Forest (RF) technique classifies and predicts PCE as the target variable. The dataset includes various features encompassing cell architecture, substrate materials, electron transport layer (ETL) attributes, perovskite characteristics, hole transport layer (HTL) properties, back contact specifics, and encapsulation materials. ML-driven analysis reveals novel, highly efficient PSC configurations, such as Fe2O3/CsPbBrI2/NiO-mp/Carbon, CdS/FAMAPbI3/NiO–C/Au, and PCBM-60/Phen-NaDPO/MAPbI3/asy-PBTBDT/Ag. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of crucial parameters like perovskite bandgap, ETL thickness, thermal annealing temperature, and back contact thickness on device performance. The predictive model exhibits high accuracy (86.4 % R2) and low mean square error (1.3 MSE). Notably, the ML-recommended structure, SnO2/CsFAMAPbBrI/Spiro-OmeTAD/Au, achieves an impressive efficiency of around 23 %. Beyond performance improvements, the research explores the integration of ML into the manufacturing and quality control processes of PSCs. These findings hold promise for enhancing conversion yields, reducing defects, and ensuring consistent PSC performance, contributing to the advancement of this renewable energy technology.

In recent years, inorganic perovskite materials have attracted a lot of attention in the field of solar technology due to their exceptional structural, optical, and electronic properties. This study thoroughly investigated, using first-principles density-functional theory (FP-DFT), the impact of compressive and tensile strain on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the inorganic cubic perovskite Sr3AsI3. The unstrained planar Sr3AsI3 molecule exhibits a direct bandgap of 1.265 eV value at Γ point. The bandgap of the Sr3AsI3 perovskite is lowered to 1.212 eV when the relativistic spin-orbital coupling (SOC) effect is subjected in the observations. In addition, the structure's bandgap exhibits a falling prevalence due to compressive strain and a slight rise due to tensile strain. The optical indicators such as dielectric functions, absorption coefficient, reflectivity, and electron loss function show that this component has a great ability to absorb in the visible range in accordance with band characteristics. When compressive strain is raised, it is discovered that the spikes of the dielectric constant of Sr3AsI3 move to lower photon energy (redshift), and conversely, while growing tensile strain, it exhibits increased photon energy changing behavior (blueshift). As a result, the Sr3AsI3 perovskite is regarded as being ideal for use in solar cells for the production of electricity and light management.

Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) are recently getting high attention from different researchers due to increasing traffic problems, especially in densely populated countries. Increasing rates of accidents call for an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) with efficient performance to reduce and mitigate this trend. The required enhancement of the ITS can be more focused on traffic performance, integrity, and reduction of the vehicles’ CO2 emissions. Existing routing protocols for VANETs consider different situations and methods to establish reliable communication between the vehicles and infrastructures. However other situations have not been addressed carefully like the link stability between vehicles during packet exchange. This paper develops an Obstacle Prediction Based Routing Protocol (OPBRP) for vehicle detection, packets transmission to Roadside Units (RSU) and choosing a better route in terms of reliability via using vehicle's Kinematics and Mobility prediction in VANET. Two fundamental contributions are included in this paper: (1) Upgrading prediction routing protocol to transfer packets using a reliable path, and (2) Adding new logic in choosing the intermediate nodes to the destination to achieve a higher Packet delivery ratio (PDR). The OPBRP uses the predictive greedy as forwarding algorithm and the predictive perimeter forwarding as recovery algorithm after introducing enhancements to both algorithms to meet the requirements of VANETs environment. To materialize the value achieved from the mentioned contributions we tested the newly developed OPBRP against the existing routing protocols using Vehicle in Network Simulation (Veins) which shows that our proposed protocol outperformed current existing routing protocols in terms of PDR by achieving 18.46% improvement, end-to-end delay (E2E-Delay) by achieving 10.51% improvement, and total power consumption used in transmission by achieving 23.80% improvement.

The quaternary compound copper manganese tin sulfide Cu2MnSnS4 is a potential absorber semiconductor material for fabricating thin film solar cells (TFSC) thanks to their promising optoelectronic parameters. This article numerically investigated the performance of Cu2MnSnS4 (CMTS)-based TFSC without and with tin sulphide (SnS) back surface field (BSF) thin-film layer. First, the impact of several major influential parameters such as the active material's thickness, doping concentration of photoactive materials, density of bulk and interface defect, working temperature, and metal contact, were studied systematically without a BSF layer. Thereafter, the photovoltaic performance of the optimized pristine cell was further investigated with an SnS as BSF inserted between the absorber (CMTS) with a Platinum back metal of an optimized heterostructure of Cu/ZnO:Al/i-ZnO/n-CdS/p-Cu2MnSnS4/Pt. Thus, the photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.43% with a JSC of 34.41nullmA/cm2 and VOC of 0.883 V was achieved under AM1.5G solar spectrum without SnS BSF layer. Furthermore, an improved PCE of 31.4% with a JSC of 36.21nullmA/cm2 and VOC of 1.07 V was achieved with a quantum efficiency of over 85% in the wavelengths of 450–1000 nm by the addition of SnS BSF layer. Thus, this obtained systematic and consistent outcomes reveal immense potential of CMTS with SnS as absorber and BSF, respectively and provide imperious guidance for fabricating highly a massive potential efficient solar cell.

Antimony (Sb) chalcogenides such as antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) and antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) have distinct properties to be used as absorber semiconductors for harnessing solar energy including high absorption coefficient, tunable bandgap, low toxicity, phase stability. The potentiality of Sb2Se3 and Sb2S3 as absorber material in Al/FTO/Sb2Se3(or Sb2S3)/Au heterojunction solar cells (HJSCs) with 2D tungsten disulfide (WS2) electron transport layer (ETL) layer has been investigated numerically using SCAPS-1D solar simulator. A systematic investigation of the impact of physical properties of each active material of Sb2Se3, Sb2S3, and WS2 on photovoltaic parameters including layer thickness, carrier doping concentration, bulk defect density, interface defect density, carrier generation, and recombination. This study emphasizes the exploration of causes of low performance of actual devices and demonstrates the individual variation in the open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC), fill factor (FF), power conversion efficiency (PCE) and quantum efficiency (QE). Thereby, highly potential heterostructures of Al/FTO/WS2/absorber (Sb2Se3 or Sb2S3)/Au proposed, in which, the PCE over 28.20 and 26.60% obtained with VOC of 850 and 1230 mV, Jsc of 38.0 and 24.0 mA/cm2, and FF of 86.0 and 89.0% for Sb2Se3 and Sb2S3 absorber, respectively. These detailed findings revealed that the Sb-chalcogenide heterostructure with potential WS2 ETL can be used to realize the fabrication of feasible thin film solar cells and thus the design of high-efficiency high-current (HEHC) and high-efficiency high-voltage (HEHV) solar panels.

This study has explored numerous physical properties of CaPd3Ti4O12 (CPTO) and CaPd3V4O12 (CPVO) quadruple perovskites employing the density functional theory (DFT) method. The calculated lattice constants show inclinable compliance with the experimental results that ensure their structural stability. The mechanical permanence of these two compounds was observed by the Born stability criteria as well. The mechanical and elastic behaviors have been rationalized to investigate elastic constants, bulk, shear, and Young’s modulus, Pugh’s ratio, Poisson’s ratio, and elastic anisotropy indexes. The ductility and anisotropic indexes confirm that both materials are ductile and anisotropic in essence. The band structure of CPTO reveals a 0.88 and 0.46 eV direct narrow band gap while using TB-mBJ and GGA-PBE potentials, respectively, which is an indication of its fascinating semiconducting nature. Whereas, CPVO perovskite exhibits a metallic character. The calculated partial density of states indicates the strong hybridization between Pd-4d and O-2p orbital electrons for CPTO, whereas Pd-4d and V-3d-O-2p for CPVO. The study of the chemical bonding nature and electronic charge distribution graph reveals the coexistence of covalent O-V/Pd bonds, ionic O-Ti/Ca bonds, as well as metallic Ti/V-Ti/V bonding for both compounds. The Fermi surface of CPVO ensures a kind of hole as well as electron faces simultaneously, indicating multifarious band characteristics. The prediction of the static real dielectric function (optical property) of CPTO at zero energy implies its promising dielectric nature. The photoconductivity and absorption coefficient of CPBO display good qualitative compliance with the consequences of band structure computations. The calculated thermodynamic properties manifest the thermodynamical stability for CPBO, whereas phonon dispersions of CPVO exhibit stable phonon dispersion in contrast to slightly unstable phonon dispersion of CPTO. The predicted Debye temperature (θD) has been utilized to correlate its topical features including thermoelectric behaviors. The studied thermoelectric transport properties of CPTO yielded a higher Seebeck coefficient (186 μV/K), power factor (11.9 μWcm−1K−2), and figure of merit (ZT) value of about 0.8 at 800 K, indicating that this material could be a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications.

Nonspecific distribution and uncontrollable release of drugs in conventional drug delivery systems (CDDSs) have led to the development of smart nanocarrier-based drug delivery systems, which are also known as Smart Drug Delivery Systems (SDDSs). SDDSs can deliver drugs to the target sites with reduced dosage frequency and in a spatially controlled manner to mitigate the side effects experienced in CDDSs. Chemotherapy is widely used to treat cancer, which is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Site-specific drug delivery led to a keen interest in the SDDSs as an alternative to chemotherapy. Smart nanocarriers, nanoparticles used to carry drugs, are at the focus of SDDSs. A smart drug delivery system consists of smart nanocarriers, targeting mechanisms, and stimulus techniques. This review highlights the recent development of SDDSs for a number of smart nanocarriers, including liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, meso-porous silica nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles, super paramagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, and quantum dots. The nanocarriers are described in terms of their structures, classification, synthesis and degree of smartness. Even though SDDSs feature a number of advantages over chemotherapy, there are major concerns about the toxicity of smart nanocarriers; therefore, a substantial study on the toxicity and biocompatibility of the nanocarriers has been reported. Finally, the challenges and future research scope in the field of SDDSs are also presented. It is expected that this review will be widely useful for those who have been seeking new research directions in this field and for those who are about to start their studies in smart nanocarrier-based drug delivery. Keywords: Smart drug delivery, Smart nanocarrier, Nanocarrier functionalization, Toxicity of nanocarrier, Cancer cell targeting, Drug release stimulus

In dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) properties of nanocrystalline oxide layer of photoanode may changes when exposed to ionization radiation environment which may leads to change the cell performance. In this study, 10 µm thick TiO2 (Degussa-P25) was deposited as a photoanode film on microscopic glass slide with the doctor-blade coating. The deposited film was subjected to different gamma (γ) radiation doses (0–20 kGy) to study the effect of ionizing radiation on morphological, structural, optical and compositional characteristics of the film. At 10 kGy dose, dislocation density (DD), strain, crystallites per unit surface area (CPSA), specific surface area (SSA) of anatase phase (1 0 1) of the film were decreased abruptly, conversely, crystal size and morphology index (MI) were increased at the same radiation dose slowly. UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy results showed that in irradiated photoanode film the light transmittance and absorption depth were decreased, whereas, absorption and absorption coefficient were increased beyond the visible wavelength. The optical band gap of the irradiated film was increased by 12.5% when the gamma radiation dose increased from 0 kGy to 20 kGy. Thus, the irradiation induced changes in physio-chemical properties of nanocrystalline photoanode film may affect the DSSC cell performance. Keywords: Effect of ionizing radiation, Structural properties, Optical properties, DSSC photoanode film, Nanocrystalline TiO2, Dye-sensitized solar cell

Background: Identifying which individuals will develop tuberculosis (TB) remains an unresolved problem due to few animal models and computational approaches that effectively address its heterogeneity. To meet these shortcomings, we show that Diversity Outbred (DO) mice reflect human-like genetic diversity and develop human-like lung granulomas when infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) . Methods: Following M.tb infection, a “supersusceptible” phenotype develops in approximately one-third of DO mice characterized by rapid morbidity and mortality within 8 weeks. These supersusceptible DO mice develop lung granulomas patterns akin to humans. This led us to utilize deep learning to identify supersusceptibility from hematoxylin & eosin (H&E) lung tissue sections utilizing only clinical outcomes (supersusceptible or not-supersusceptible) as labels. Findings: The proposed machine learning model diagnosed supersusceptibility with high accuracy (91.50 ± 4.68%) compared to two expert pathologists using H&E stained lung sections (94.95% and 94.58%). Two non-experts used the imaging biomarker to diagnose supersusceptibility with high accuracy (88.25% and 87.95%) and agreement (96.00%). A board-certified veterinary pathologist (GB) examined the imaging biomarker and determined the model was making diagnostic decisions using a form of granuloma necrosis (karyorrhectic and pyknotic nuclear debris). This was corroborated by one other board-certified veterinary pathologist. Finally, the imaging biomarker was quantified, providing a novel means to convert visual patterns within granulomas to data suitable for statistical analyses. Implications: Overall, our results have translatable implication to improve our understanding of TB and also to the broader field of computational pathology in which clinical outcomes alone can drive automatic identification of interpretable imaging biomarkers, knowledge discovery, and validation of existing clinical biomarkers. Funding: National Institutes of Health and American Lung Association.

Proton-conducting oxides have potential applications in hydrogen sensors, hydrogen pumps, and other electrochemical devices including the tritium purification and recovery systems of nuclear fusion reactors. Although the distribution of hydrogen (H) in such oxide materials is an important aspect, its precise measurement is difficult. In the present study, the hydrogen solubility and diffusivity behavior of BaZr0.9Y0.1O2.95 (BZY), BaZr0.955Y0.03Co0.015O2.97 (BZYC), and CaZr0.9In0.1O2.95 (CZI) were studied using tritiated heavy water vapor i.e., DTO (~2 kPa, tritium (T) = 0.1%) by converting the photostimulated luminescence (PSL) values of the imaging plate (IP). The samples were exposed to DTO vapor at 673 K for 2 h or at 873 K for 1 h. The disc-shaped oxide specimens (diameter ~ 7.5 mm; thickness ~ 2.3 mm; theoretical density (TD) greater than 98%) were prepared by conventional powder metallurgy. The IP images of the specimen surfaces of all the three materials T-exposed revealed that BZY showed the most uniform T distribution with the highest tritium activity. The cross-sectional T concentration profiles of the cut specimens showed that T diffused deeper into BZY and BZYC than into CZI. The hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in the CZI specimen were lower than that in the BZY and BZYC specimens. This suggested that barium zirconates were more favorable proton conductors than calcium zirconates.

In this paper, contact resistance of monocrystalline silicon solar cells was optimized by the variation of phosphorus doping time on emitter region. Wet-chemical texturization was performed to form pyramidal structure on silicon wafer surface. The surface morphology of the textured wafers was studied by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and surface reflection measurement (SRM). The textured wafers were doped by varying phosphorus doping time using constant flow rate of phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) in a high-temperature diffusion furnace. The phosphorus doped silicon wafers were metalized by screen printer using silver and aluminum paste in the front and back surface of the wafers respectively. To form ohmic contacts between silver/aluminum layer and the silicon wafer, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was performed on the screen-printed solar cells. The contact resistance of screen-printed solar cells was measured using transmission line method (TLM). 25 minutes doped sample showed minimum front and back contact resistances, which could potentially be useful for efficient monocrystalline silicon solar cells fabrication. Keywords: silicon solar cell, phosphorous diffusion, doping time, contact resistance, transmission line method, surface reflection measurement

Incorporation of nanoparticles into polymer matrix allows the development of new features that differs from the pure materials. In this research, magnetic nanoparticles reinforced organic biodegradable polymer matrix based biocompatible nanocomposite films were fabricated. This work covered, synthesis of Iron (Fe) and Iron oxide (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles by chemical reduction and sol-gel method respectively, fabrication of Fe/Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/Chitosan and α-Fe2O3/PVA/Chitosan nanocomposites by solvent casting method, and evaluation and comparison of their mechanical properties to find the superior biocompatible nanocomposite. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) analysis confirmed the size, structure, morphology and formation of Fe and α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Magnetic study showed that, synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanoparticle possess better magnetic properties than the Fe nanoparticle. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra confirmed the successful interaction of Fe and α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles with the polymer matrix. The Iron oxide dispersed (16.67 wt%) nanocomposite α-Fe2O3/PVA/Chitosan showed highest tensile strength and elastic modulus that is respectively 45% and 40% higher than the PVA polymer alone. This novel nanocomposite may potentially be useful in various biomedical applications. Keywords: Magnetic nanoparticles, Sol-gel and chemical reduction method, Biodegradable polymer, Biocompatible nanocomposite, Mechanical properties, Biomedical applications

In this work, the replication-based microcontact printing method has been presented to study the deformation effect of different printing times and printing pressures on the microcontact printed structures. Cost-effective microcontact printing channels of self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiol have been prepared on gold surface. The alkanethiol inking the polydimethylsiloxanes stamp effectively forms the self-assembled monolayers on the noble gold surface that protects the metal against etchant solution and thereby forms channel-like structures. To address the deformation issue, variations in the printing time in the range of 30 s–60 min and the printing pressure ranging from 840 to 4200 Pa have been studied. The estimation of differing the channel width and channel space with varying printing time and pressure shows the best resolution structures printed under minimal printing time at atmospheric pressure.

Tailoring optical bandgap of ZnO nanostructured thin films doped with different elements facilitates potential material for photonic applications. Different methods of fabrication process result in different optical and structural properties for the same amount of Mg content. Therefore, details investigation of structural and optical parameters, and their correlation need to be revealed to utilize the fabricated thin films. In this work, Mg-doped ZnO thin film of 200 nm thickness was fabricated by sol-gel spin coating method on a glass substrate for four different Mg content levels. Multiple layers were deposited by a spin coater to increase the film thickness. The prepared thin films were characterized by SEM, XRD, EDS, and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The spectroscopic analysis showed a uniform crystalline nanostructured surface with less structural defects, enhanced transmittance, and higher optical bandgap than that of pure ZnO nanostructured thin film. Change of Mg content from 2% to 8% facilitated tuning of bandgap in the range of 3.30–3.39 eV. Changing trend of structural and optical parameters with Mg content showed non-linear, non-monotonic relation. In-depth analysis of structural and optical properties provides crucial information to form a better view about bandgap dependency on structural parameters. Keywords: Mg-doped ZnO, MgZnO, Bandgap tuning, Sol-gel, Spin coating

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has been effectively utilized as photoactive and doped layers for quite a while in thin-film solar applications but its energy conversion efficiency is limited due to thinner absorbing layer and light degradation issue. To overcome such confinements, it is expected to adjust better comprehension of device structure, material properties, and qualities since a little enhancement in the photocurrent significantly impacts on the conversion efficiency. Herein, some numerical simulations were performed to characterize and optimize different configuration of amorphous silicon-based thin-film solar cells. For the optical simulation, two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique was used to analyze the superstrate (p-i-n) planar amorphous silicon solar cells. Besides, the front transparent contact layer was also inquired by using SnO2:F and ZnO:Al materials to improve the photon absorption in the photoactive layer. The cell was studied for open-circuit voltage, external quantum efficiency, and short-circuit current density, which are building blocks for solar cell conversion efficiency. The optical simulations permit investigating optical losses at the individual layers. The enhancement in both short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage prompts accomplishing more prominent power conversion efficiency. A maximum short-circuit current density of 15.32 mA/cm2 and an energy conversion efficiency of 11.3% were obtained for the optically optimized cell which is the best in class amorphous solar cell. Keywords: Superstrate p-i-n, Power loss, Quantum efficiency, Short circuit current, FDTD

This work proposes a modeling of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) to assess the quality of SAM layers in terms of their leaky behavior. In the modeling, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and a conceptual and simplified resistance-resistance-capacitance (RRC) electrical model from an electrochemical setup were demonstrated. Based on the model, Matlab-based simulation was carried out to find out the suggestive low frequency measurement for analyzing the defective monolayers. Finally, the developed electrical model facilitated the interpretation of the EIS spectra measured in the range of 10 Hz to 100 kHz and provided the capacitance, resistance and thickness of the monolayer. Thus the proposed model could be considered as a powerful tool to characterize the defective SAMs, which was very specific to determine the resistive behavior of the self-assembled monolayers prepared for shorter adsorption time. Keywords: Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), Octadecanethiol (ODT), Hexadecanethiol (HDT, Impedance, Capacitance of the SAM (CSAM), Resistance of the SAM (RSAM)

In this work, unsaturated polyester resin matrix based polymer nanocomposites were fabricated incorporating sol-gel synthesized Fe2O3, TiO2 and co-precipitation synthesized NiFe2O4 nanoparticles. The individual and synergic effect of nanoparticles on mechanical, electrical and optical properties in polymer matrix was evaluated. The maximum improvement in tensile strength (21.62%), Young’s modulus (6.56%) and Vickers microhardness number was found in NiFe2O4 loaded nanocomposite. Both the highest DC electrical conductivity and the lowest resistivity were found in (Fe2O3 + TiO2 + NiFe2O4) nanoparticles dispersed nanocomposite. The maximum improvement in light absorbance (30.38%) in UV–Vis range was found in Fe2O3 incorporated nanocomposite as well as the lowest (18.96%) optical energy band gap was found in NiFe2O4 nanoparticles dispersed nanocomposite. These nanocomposites may find its potential use in industrial sectors as well as in light shielding applications. Keywords: Unsaturated polyester resin, Inorganic nanoparticles, Polymer nanocomposites, Mechanical, electrical and optical properties, Fe2O3, TiO2, NiFe2O4 nanoparticle