Editorial: Climate change mitigation and adaptation in power and energy systems

\ua9 2024. This editorial summarizes the papers selected for publication in the Special Issue on Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Power and Energy Systems (CMAP). After a rigorous review of 86 submitted manuscripts, 23 papers were accepted for publication. These accepted papers cover various aspects of climate change mitigation and adaptation and are classified as follows: boosting renewable energy efficiency (two papers), climate resilience strategies (four papers), decarbonization strategies (four papers), renewable energy integration (five papers), policies, incentives, and science communications (four papers), and the role of energy markets (four papers). The Guest Editorial Board is optimistic that this Special Issue will serve as a rich resource, offering invaluable insights to propel future research and advancements in climate change mitigation and adaptation

Approach combining the Rietveld method and pairs distribution function analysis to study crystalline materials under high-pressure and/or temperature: Application to rhombohedral Bi2Te3 phase

An approach combining the Rietveld method and pairs distribution function analysis to study crystalline materials under high pressure or temperature was early proposed by us, and in this study, it was applied to investigate de effect of high pressure on the rhombohedral Bi2Te3 phase. The refined structural parameters obtained from the Rietveld refinement of the XRD patterns measured for pressures up to 9.1 GPa were used as input data to simulate the partial and total structure factors SBiBi, SBiTe, STeTe, and SBi2Te3. Fourier transformation of the Sij factors permitted to obtain the partial and total pairs distribution functions GBiBi, GBiTe, GTeTe, and GBi2Te3. The first coordination shells of these Gij functions are formed by subshells and, with increasing pressure in the 1.1 to 6.3 GPa range, occur a partial separation of subshells. Also, the increase of pressure in this range promotes a drastic reduction in the values of the intralayer angles TeBiTe, and consequently, in the intralayer distance TeTe. A drastic reduction in the interlayers distance Te-Te was also observed. Several studies are reported in the literature, including one carried out by us, show the presence of an ETT in this pressure range. The obtained results suggest that the ETT is related with the decrease of the intralayer angles TeBiTe, and intra- and interlayer distance TeTe. Experimental results describing the pressure dependence the thermoelectric power, electrical resistivity, and power fator for rhombohedral Bi2Te3 are reported, and an enhancement of the power factor in the 1.1 to 6.3 GPa range is observed. The results obtained in this study give evidence that this enhancement in the power factor is related with the decrease of the intralayer angles TeBiTe, and with the decrease of intralayer- and interlayers homopolar TeTe bonds

The well-ordered (F) spaces are D-spaces

We studied the relationships between Collins-Roscoe mechanism and D-spaces, proved that well-ordered (F) spaces are D-spaces. This positively answered a question asked by D.Soukup and Y.Xu before.Comment: 6 page

Morphology of supported polymer electrolyte ultra-thin films: a numerical study

Morphology of polymer electrolytes membranes (PEM), e.g., Nafion, inside PEM fuel cell catalyst layers has significant impact on the electrochemical activity and transport phenomena that determine cell performance. In those regions, Nafion can be found as an ultra-thin film, coating the catalyst and the catalyst support surfaces. The impact of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of these surfaces on the structural formation of the films has not been sufficiently explored yet. Here, we report about Molecular Dynamics simulation investigation of the substrate effects on the ionomer ultra-thin film morphology at different hydration levels. We use a mean-field-like model we introduced in previous publications for the interaction of the hydrated Nafion ionomer with a substrate, characterized by a tunable degree of hydrophilicity. We show that the affinity of the substrate with water plays a crucial role in the molecular rearrangement of the ionomer film, resulting in completely different morphologies. Detailed structural description in different regions of the film shows evidences of strongly heterogeneous behavior. A qualitative discussion of the implications of our observations on the PEMFC catalyst layer performance is finally proposed

Colour Deconfinement and Quarkonium Binding

At high temperatures, strongly interacting matter becomes a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons. In statistical QCD, deconfinement and the properties of the resulting quark-gluon plasma can be investigated by studying the in-medium behaviour of heavy quark bound states. In high energy nuclear interactions, quarkonia probe different aspects of the medium formed in the collision. We survey the results of recent charmonium production studies in SPS and RHIC experiments.Comment: 50 pages, 53 figures; revised section 6.