11,551 research outputs found
Theoretical Investigation on the Effect of multinary Isoelectronic Substitution on TiCoSb based half-Heusler alloys
To understand the effect of isoelectronic substitution on thermoelectric
properties of TiCoSb based half - Heusler (HH) alloys, we have systematically
studied the transport properties with substitution of Zr at Ti and Bi at Sb
sites. The electronic structure of TixZr1-xCoSbxBi1-x (x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75) and
parent TiCoSb are investigated using the full potential linearized augmented
plane wave method and the thermoelectric transport properties are calculated on
the basis of semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory. The band analysis of the
calculated band structures reveal that TixZr1-xCoSbxBi1-x has semiconducting
behavior with indirect band gap at x = 0.25, 0.5 concentration and direct band
gap behavior at x = 0.75 concentration. The TixZr1-xCoSbxBi1-x (x = 0.25, 0.5,
0.75) compounds show smaller band gap values as compared to the pure TiCoSb.
The d electrons of Ti/Zr and Co dominate the electronic transport properties of
TixZr1-xCoSbxBi1-x system. All these systems follow the empirical rule of 18
valence-electron content to bring semiconductivity in HH alloys. The
isoelectronic substitution in TiCoSb can tune the band structure by shifting
the Fermi level. This provides us lot of possibilities to get the desired band
gap values for designing thermoelectrics with high efficiency. In this study we
have showed that the isoelectronic substitution at both Ti and Sb site of
TiCoSb has very small effect for increasing the ZT values and one should go for
isoelectronic substitution at any one sites of TiCoSb HH alloys alone to
improve ZT
Search for Thermoelectrics with High Figure of Merit in half-Heusler compounds with multinary substitution
In order to improve the thermoelectric performance of TiCoSb we have
substituted 50% of Ti equally with Zr and Hf at Ti site and Sb with Sn and Se
equally at Sb site. The electronic structure of Ti0.5Zr0.25Hf0.25CoSn0.5Se0.5
is investigated using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method
and the thermoelectric transport properties are calculated on the basis of
semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory. Our band structure calculations show
that Ti0.5Zr0.25Hf0.25CoSn0.5Se0.5 has semiconducting behavior with indirect
band gap value of 0.98 eV which follow the empirical rule of 18
valence-electron content to bring semiconductivity in half Heusler compounds,
indicating that one can have semiconducting behavior in multinary phase of half
Heusler compounds if they full fill the 18 VEC rule and this open-up the
possibility of designing thermoelectrics with high figure of merit in half
Heusler compounds. We show that at high temperature of around 700K
Ti0.5Zr0.25Hf0.25CoSn0.5Se0.5 has high thermoelectric figure of merit of ZT =
1.05 which is higher than that of TiCoSb (~ 0.95) suggesting that by going from
ternary to multinary phase system one can enhance the thermoelectric figure of
merit at higher temperatures
Effect of multinary substitution on electronic and transport properties of TiCoSb based half-Heusler alloys
The electronic structures of TixZrx/2CoPbxTex, TixZrx/2Hfx/2CoPbxTex (x =
0.5), and the parent compound TiCoSb were investigated using the full potential
linearized augmented plane wave method. The thermoelectric transport properties
of these alloys are calculated on the basis of semi-classical Boltzmann
transport theory. From the band structure calculations we show that the
substitution of Zr,Hf in the Ti site and Pb and Te in the Sb site lower the
band gap value and also change the indirect band (IB) gap of TiCoSb to the
direct band (DB) gap. The calculated band gap of TiCoSb, TixZrx/2CoPbxTex, and
TixZrx/2Hfx/2CoPbxTex are 1.04 eV (IB), 0.92 eV (DB), and 0.93 eV (DB),
respectively. All these alloys follow the empirical rule of 18 valence-electron
content which is essential for bringing semiconductivity in half Heusler
alloys. It is shown that the substitution of Hf at the Ti site improve the ZT
value (~1.05) at room temperature, whereas there is no significant difference
in ZT is found at higher temperature. Based on the calculated thermoelectric
transport properties, we conclude that the appropriate concentration of Hf
substitution can further improve the thermoelectric performance of
TixZrx/2Hfx/2CoPbxTex
A strategy to ensure safety of stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium cells
Cell replacement and regenerative therapy using embryonic stem cell-derived material holds promise for the treatment of several pathologies. However, the safety of this approach is of prime importance given the teratogenic potential of residual stem cells, if present in the differentiated cell product. Using the example of embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, we present a novel strategy for ensuring the absence of stem cells in the RPE population. Based on an unbiased screening approach, we identify and validate the expression of CD59, a cell surface marker expressed on RPE but absent on stem cells. We further demonstrate that flow sorting on the basis of CD59 expression can effectively purify RPE and deplete stem cells, resulting in a population free from stem cell impurity. This purification helps to ensure removal of stem cells and hence increases the safety of cells that may be used for clinical transplantation. This strategy can potentially be applied to other pluripotent stem cell-derived material and help mitigate concerns of using such cells for therapy
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