Preparation and Instability of Nanocrystalline Cuprous Nitride

Low-dimensional cuprous nitride (Cu3N) was synthesized by nitridation (ammonolysis) of cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanocrystals using either ammonia (NH3) or urea (H2NCONH2) as the nitrogen source. The resulting nanocrystalline Cu3N spontaneously decomposes to nanocrystalline CuO in the presence of both water and oxygen from air at room temperature. Ammonia was produced in 60% chemical yield during Cu3N decomposition, as measured using the colorimetric indophenol method. Because Cu3N decomposition requires H2O and produces substoichiometric amounts of NH3\u3e, we conclude that this reaction proceeds through a complex stoichiometry that involves the concomitant release of both N2 and NH3. This is a thermodynamically unfavorable outcome, strongly indicating that H2O (and thus NH3 production) facilitate the kinetics of the reaction by lowering the energy barrier for Cu3N decomposition. The three different Cu2O, Cu3N, and CuO nanocrystalline phases were characterized by a combination of optical absorption, powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and electronic density of states obtained from electronic structure calculations on the bulk solids. The relative ease of interconversion between these interesting and inexpensive materials bears possible implications for catalytic and optoelectronic applications

From evolutionary computation to the evolution of things

Evolution has provided a source of inspiration for algorithm designers since the birth of computers. The resulting field, evolutionary computation, has been successful in solving engineering tasks ranging in outlook from the molecular to the astronomical. Today, the field is entering a new phase as evolutionary algorithms that take place in hardware are developed, opening up new avenues towards autonomous machines that can adapt to their environment. We discuss how evolutionary computation compares with natural evolution and what its benefits are relative to other computing approaches, and we introduce the emerging area of artificial evolution in physical systems

Strategy for large???scale monolithic Perovskite/Silicon tandem solar cell: A review of recent progress

For any solar cell technology to reach the final mass-production/commercialization stage, it must meet all technological, economic, and social criteria such as high efficiency, large-area scalability, long-term stability, price competitiveness, and environmental friendliness of constituent materials. Until now, various solar cell technologies have been proposed and investigated, but only crystalline silicon, CdTe, and CIGS technologies have overcome the threshold of mass-production/commercialization. Recently, a perovskite/silicon (PVK/Si) tandem solar cell technology with high efficiency of 29.1% has been reported, which exceeds the theoretical limit of single-junction solar cells as well as the efficiency of stand-alone silicon or perovskite solar cells. The International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics (ITRPV) predicts that silicon-based tandem solar cells will account for about 5% market share in 2029 and among various candidates, the combination of silicon and perovskite is the most likely scenario. Here, we classify and review the PVK/Si tandem solar cell technology in terms of homo- and hetero-junction silicon solar cells, the doping type of the bottom silicon cell, and the corresponding so-called normal and inverted structure of the top perovskite cell, along with mechanical and monolithic tandemization schemes. In particular, we review and discuss the recent advances in manufacturing top perovskite cells using solution and vacuum deposition technology for large-area scalability and specific issues of recombination layers and top transparent electrodes for large-area PVK/Si tandem solar cells, which are indispensable for the final commercialization of tandem solar cells

Dielectric relaxation in pure and Co-doped Bi12GeO20 single crystals

We report the results of investigation of dielectric spectroscopy study of single crystals of Bi12GeO20 and Bi12GeO20 doped with Co nanoparticles. The complex dielectric constant was measured in the temperature interval from 5 to 450 K and frequencies from 1 Hz to 1 MHz. The electrical conductivity of both samples was thermally activated with potential barriers of 0.55 eV and 0.59 eV, respectively. Doped samples had bigger complex dielectric constants and σ′ exhibited slightly steeper temperature dependence than in the pure sample. The dielectric relaxation was observed in pure and doped single crystals and relaxation frequencies showed similar activation energies as electrical conductivities

Reusable Au/Pd-coated chestnut-like copper oxide SERS substrates with ultra-fast self-recovery

Reliable and reusable plasmonic substrates are crucial for the development of biosensing applications using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as they can provide unique advantages for ultrafast and accurate single-molecule recognition of different species. These properties are unrevealed in this paper, where thermally annealed cupric CuO and cuprous oxide Cu2O heterostructures were used as templates for highly stable nanotextured surfaces and design of robust 3D plasmonic biochips. Differently tailored nano/micro-roughness provided outstanding light trapping abilities that lead to significant SERS performance improvement. It was found that Cu2O chestnut-like substrate activated with 80 nm Au/Pd alloy film reveals impressive 3.7-fold Raman signal increment in respect to grainy-like structure and about twice larger amplification than that of nanowires enriched platform decorated in the same manner. Large enhancement factor AEF ~5 × 105 of a chestnut-like Au/Pd@/Cu2O chip allows adding it up to the list of the most effective oxide-based plasmonic substrates. Moreover, the substrate shows unprecedented durability during repetitive plasma-cleaning, demonstrating a remarkable 100 self-recovery in less than 1 min, accompanied by virtually no thickness degradation of the plasmonic layer. © 2020 Elsevier B.V