579 research outputs found
Numerical quantification of sources and phase partitioning of chemical species in cloud: Application to wintertime anthropogenic air masses at the Puy de DĂŽme station
International audienceThe Model of Multiphase Cloud Chemistry M2C2 has recently been extended to account for nucleation scavenging of aerosol particles in the cloud water chemical composition. This extended version has been applied to multiphase measurements available at the Puy de DĂŽme station for typical wintertime anthropogenic air masses. The simulated ion concentrations in cloud water are in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The analysis of the sources of the chemical species in cloud water shows an important contribution from nucleation scavenging of particles which prevails for nitrate, sulphate and ammonium. Moreover, the simulation shows that iron, which comes only from the dissolution of aerosol particles in cloud water, has a significant contribution in the hydroxyl radical production. Finally, the simulated phase partitioning of chemical species in cloud are compared with measurements. Numerical results show an underestimation of interstitial particulate phase fraction with respect to the measurements, which could be due to an overestimation of activated mass by the model. However, the simulated number scavenging efficiency of particles agrees well with the measured value of 40% of total number of aerosol particles activated in cloud droplets. Concerning the origin of chemical species in cloud water, the model reproduces quite well the contribution of gas and aerosol scavenging estimated from measurements. In addition, the simulation provides the contribution of in-cloud chemical reactivity to cloud water concentrations
Tuning of the Photovoltaic Parameters of Molecular Donors by Covalent Bridging
The synthesis of donor-acceptor molecules involving triarylamines and dicyanovinyl blocks is described. Optical and electrochemical results show that rigidification of the acceptor part of the molecule by a covalent bridge leads to a ca. 0.20 eV increase of the band gap due to a parallel increase of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level. A preliminary evaluation of these compounds as donor materials in organic solar cells shows that although this structural modification reduces the light-harvesting properties of the donor molecule, it nevertheless induces an increase of the efficiency of the resulting solar cells due to a simultaneous improvement of the open-circuit voltage and fill factor
Production of Nanostructured Conjugated Polymers by Electropolymerization of Tailored Tetrahedral Precursors
3D conjugated architectures based on twisted quaterthiophene (4T) or spirobifluorene (SF) cores with 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) or 3-methoxythiophene (MeOT) end-groups have been synthesized. Whereas the nature of the core has little effect on the absorption maximum of the molecule, replacement of 4T by the more rigid SF produces a large increase in the fluorescence quantum yield and a reduction in the Stokes shift accompanied by an increase in the oxidation potential. The highly reactive EDOT and MeOT end-groups allow these compounds to undergo straightforward and complete electropolymerization into stable electrode materials. Cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry confirm the role of the precursor structure on the electrochemical properties of the polymers. Analysis of the relationships between the morphology of the polymers and the structure of the precursors, using various microscopy techniques, suggests that, with appropriate precursor design, electropolymerization can produce nanostructured electrode materials with long-range order
Semi-conducteurs Isotropes et Stables pour Cellules solaires Organiques
Date du colloque : 03/2011</p
Three-dimensional tetra(oligothienyl)silanes as donor material for organic solar cells
Tetrahedral conjugated systems involving four conjugated oligothiophene chains fixed onto a central silicon node (1, 2) have been synthesized and used as donor materials in hetero-junction solar cells. Bilayer solar cells have been realized by thermal evaporation of compounds1 and 2 as donors and N,NâČ-bis-tridecylperylenedicarboxyimide as an acceptor. Comparison of the performances of these devices to those of a reference system based on dihexylterthienyl (H3T) shows that despite comparable effective conjugation lengths, the 3D compounds 1 and 2lead to a power conversion efficiency fourâfive times higher, suggesting better absorption of the incident light and better hole transport properties. Whereas fabrication of bulk hetero-junction with H3T was prevented by the lack of film forming properties, a prototype bulk hetero-junction based on compound 2 as the donor and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the acceptor has been realized. A short-circuit current density of 1.13 mA cmâ2 and a power conversion efficiency of 0.30% has been measured under AM 1.5 simulated solar irradiation at 80 mW cmâ2
PILOT: a balloon-borne experiment to measure the polarized FIR emission of dust grains in the interstellar medium
Future cosmology space missions will concentrate on measuring the
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which potentially carries
invaluable information about the earliest phases of the evolution of our
universe. Such ambitious projects will ultimately be limited by the sensitivity
of the instrument and by the accuracy at which polarized foreground emission
from our own Galaxy can be subtracted out. We present the PILOT balloon project
which will aim at characterizing one of these foreground sources, the
polarization of the dust continuum emission in the diffuse interstellar medium.
The PILOT experiment will also constitute a test-bed for using multiplexed
bolometer arrays for polarization measurements. We present the results of
ground tests obtained just before the first flight of the instrument.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Presented at SPIE, Millimeter, Submillimeter,
and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VII. To be
published in Proc. SPIE volume 915
Manipulation of the Open-Circuit Voltage of Organic Solar Cells by Desymmetrization of the Structure of Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor Molecules
The synthesis of acceptordonoracceptor (ADA) molecules based on a septithiophene chain with terminal electron acceptor groups is reported. Using a dicyanovinyl- (DCV) substituted molecule as reference, another symmetrical ADA donor containing thiobarbituric (TB) groups is synthesized and these two acceptor groups are combined to produce the unsymmetrical ADA compound. The electronic properties of the donors are analyzed by cyclic voltammetry and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and their photovoltaic properties are characterized on bilayer planar heterojunction cells that include spun-cast donor films and vacuum-deposited C60 as acceptor. Optical and electrochemical data show that replacement of DCV by TB leads to a small increase of the HOMO level and to a larger decrease of the LUMO, which result in a reduced band-gap. The desymmetrized compound presents the lowest oxidation potential in solution but the highest oxidation onset in the solid state, which leads to a significant increase of the open-circuit voltage of the resulting solar cells
Calibration and First light of the Diabolo photometer at the Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory
We have designed and built a large-throughput dual channel photometer,
Diabolo. This photometer is dedicated to the observation of millimetre
continuum diffuse sources, and in particular, of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
and of anisotropies of the 3K background. We describe the optical layout and
filtering system of the instrument, which uses two bolometric detectors for
simultaneous observations in two frequency channels at 1.2 and 2.1 mm. The
bolometers are cooled to a working temperature of 0.1 K provided by a compact
dilution cryostat. The photometric and angular responses of the instrument are
measured in the laboratory. First astronomical light was detected in March 1995
at the focus of the new Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory (MITO)
Telescope. The established sensitivity of the system is of 7 mK_RJ s^1/2$. For
a typical map of at least 10 beams, with one hour of integration per beam, one
can achieve the rms values of y_SZ ~ 7 10^-5 and the 3K background anisotropy
Delta T/T ~ 7 10^-5, in winter conditions. We also report on a novel bolometer
AC readout circuit which allows for the first time total power measurements on
the sky. This technique alleviates (but does not forbid) the use of chopping
with a secondary mirror. This technique and the dilution fridge concept will be
used in future scan--modulated space instrument like the ESA Planck mission
project.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy
and Astrophysics Supplement Serie
Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes from the British Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous).
Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within the British Coniacian to Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) yielded very large samples of shark and ray teeth. All of these samples yielded teeth of diverse members of the Carcharhiniformes, which commonly dominate the fauna. The following species are recorded and described: Pseudoscyliorhinus reussi (Herman, 1977) comb. nov., Crassescyliorhinus germanicus (Herman, 1982) gen. nov., Scyliorhinus elongatus (Davis, 1887), Scyliorhinus brumarivulensis sp. nov., ? Palaeoscyllium sp., Prohaploblepharus riegrafi (MĂŒller, 1989) gen. nov., ? Cretascyliorhinus sp., Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 1, Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 2, Pteroscyllium hermani sp. nov., Protoscyliorhinus sp., Leptocharias cretaceus sp. nov., Palaeogaleus havreensis Herman, 1977, Paratriakis subserratus sp. nov., Paratriakis tenuis sp. nov., Paratriakis sp. indet. and ? Loxodon sp. Taxa belonging to the families ?Proscylliidae, Leptochariidae, and Carcharhinidae are described from the Cretaceous for the first time. The evolutionary and palaeoecological implications of these newly recognised faunas are discussed
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