Multifunctional bioinspired sol-gel coatings for architectural glasses

Although several multinational companies have recently released products incorporating bioinspired functional coatings, their practical integration in building envelopes is still an open issue. High production costs associated to the existing vacuum deposition technologies, as well as the difficulties in extending the number of functions achievable by a single coating, represent to date the main limitations to their diffusion on a large scale. This review summarizes the key topics in the field of functional coatings for architectural glasses, focusing in particular on the potential applications of sol-gel based antireflective and self-cleaning coatings, that have received a tremendous attention in the last years. It provides an overview of the recent research efforts aimed to improve their properties and to extend their range of applicability. The bioinspired principles, upon which such coatings are based, are also described and are related to the chemical and morphological properties of such surfaces. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Highly efficient smart photovoltachromic devices with tailored electrolyte composition

Driven by the tremendous opportunities offered by dye solar cells technology in terms of building integration, a new generation of smart multifunctional photoelectrochemical cells has the potential to attract the interest of a rapidly growing number of research institutions and industrial companies. Photovoltachromic devices are capable to produce a smart modulation of the optical transmittance and, at the same time, to generate electrical power by means of solar energy conversion. In this work, a specifically designed bifunctional counterelectrode has been realized by depositing a C-shaped platinum frame which bounds a square region occupied by a tungsten oxide (WO3) film onto a transparent conductive substrate. These two regions have been electrically separated to make possible distinct operations on one or both of the available circuits. Such an unconventional counterelectrode makes it possible to achieve a twofold outcome: a smart and fast-responsive control of the optical transmittance and a relatively high photovoltaic conversion efficiency. In particular we investigated the effect of the electrolyte composition on both photoelectrochromic and photovoltaic performances of such devices by systematically tuning the iodide content in the electrolyte. The best result was obtained by filling the cell with an iodine concentration of 0.005 M: a coloration efficiency of 61.10 cm(2) C-1 at a wavelength of 780 nm and, at the same time, a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 6.55% have been reported

Shape and Morphology Effects on the Electronic Structure of TiO2 Nanostructures: From Nanocrystals to Nanorods

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Durable superhydrophobic and antireflective surfaces by trimethylsilanized silica nanoparticles-based sol-gel processing.

We present a robust and cost-effective coating method to fabricate long-term durable superhydrophobic, and-simultaneously-antireflective surfaces by a double-layer coating comprising trimethylsiloxane (TMS) surface-functionalized silica nanoparticles partially embedded into an organosilica binder matrix produced through a sol-gel process. A dense and homogeneous organosilica gel layer was First coated onto a glass substrate, and then, a trimethylsilanized nanospheres-based superhydrophobic layer was deposited onto it. After thermal curing, the two layers turned into a monolithic film, and the hydrophobic nanoparticles were permanently fixed to the glass substrate. Such treated surfaces showed a tremendous water repellency (contact angle = 168 degrees) and stable self-cleaning effect during 2000 h of outdoor exposure. Besides this, nanotextured topology generated by the self-assembled nanoparticles-based top layer produced a fair antireflection effect consisting of more than a 3% increase in optical transmittance

Charge recombination reduction in dye-sensitized solar cells by means of an electron beam-deposited TiO2 buffer layer between conductive glass and photoelectrode

A thin anatase titanium dioxide compact film was deposited by electron beam evaporation as buffer layer between the conductive transparent electrode and the porous TiO2-based photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells. The effect of such a buffer layer on the back transfer reaction of electrons to tri-iodide ions in liquid electrolyte-based cells has been studied by means of both electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and open circuit photovoltage decay analysis. The influence of the thickness has been also investigated and an increment in overall quantum conversion efficiency eta as high as +31% with respect to the standard cell - fabricated onto an uncoated conductive glass - has been revealed in the case of a 120 nm thick buffer layer. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserve

Modeling Gross Primary Production of Agro-Forestry Ecosystems by Assimilation of Satellite-Derived Information in a Process-Based Model

In this paper we present results obtained in the framework of a regional-scale analysis of the carbon budget of poplar plantations in Northern Italy. We explored the ability of the process-based model BIOME-BGC to estimate the gross primary production (GPP) using an inverse modeling approach exploiting eddy covariance and satellite data. We firstly present a version of BIOME-BGC coupled with the radiative transfer models PROSPECT and SAILH (named PROSAILH-BGC) with the aims of i) improving the BIOME-BGC description of the radiative transfer regime within the canopy and ii) allowing the assimilation of remotely-sensed vegetation index time series, such as MODIS NDVI, into the model. Secondly, we present a two-step model inversion for optimization of model parameters. In the first step, some key ecophysiological parameters were optimized against data collected by an eddy covariance flux tower. In the second step, important information about phenological dates and about standing biomass were optimized against MODIS NDVI. Results obtained showed that the PROSAILH-BGC allowed simulation of MODIS NDVI with good accuracy and that we described better the canopy radiation regime. The inverse modeling approach was demonstrated to be useful for the optimization of ecophysiological model parameters, phenological dates and parameters related to the standing biomass, allowing good accuracy of daily and annual GPP predictions. In summary, this study showed that assimilation of eddy covariance and remote sensing data in a process model may provide important information for modeling gross primary production at regional scale