Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually

Keseimbangan Marshallian atau Cheungian dalam sewakongsi: kajian empirik di Nepal

The issue of resource allocation under share tenancy system has always been a rich source of controversy in the economic literature. The Marshallians believe that the share tenants apply variable inputs less intensively than the fixed rent tenants or owner-operators, while the Cheungians argue that there would be no difference in input intensity across different tenure systems. This study examines the empirical validity of these approaches, using evidence from two tarai villages of Nepal. Using a model proposed by Shaban, the differences in input and output intensities in owner-occupied and sharecropped land were analysed. The results of this study indicate that share tenants apply variable inputs less intensively than owner-operators. This study, therefore, supports the Marshallian school in the sharecropping controversy

Thermal Conductivity and Viscosity Of Al2o3 Nanofluids for Different Based Ratio of Water and Ethylene Glycol Mixture

In the thermal engineering applications, suspension of nanoparticles in conventional fluid has positive potential in enhancing the convective heat transfer performance. The evaluation of thermo-physical properties is essential to investigate the forced convection heat transfer of nanofluids. Hence, the present study reports the analysis on thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity for Al2O3 nanoparticle dispersed in a different volume ratio of water (W) and ethylene glycol (EG) mixture. The Al2O3 nanofluids are formulated using the two-step method for three different base mixtures with volume ratio of 40:60, 50:50 and 60:40 (W:EG). The measurement of thermal conductivity and viscosity were performed using KD2 Pro Thermal Properties Analyzer and Brookfield LVDV-III Rheometer; respectively for temperature from 30 to 70 °C and volume concentration of 0.2–1.0%. The average thermal conductivity enhancement of Al2O3 nanofluids in the three base ratios varied from 2.6 to 12.8%. The nanofluids have better enhancement as the percentage of ethylene glycol increases. Meanwhile, the average dynamic viscosity enhanced up to 50% for 60:40 (W:EG). The enhancement of viscosity for nanofluids decreased with the increment percentage of ethylene glycol. The properties enhancement of the Al2O3 nanofluids is significantly influenced by the concentration, temperature, and based ratio

Effect of Lithium Chloride (Licl) Dopant on The Performance of Catalysts for the Oxidative Coupling of Methane

The present study reports effects of lithium chloride (LiCl) doping on MgO, La2O3, SnO2, CaO and ZnO catalysts. All the catalysts were prepared by the impregnation method. The catalysts were tested at reaction temperature of 775oC. The feed flow rate of methane, oxygen and nitrogen was carried out in the ratio of 3:1:2 giving a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 0.375 g.s/cm3. La2O3 showed the highest C2+ selectivity among the undoped catalysts. All the catalysts were doped with LiCl to compare their methane conversion, selectivity and product yield. The 2.0 mol% LiCl doped into La2O3 was the best catalyst formulation having achieved 46.7% of C2+ selectivity with CH4 conversion of 29.0% and the increase in selectivity was attributed to the presence of chlorine. Hydrogen production was more pronounced for MgO based catalysts and believed to be generated by surfacecatalyzed reactions

Bio-based liquid fuels as a source of renewable energy: A review

Limited availability of fossil fuels and their associated environmental impact during combustion remains the primary basis for exploring alternative energy sources such as bio-based liquid fuels. Several feedstocks have been used to produce biofuels for different applications with their own pros and cons. For instance, production of bio-fuels using human food chain raw materials such as corn, soy, peanut, and sugarcane are receiving increased criticism due to the competing demands of the same sources for human consumption as food. However, the non-food biomass in the form of agricultural wastes, municipal wastes, waste vegetable oil, and microbial sources are abundantly available that can be utilized as feedstock for production of biofuels. Because of this reason, most biofuels have been produced using the feedstocks that do not affect the food chain. Thus, in this work, the feedstocks of different generation biofuels and their potential yield and associated greenhouse gas emissions, production technologies are critically surveyed. Moreover, the application of biofuels for different purposes are analyzed and compared with their corresponding conventional fuels. The survey also points out the recent issues and challenges of biofuels with their resolution. The future research directions are suggested to sustain biofuel production

Comparison of the Cyclic Variation of a Diesel-Ethanol Blend in a Diesel Engine

Alcohols are renewable and sustainable second generation biofuels which are derived from various biomass feedstock sources. These fuels with similar properties to mineral diesel can be used as a blend or additive to improve the combustion characteristics and pollutant emissions in the automotive engines. However, different fuel properties characterize different combustion phasing parameters for the specific engine operation and test condition. This paper presents the preliminary results of coefficient of variations of IMEP (COVIMEP) and Pmax (COVPmax) for a diesel engine fuelled with mineral diesel (B0) and DE10 blend at full load both engine speeds of 1100 rpm and 2300 rpm. The influence of ethanol content in a blend of diesel on the cyclic combustion variations is explained in the calculation values of the coefficient of cyclic variation (COV). The experimental results showed the DE10 fuelling exhibited larger cyclic variations than mineral diesel (B0) at the same test conditions, owing to the reduction of combustion temperature during combustion phasing and lower reactivity of ethanol

Synonymous non-taxonomic relations extraction

Construction of ontology is a difficult task, expensive and time-consuming. Concept, taxonomy and non-taxonomic relations, are the three important components in the development of ontology. These three components are used to represent the whole domain texts. Currently, most of studies focused on extracting the concept, the taxonomic relationships and the non-taxonomic relationships within the scope of single sentence. In order to enrich the domain ontology, we introduced a method to extract the non-taxonomic relations by using the similarities of relations that exist in more than one sentence. The most appropriate predicate are used as a reference to relate between concepts that occur not only in the same sentence, but also in different sentences. Here, the proposed method was tested using a collection of domain texts that described electronic voting machine and are evaluated based on the standard information retrieval performance metrics, i.e. precision and recall

Modulation of Sn concentration in ZnO nanorod array: intensification on the conductivity and humidity sensing properties

Tin (Sn)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays (TZO) were synthesized onto aluminum-doped ZnO-coated glass substrate via a facile sonicated sol–gel immersion method for humidity sensor applications. These nanorod arrays were grown at different Sn concentrations ranging from 0.6 to 3 at.%. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the deposited TZO arrays exhibited a wurtzite structure. The stress/strain condition of the ZnO film metamorphosed from tensile strain/compressive stress to compressive strain/tensile stress when the Sn concentrations increased. Results indicated that 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO, which has the lowest tensile stress of 0.14 GPa, generated the highest conductivity of 1.31 S cm− 1. In addition, 1 at.% Sn doping of TZO possessed superior sensitivity to a humidity of 3.36. These results revealed that the optimum performance of a humidity-sensing device can be obtained mainly by controlling the amount of extrinsic element in a ZnO film

The Effect of TiO2 Coating on Pile Penetration Depth in Clay

Pile driving tests were conducted using models of concrete piles with titanium dioxide (TiO2) coating and piles without coating. Pile surfaces coated with TiO2 become superhydrophilic, which enables water molecules in clay pores to be attracted to the pile during the pile driving process. The attraction suppresses the compression of the pore water in the clay soil, hence the result of the pile driving tests showed that piles with TiO2 coating could penetrate deeper than piles without coating with the same count of hammer strokes. An examination using FTIR confirmed the formation of bonds between water molecules for piles with coating and the absence of such bonding for piles without coating. Furthermore, it was successfully established that pile surface coating gives different results for pile driving in different clay soils