Affordable dye sensitizer by waste

Abstract The development of dye sensitizer is growing in line with the increasing demand for renewable energy. A research to obtain a dye sensitizer that is economical, safe, and produces a great value of DSSC efficiency is a challenge unresolved. On the other hand, the efforts for waste reduction are also intensively conducted to create better environment. In this paper, the variation of synthetic dye wastes from batik industries have been successfully applied as dye sensitizer and fabricated on DSSC cells. Congo red (1.0133%) yielded higher efficiency than rhodamine B (0.0126%), methyl orange (0.7560%), and naphthol blue black (0.0083%). The divergence of the efficiency of DSSC is very dependent upon the chromophore group owned by dye. This study has proven that the more chromophore group possessed by dye, the higher the efficiency of DSSC generated. This research concludes that the dye wastes have a bright future to be implemented as dye sensitizer on solar cells

Residual ground-water levels of the neonicotinoid thiacloprid perturb chemosensing of Caenorhabditis elegans

© 2017, The Author(s). This study investigated the neurological effects of residual ground-water levels of thiaclopridon the non-target organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Nematodes treated with thiacloprid showed a dose-dependent and significantly increased twitch response at concentrations above 50 ng mL−1 that disabled their forward locomotion in liquid culture. In comparison with untreated controls, 10 ng mL−1 thiacloprid perturbed the chemosensory ability of C. elegans such that the nematodes no longer demonstrated positive chemotaxis towards a NaCl chemo-attractant, reducing their chemotaxis index from +0.48 to near to zero. Nematodes also exhibited a locomotion characteristic of those devoid of chemo-attraction, making significantly more pirouetting turns of ≥90° than the untreated controls. Compared to the untreated controls, expression of the endocytosis-associated gene, Rab-10, was also increased in C. elegans that had developed to adulthood in the presence of 10 ng mL−1 thiacloprid, suggesting their active engagement in increased recycling of affected cellular components, such as their nAChRs. Thus, even residual, low levels of this less potent neonicotinoid that may be found in field ground-water had measurable effects on a beneficial soil organism which may have environmental and ecological implications that are currently poorly understood

Photocatalytic Efficiency Tuning by the Surface Roughness of TiO2 Coatings on Glass Prepared by the Doctor Blade Method

A set of opaque films were prepared with Degussa P25® or Hombikat UV100® TiO2 powders by the doctor blade method on glass slides with different compositions of polyethylene glycol of 20 kDa (PEG20), and they were characterized by spectroscopy, microscopy and photochemical kinetics measurements. After annealing treatment at 450 °C, about 5–7% C atom was incorporated into the films, as a consequence of the degradation of the organic complexing agents, inducing a small reduction of the energy band gap of TiO2 (i.e. 3.02 ≤ Eg (eV) ≤ 3.08). All films were about 15 ± 2 μm thick but their micro-morphological characteristics depended on the content of PEG20, showing different patterns of cracks and aggregates that produce intense light scattering and retransmission phenomena with the result of a three-dimensional excitation of the TiO2 particles in the thick film. Back-face excitation with UVA light (365 ± 42 nm) of the opaque films in contact with an aqueous solution produced both surface-bound and free hydroxyl radicals (HO•), as detected using a coumarin solution as a radical dosimeter. The photogeneration efficiency of HO• decreased with the surface roughness of the films, which varied between 135 and 439 nm depending on the film's composition.Fil: Tulli, Fiorella Giovanna. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; ArgentinaFil: Morales, Jesús Marcelo Nicolás. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; ArgentinaFil: Salas, Esteban Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; ArgentinaFil: Moran Vieyra, Faustino Eduardo. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; ArgentinaFil: Borsarelli, Claudio Darío. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Bionanotecnología del Noa; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. Facultad de Agronomía y Agroindustrias; Argentin