The development of Transparent Solar Cells (TSC) has become the main focus of solar energy research in recent years. The TSC has a number of applications and make use of unexploited space such as skyscraper windows. In this paper, TSC is fabricated using commercially available titanium dioxide (TiO2) P25 to make a paste, which is deposited on FTO glass using screen printing and spin coating methods. The effects of the thickness of the TiO2 film on transparency are examined. The paste is synthesised in the Cleanroom and used in both methods of deposition. The final cell fabrication is a Dye sensitised solar cell (DSSC). The obtained transparency of the FTO glass is 83%, and after the deposition of TiO2 it is reduced to less than 80%. The overall transparency of the DSSC, which was made using the spin coating method, is 70% with an Isc of 9.5 mA and Voc 853mV.
Functionally graded NiTi structures benefit from the combination of the smart properties of NiTi and those of functionally graded structures. This article provides experimental data for thermomechanical deformation behaviour of microstructurally graded, compositionally graded and geometrically graded NiTi alloy components, related to the research article entitled "Functionally graded shape memory alloys: design, fabrication and experimental evaluation" (Shariat et al., 2017) [1]. Stress-strain variation of microstructurally graded NiTi wires is presented at different heat treatment conditions and testing temperatures. The complex 4-way shape memory behaviour of a compositionally graded NiTi strip during one complete thermal cycle is demonstrated. The effects of geometrical design on pseudoelastic behaviour of geometrically graded NiTi plates over tensile loading cycles are presented on the stress-strain diagrams.
In this article we present the first comparative study of the transient decay dynamics of photo-generated charges for the three polymorphs of TiO2. To our knowledge, this is the first such study of the brookite phase of TiO2 over timescales relevant to the kinetics of water splitting. We find that the behavior of brookite, both in the dynamics of relaxation of photo-generated charges and in energetic distribution, is similar to the anatase phase of TiO2. Moreover, links between the rate of recombination of charge carriers, their energetic distribution and the mode of transport are made in light of our findings and used to account for the differences in water splitting efficiency observed across the three polymorphs.
In this data article, we provide energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectra of the electrospun composite (SnO2-TiO2) nanowires with the elemental values measured in atomic and weight%. The linear sweep voltammetry data of composite and its component nanofibers are provided. The data collected in this article is directly related to our research article "Synergistic combination of electronic and electrical properties of SnO2 and TiO2 in a single SnO2-TiO2 composite nanowire for dye-sensitized solar cells" [1].
Fibrous silica-titania (FST) catalysts were synthesized by microemulsion followed by silica seed-crystal crystallization methods under various molar ratios of toluene to water (T/W). The catalysts were characterized by XRD, UV-DRS, FESEM, TEM, AFM, N2 adsorption-desorption, FTIR, and ESR. The results revealed that altering the T/W ratio affected the growth of the silica and titania and led to different size, fiber density, silica-titania structure, and number of hydroxyl groups, as well as oxygen vacancies in the FSTs, which altered their behavior toward subsequent application. Photodegradation of ibuprofen (IBP) are in the following order: FST(6:1) (90%) > FST(5:1) (84%) > FST(7:1) (79%) > commercial TiO2 (67%). A kinetics study using Langmuir-Hinshelwood model illustrated that the photodegradation followed the pseudo-first-order and adsorption was the rate-limiting step. Optimization by response surface methodology (RSM) showed that the pH, initial concentration, and catalyst dosage were the remarkable parameters in photodegradation of IBP. The FST (6:1) maintained its photocatalytic activities for up to five cycles reaction without serious catalyst deactivation, and was also able to degrade other endocrine-disrupting chemicals, indicating its potential use for the treatment of those chemicals in wastewater.
Water treatment plants generate vast amounts of sludge and its disposal is one of the most expensive and environmentally problematic challenges worldwide. As sludge from water treatment plants contains a considerable amount of titanium, both can create serious environmental concerns. In this study, the potential to recover titanium from drinking water treatment residue was explored through acid leaching technique. Statistical design for the optimization of titanium recovery was proposed using response surface methodology (RSM) based on a five-level central composite design (CCD). Three independent variables were investigated, namely the acid concentration (3 M-7 M), temperature (40 °C - 80 °C) and solid/liquid ratio (0.005-0.02 g/mL). According to the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the p-value (<0.0001) indicated the designed model was highly significant. Optimization using RSM gave the best fit between validated and predicted data as elucidated by the coefficient of determination with R2 values of 0.9965. However, acid concentration and solid/liquid ratio showed an initial increase in titanium recovery followed by recovery reduction with increasing concentration and ratio. Quadratic RSM predicted the maximum recovery of titanium to be 67.73% at optimal conditions of 5.5 M acid concentration, at a temperature of 62 °C with a solid/liquid ratio of 0.01 g/mL. The verification experiments gave an average of 66.23% recovery of titanium, thus indicating that the successfully developed model to predict the response. This process development has significant importance to reduce the cost of waste disposal, environmental protection, and recovery of economically valuable products.
In this study, we developed a glycerol-mediated safe and facile method to synthesize colored titania nanoparticles (NPs) via solution route. Our method is considerably effective and greener than other options currently available. Colored titania NPs were produced by hydrolyzing TiCl4 precursor in aqueous solution containing different concentrations of glycerol (0.0, 1.163, 3.834, and 5.815 mol/L) and subsequent calcination at 300 °C for 1 h. Our results highlight firstly that glycerol-mediated synthesis is unlikely to affect the anatase crystalline structure of TiO2, and secondly, that it would lead to coloration, band gap narrowing, and a remarkable bathochromic redshift of the optical response of titania. More importantly, the synthesized colored titania have Ti3+ ions, which, at least in terms of our samples, is the major factor responsible for its coloration. These Ti3+ species could induce mid gap states in the band gap, which significantly improve the visible light absorption capability and photocatalytic performance of the colored titania. The photocatalytic experiments showed that the colored TiO2 NPs prepared in 1.163 mol/L aqueous glycerol solution displayed the best photocatalytic performance. Almost 48.17% of phenolic compounds and 62.18% of color were removed from treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) within 180 min of visible light irradiation.
The aim of this research was to investigate the ability of organometallic titanium-PANi hybrid materials as gas sensor at room temperature. To form the hybrid materials, commercially available polyaniline (PANi) powder were directly added into organometallic titanium sols which was synthesized using the sol gel method. The composite films were prepared via spin coating technique followed by electrode deposition for sensors fabrication. Five different organometallic titanium:PANi ratios namely 1 wt% to 5 wt% of PANi were prepared for this experiment. For gas sensing test, all samples were exposed to ethanol vapour. The sensing mode is based on the variation in the electrical conductivity due to the
interaction between the gas molecules and the film. It was observed that the composite sensors required appropriate ratio to exhibit optimum sensing properties. This finding proved that the hybridization process is successful and offered much cheaper and easier method for fabrication of room temperature gas sensor.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of element diffusion on the alloying behaviour and microstructure of a Ti-10%Mo10%Cr
alloy during sintering and furnace cooling. A theoretical calculation of the average diffusion distance for each
element was performed to predict the alloying behaviour during sintering and furnace cooling. The Ti-10%Mo-10%Cr
alloy was fabricated using a blended element powder metallurgy approach. Micrograph of the samples after sintering
showed bright-circle structures and significantly decreased equiaxed structures. The number of plate-like structures
increased with prolonged sintering time. Microstructural changes occurred because of element diffusion resulting from
the prolonged sintering time. Moreover, the diffusion distance of each element also increased with prolonged sintering
time. Although elements can sufficiently diffuse during both sintering and furnace cooling, the diffusion distance during
sintering was considerably higher than that during furnace cooling for all elements. The diffusion distances of Cr and
Mo were the highest and lowest, respectively, during sintering and furnace cooling. This study showed that alloying
behaviour mostly occurred during sintering and was controlled by the diffusion of Mo atoms.
The study explored the characteristics and effectiveness of modified TiO2 nanotubes with zeolite as a composite photocatalyst (MTNZC) for the degradation of triclocarban (TCC) from the aqueous solution. MTNZC samples have been produced via electrochemical anodisation (ECA) followed by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Three independent factors selected include MTNZC size (0.5-1 cm2), pH (3-10), and irradiation time (10-60 min). The observation revealed that the surface of Ti substrate by the 40 V of anodisation and 3 h of calcination was covered with the array ordered, smooth and optimum elongated nanotubes with average tube length was approximately 5.1 μm. EDS analysis proved the presence of Si, Mg, Al, and Na on MTNZC due to the chemical composition present in the zeolite. The average crystallite size of TiO₂ nanotubes increased from 2.07 to 3.95 nm by increasing anodisation voltage (10, 40, and 60 V) followed by 450 °C of calcination for 1, 3, and 6 h, respectively. The optimisation by RSM shows the F-value (36.12), the p-value of all responses were less than 0.0001, and the 95% confidence level of the model by all the responses indicated the model was significant. The R2 in the range of 0.9433-0.9906 showed the suitability of the model to represent the actual relationship among the parameters. The photocatalytic degradation rate of TCC from the first and the fifth cycles were 94.2 and 77.4%, indicating the applicability of MTNZC to be used for several cycles.
This study investigates the facile fabrication of interfacial defects assisted amorphous TiO2 nanotubes arrays (am-TNTA) for promoting gas-phase CO2 photoreduction to methane. The am-TNTA catalyst was fabricated via a one-step synthesis, without heat treatment, by anodization of Titanium in Ethylene glycol-based electrolyte in a shorter anodizing time. The samples presented a TiO2 nanostructured array with a nanotubular diameter of 100 ± 10 nm, a wall thickness of 26 ± 5 nm, and length of 3.7 ± 0.3 μm, resulting in a specific surface of 0.75 m2 g. The am-TNTA presented prolonged chemical stability, a high exposed surface area, and a large number of surface traps that can reduce the recombination of the charge carriers. The am-TNTA showed promising photoactivity when tested in the CO2 reduction reaction with water under UV irradiation with a methane production rate of 14.0 μmol gcat-1 h-1 for a pure TiO2 material without any modification procedure. This enhanced photocatalytic activity can be explained in terms of surface defects of the amorphous structure, mainly OH groups that can act as electron traps for increasing the electron lifetime. The CO2 interacts directly with those traps, forming carbonate species, which favors the catalytic conversion to methane. The am-TNTA also exhibited a high stability during six reaction cycles. The photocatalytic activity, the significantly reduced time for synthesis, and high stability for continuous CH4 production make this nanomaterial a potential candidate for a sustainable CO2 reduction process and can be employed for other energy applications.
Metal nanoparticles prepared by exsolution at the surface of perovskite oxides have been recently shown to enable new dimensions in catalysis and energy conversion and storage technologies owing to their socketed, well-anchored structure. Here we show that contrary to general belief, exsolved particles do not necessarily re-dissolve back into the underlying perovskite upon oxidation. Instead, they may remain pinned to their initial locations, allowing one to subject them to further chemical transformations to alter their composition, structure and functionality dramatically, while preserving their initial spatial arrangement. We refer to this concept as chemistry at a point and illustrate it by tracking individual nanoparticles throughout various chemical transformations. We demonstrate its remarkable practical utility by preparing a nanostructured earth abundant metal catalyst which rivals platinum on a weight basis over hundreds of hours of operation. Our concept enables the design of compositionally diverse confined oxide particles with superior stability and catalytic reactivity.
Despite the many attractive potential uses of ceramic materials as humidity sensors, some unavoidable drawbacks, including toxicity, poor biocompatibility, long response and recovery times, low sensitivity and high hysteresis have stymied the use of these materials in advanced applications. Therefore, in present investigation, we developed a capacitive humidity sensor using lead-free Ca,Mg,Fe,Ti-Oxide (CMFTO)-based electro-ceramics with perovskite structures synthesized by solid-state step-sintering. This technique helps maintain the submicron size porous morphology of the developed lead-free CMFTO electro-ceramics while providing enhanced water physisorption behaviour. In comparison with conventional capacitive humidity sensors, the presented CMFTO-based humidity sensor shows a high sensitivity of up to 3000% compared to other materials, even at lower signal frequency. The best also shows a rapid response (14.5 s) and recovery (34.27 s), and very low hysteresis (3.2%) in a 33%-95% relative humidity range which are much lower values than those of existing conventional sensors. Therefore, CMFTO nano-electro-ceramics appear to be very promising materials for fabricating high-performance capacitive humidity sensors.
In this study, nitrogen doped titanium dioxide-based dye-sensitised solar cell was successfully fabricated
using screen printing technique to discover the optimisation of process parameters for the solar cell
efficiency using response surface methodology (RSM). Parameter optimisation has been a major concern
in solar cell fabrication. The selected parameters were: nitrogen concentration (15-25 mg of urea), the
film thickness (25-60 µm) and dye loading time (12-24 hours), the optimum condition which yields the
highest efficiency of 3.5% was at 15 mg nitrogen concentration, 25 µm film thickness and 24-hours dye
loading time. Film thickness was found to have a significant influence on efficiency while the loading
time exceeding 18 hours has the least significant effect.
Perovskite solar cells based on series of inorganic cesium lead bromide and iodide mixture, CsPbBr3-xI x , where x varies between 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 molar ratio were synthesized by two step-sequential deposition at ambient condition to design the variations of wide band gap light absorbers. A device with high overall photoconversion efficiency of 3.98 % was obtained when small amount of iodide (CsPbBr2.9I0.1) was used as the perovskite and spiro-OMeTAD as the hole transport material (HTM). We investigated the origin of variation in open circuit voltage, Voc which was shown to be mainly dependent on two factors, which are the band gap of the perovskite and the work function of the HTM. An increment in Voc was observed for the device with larger perovskite band gap, while keeping the electron and hole extraction contacts the same. Besides, the usage of bilayer P3HT/MoO3 with deeper HOMO level as HTM instead of spiro-OMeTAD, thus increased the Voc from 1.16 V to 1.3 V for CsPbBr3 solar cell, although the photocurrent is lowered due to charge extraction issues. The stability studies confirmed that the addition of small amount of iodide into the CsPbBr3 is necessarily to stabilize the cell performance over time.
2D perovskites is one of the proposed strategies to enhance the moisture resistance, since the larger organic cations can act as a natural barrier. Nevertheless, 2D perovskites hinder the charge transport in certain directions, reducing the solar cell power conversion efficiency. A nanostructured mixed-dimensionality approach is presented to overcome the charge transport limitation, obtaining power conversion efficiencies over 9%.
Pyrolysis oil from oil palm biomass can be a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels and the precursor for synthesizing petrochemical products due to its carbon-neutral properties and low sulfur and nitrogen content. This work investigated the effect of applying mesoporous acidic catalysts, Ni-Mo/TiO2 and Ni/Al2O3, in a catalytic co-pyrolysis of oil palm trunk (OPT) and polypropylene (PP) from 500 to 700 °C. The obtained oil yields varied between 12.67 and 19.50 wt.% and 12.33-17.17 wt.% for Ni-Mo/TiO2 and Ni/Al2O3, respectively. The hydrocarbon content in oil significantly increased up to 54.07-58.18% and 37.28-68.77% after adding Ni-Mo/TiO2 and Ni/Al2O3, respectively. The phenolic compounds content was substantially reduced to 8.46-20.16% for Ni-Mo/TiO2 and 2.93-14.56% for Ni/Al2O3. Minor reduction in oxygenated compounds was noticed from catalytic co-pyrolysis, though the parametric effects of temperature and catalyst type remain unclear. The enhanced deoxygenation and cracking of phenolic and oxygenated compounds and the PP decomposition resulted in increased hydrocarbon production in oil during catalytic co-pyrolysis. Catalyst addition also promoted the isomerization and oligomerization reactions, enhancing the formation of cyclic relative to aliphatic hydrocarbon.
The primary responsibility for continuously discharging toxic organic pollutants into water bodies and open environments is the increase in industrial and agricultural activities. Developing economical and suitable methods to continuously remove organic pollutants from wastewater is highly essential. The aim of the present research was to apply response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) for optimization and modeling of photocatalytic degradation of acid orange 7 (AO7) by commercial TiO2-P25 nanoparticles (TNPs). Dose of TNPs, pH, and AO7 concentration were selected as investigated parameters. RSM results reveal the reflective rate of AO7 removal of ~ 94.974% was obtained at pH 7.599, TNP dose of 0.748 g/L, and AO7 concentration of 28.483 mg/L. The resulting quadratic model is satisfactory with the highest coefficient of determination (R2) between the predicted and experimental data (R2 = 0.98 and adjusted R2 = 0.954). On the other hand, ANNs were successfully employed for modeling of AO7 degradation process. The proposed ANN model was absolutely fitted with experimental results producing the highest R2. Furthermore, root mean square error (RMSE), mean average deviation (MAD), absolute average relative error (AARE), and mean square error (MSE) were examined more to compare the predictive capabilities of ANN and RSM models. The experimental data was well fitted into pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetics with more accuracy. Thermodynamic parameters, namely enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs' free energy, and activation energy, were also evaluated to suggest the nature of the degradation process. The increase of temperature was analyzed to be more suitable for the fast removal of AO7 over TNPs. Graphical abstract.
This study investigated the impact of calcium silicate (CS) content on composition, compressive mechanical properties, and hardness of CS cermets with Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V alloys sintered at 1200°C. The powder metallurgy route was exploited to prepare the cermets. New phases of materials of Ni16Ti6Si7, CaTiO3, and Ni31Si12 appeared in cermet of Ti-55Ni with CS and in cermet of Ti-6Al-4V with CS, the new phases Ti5Si3, Ti2O, and CaTiO3, which were emerged during sintering at different CS content (wt%). The minimum shrinkage and density were observed in both groups of cermets for the 50 and 100 wt% CS content, respectively. The cermets with 40 wt% of CS had minimum compressive Young's modulus. The minimum of compressive strength and strain percentage at maximum load were revealed in cermets with 50 and 40 wt% of CS with Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V cermets, respectively. The cermets with 80 and 90 wt% of CS showed more plasticity than the pure CS. It concluded that the composition and mechanical properties of sintered cermets of Ti-55Ni and Ti-6Al-4V with CS significantly depend on the CS content in raw cermet materials. Thus, the different mechanical properties of the cermets can be used as potential materials for different hard tissues replacements.