Photodetectors operating in the ultraviolet (UV) play a pivotal role in applications such as ozone monitoring and biosensing. One key factor to successfully implementing such photodetectors is that they must be solar-blind to avoid detecting ambient visible and infrared light. Unfortunately, UV photodetectors based on silicon and other typical semiconductors are not natively solar-blind, since their band gap energies are in the visible range. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is an example of a wide band gap semiconductor which shows promise for use as the absorbing medium in a UV photodetector device, since its band gap is wide enough to make it inherently insensitive to light in the visible range and above. Here we report on the fabrication and characterization of a graphene-h-BN-heterostructure photodetector which utilizes a vertical geometry, in principle allowing for highly scalable production. We find that our device shows a finite photoresponse to illumination by a 254 nm light source, but not to a 365 nm source, thus suggesting that our device is solar-blind.

In this study, we reported an environmentally friendly technique for the synthesis of titanium nanoparticles using Eichhornia crassipes leaf extract as a non-toxic reducing agent and efficient stabilizer. Also the antimicrobial activity TiNPs against E. coli. Bacteriological test were performed on solid agar plates with different concentrations of TiNPs. On the other hand TiNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, EDS (Dispersive Energy X-ray Spectroscopy), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy). It was found that TiNPs exhibit high crystallinity whit rutile titania structure. TEM analysis shows the nanoparticle size in the range from 22 to 44 nm, antimicrobial study was performed by plate count technique witch showed >99% mortality for E. coli bacteria studied after 24 h of incubation.

This paper discusses new components and approaches to make stretchable optical fiber sensors better meet the power and washability requirements of wearables. First, an all-polymer quick connector allows the light source and photosensor to be quickly detached for washing. Second, the paper investigates the possibility of driving the sensors using ambient light instead of an onboard light source. While optical strain sensors and touch sensors have advantages over electronic ones in wet environments, and the intrinsic stretchability of the fibers is useful for soft robotics and highly conformal wearables, the typical light-emitting diode (LED) light source consumes more power than an electronic resistive or capacitive strain sensor. In this work, ambient light of uniform but unknown intensity is demonstrated to drive an elastomeric optical touch sensor in a differential configuration.

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), which are inherently complaint capacitors, are emerging as pseudo-muscular actuators with a wide range of applications. In order to achieve high stretchability for large DEA actuation, carbon nanotube (CNT) and other 1D materials-based electrodes are used to maintain conductance at large strains. These electrodes are typically fabricated using spray coating or filter transfer method and resemble a perforated electrode under high magnification. Hence, there can be a loss of field and stray capacitance when multiple layers of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-based electrodes are used. This study investigates the effect of microscopic perforations on the nature of electric fields and on the capacitance of multi-layered CNT-based DEA structures with various dimensions and geometric properties of the electrodes. It has been found that the capacitance decreases with increase in the perforations however its effect is limited for a reasonable coverage. The change in normalized is found to be negligible (∼5%) for an electrode coverage area of over 90%, however, the maximum output work reduces by 18.2%. This analysis is important to develop robust and reliable CNT-based DEA structures, without using excessive CNTs which can lead to increased mechanical stiffness of the electrodes.

Betavoltaics (BV) cells (or nuclear batteries) have long-lasting power and high volumetric energy densities that open a broad range of applications that are not currently available, especially in low-power electronics for the internet-of-things, internal medical devices, and harsh environments. The introduction of very low-power electronics has opened up a market for the wide and accepted use of BV cells. As BVs have potentially decades-long useful lifetimes and are anticipated to be used in harsh environments, a method to describe accelerated contact aging has been developed. Monte Carlo radiation simulations show that energy can be deposited in the interface 10-50 times faster than real-world applications. The models can be used to design contact aging experiments for BV cell deployments.

In recent years, the demand for high performance thermal insulations has increased. While foam and aerogels have been researched for high performance thermal insulation, novel material design is required for further improvement. A porous silica has been found to have the potential to form a new thermal insulation material. However, porous silica is a powder and is difficult to form the porous compact. Therefore, we propose a composite insulation of powdered porous silica (p-SiO2), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sodium carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC). The fine voids and bulky structure of p-SiO2 greatly suppress gas and solid heat transfer. The composite of CNT can improve the moldability and enhance the mechanical properties. The moldability of thermal insulating materials improved even with the addition of 1 wt% CNT. With the addition of 1 wt% CNT, the increase in thermal conductivity was less than 0.01 W⋅m-1⋅K-1.

The large-scale cold crucible induction melter (CCIM) with productivity of 12 kg/h was created for melting borosilicate glass containing 20 mass. % of high-level liquid wastes (HLLW) simulators. Tests were carried out to study the effect on the CCIM operating parameters during sedimentation of metallic silver, at the content of 3.8 mass. % Ag2O in glass. Post-test analyses of the glass shows the sedimentation of silver in the bottom layers of the molten pool. Experiments have confirmed that the presence of noble metals in the form of undissolved sediments in the bottom layers of furnace leads to a changes in the properties of the melt, the aggravation of its drain conditions, an increase in the thermal conductivity of the skull and heat losses during melting.

Selective laser sintering methods are workhorses for additively manufacturing polymer-based components. The ease of rapid prototyping also means it is easy to produce illicit components. It is necessary to have a data-calibrated in-situ physical model of the build process in order to predict expected and defective microstructure characteristics that inform component provenance. Toward this end, sintering models are calibrated and characteristics such as component defects are explored. This is accomplished by assimilating multiple data streams, imaging analysis, and computational model predictions in an adaptive Bayesian parameter estimation algorithm. From these data sources, along with a phase-field model, bulk porosity distributions are inferred. Model parameters are constrained to physically-relevant search directions by sensitivity analysis, and then matched to predictions using adaptive sampling. Using this feedback loop, data-constrained estimates of sintering model parameters along with uncertainty bounds are obtained.

Sintering of Si3N4 compounds requires additives that promote densification through the dissolution-precipitation mechanism in liquid phase sintering. The sintering of the Si3N4 with the SiO2-Y2O3-Al2O3 system has been extensively studied. Nevertheless, because SiO2 depends on the natural amount on the Si3N4 surface, little has been studied about SiO2 control. A pre-sintering treatment can increase the content of SiO2 through controlled oxidation of Si3N4. In this work the effect of the additive content on the densification of Si3N4 composite ceramics was evaluated. For this purpose, powder mixtures of Si3N4, Y2O3 and Al2O3 were prepared. The Y2O3 and Al2O3 ratio were modified in percentages of 4, 8 and 12% by weight. The mixtures were compacted and pre-sintered at 1300°C for 1 hour. Then, these were sintered at 1450°C for two hours. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results showed that during pre-sintering, the Y5(SiO4)3N phase is formed; then, it's subsequently oxidized at the sintering stage. A second phase identified as Y3Al5O12 was found in samples with higher proportions of Al2O3. Composition and quantity of the observed phases depend of Y2O3 and Al2O3 proportion in the added additive.

The study report on Vanadium dioxide thin films of about 100nm thickness deposited using pulsed laser deposition on Si (100). The novel phase change reported is attributed to the post-treatment of the films via ion implantation with 25 KeV C+ ion beam at varying particle fluence (1E15, 1E16, and 1E17 /cm2). At the initial fluence, the preferred phase is retained while amorphization and recrystallization of the film is observed as the fluence increase to 1E16 ions/cm2and 1E17 ions/cm2, respectively. The phase transition of the samples is observed to occur at a temperature below 320 K while stabilization of the low phase structure is observed for the middle fluence. Further increase restores the SMT behaviour/trend that occurred at elevated temperatures.

Wide-bandgap oxide semiconductors have received significant attention as they can produce devices with high output and breakdown voltage. p-Type conductivity control is essential to realize bipolar devices. Therefore, as a rare wide-bandgap p-type oxide semiconductor, NiO (3.7 eV) has garnered considerable attention. In view of the heterojunction device with Ga2O3 (4.5–5.0 eV), a p-type material with a large bandgap is desired. Herein, we report the growth of a Ni1-xMgxO thin film, which has a larger bandgap than NiO, on α-Al2O3 (0001) substrates that was developed using the mist chemical vapor deposition method. The Ni1-xMgxO thin films epitaxially grown on α-Al2O3 substrates showed crystallographic orientation relationships identical to those of NiO thin films. The Mg composition of Ni1-xMgxO was easily controlled by the Mg concentration of the precursor solution. The Ni1-xMgxO thin film with a higher Mg composition had a larger bandgap, and the bandgap reached 3.9 eV with a Ni1-xMgxO thin film with x = 0.28. In contrast to an undoped Ni1-xMgxO thin film showing insulating properties, the Li-doped Ni1-xMgxO thin film had resistivities of 101–105 Ω∙cm depending on the Li precursor concentration, suggesting that Li effectively acts as an acceptor.

Development of high-efficiency solar cell modules and new application fields are significant for the further development of photovoltaics (PV) and creation of new clean energy infrastructure based on PV. Especially, development of PV-powered EV applications is desirable and very important for this end. This paper shows analytical results for efficiency potential of various solar cells for choosing candidates of high-efficiency solar cell modules for automobile applications. As a result of analysis, Si tandem solar cells are thought to be some of their candidates. This paper also overviews efficiency potential and recent activities of various Si tandem solar cells such as III-V/Si, II-VI/Si, chalcopyrite/Si, perovskite/Si and nanowire/Si tandem solar cells. The III-V/Si tandem solar cells are expected to have a high potential for various applications because of high efficiency with efficiencies of more than 36% for 2-junction and 42 % for 3-junction tandem solar cells under 1-sun AM1.5 G, lightweight and low-cost potential. Recent results for our 28.2 % efficiency and Sharp’s 33% mechanically stacked InGaP/GaAs/Si 3-junction solar cell are also presented. Approaches to automobile application by using III-V/Si tandem solar cells and static low concentration are presented.