Silver versus white sheet as a back reflector for microcrystalline silicon solar cells deposited on LPCVD‐ZnO electrodes of various textures

We compare the performance of two back reflector designs on the optoelectrical properties of microcrystalline silicon solar cells. The first one consists of a 5‐µm‐thick low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD)‐ZnO electrode combined with a white sheet; the second one incorporates an Ag reflector deposited on a thin LPCVD‐ZnO layer (with thickness below 200 nm). For this latter design, the optical loss in the nano‐rough Ag reflector can be strongly reduced by smoothing the surface of the thin underlying ZnO layer, by means of an Ar‐plasma treatment. Because of its superior lateral conductivity, the thin‐ZnO/Ag back reflector design provides a higher fill factor than the dielectric back reflector design. When decreasing the roughness of the front electrode with respect to our standard front LPCVD‐ZnO layer, the electrical cell performance is improved; in addition, the implementation of the thin‐ZnO/Ag back reflector leads to a significant relative gain in light trapping. Applying this newly optimized combination of front and back electrodes, the conversion efficiency is improved from 8.9% up to 9.4%, for cells with an active‐layer thickness of only 1.1 µm. We thereby highlight the necessity to optimize simultaneously the front and back electrodes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linear amphiphilic diblock copolymers of lactide and 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate using bifunctional-initiator and one-pot approaches

Linear amphiphilic diblock copolymers of polylactide (PLA) and poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of DMAEMA followed by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of LLA using the bifunctional initiator, 2′-hydroxyethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate. NMR showed that the resulting PLA block was racemic and a quaternization/precipitation technique showed that there were significant amounts of racemic PLA homopolymer. In addition, simultaneous ATRP of DMAEMA and ROP of l-lactide by tin octoate were conducted at varied temperatures, indicating 90 °C as a suitable compromise temperature; this one-pot process also led to racemization and P(L)LA homopolymer. The racemization was attributed to reversible deprotonation of LLA by the N(CH₃)₂ moiety of (P)DMAEMA and the PLA homopolymer impurity was related to in situ formation of lactoyl lactate (LA–LA) due to nucleophilic ring opening of lactide by the amino moieties of (P)DMAEMA. The methods presented can be useful for the preparation of PDMAEMA–b–PLA/PLA composites in a two-step process or in a single step, one-pot process.     

Dispersive mixing efficiency of an elongational flow mixer on PP/EPDM blends: Morphological analysis and correlation with viscoelastic properties

Polypropylene and ethylene‐propylene‐diene terpolymer (PP/EPDM) blends were melt compounded in a new mixing device, designed in our laboratory under the trademark of RMX®, which predominantly generates elongational flows. Dispersion of the EPDM minor phase in PP was carried out in both RMX® and in an internal mixer (Haake Rheomix 600) at equivalent specific mixing energies and the resultant morphologies obtained by SEM were analyzed and compared. A better dispersive mixing efficiency of the RMX® mixer, i.e., lower D_n and D_v of the dispersed EPDM phase was observed. The impact of elongational flow was more pronounced for blends having a high viscosity ratio p, indicating an enhanced droplet break‐up mechanism, which was attributed to the combination of high shear rates inside the mixing element and important elongational flows in the convergent/divergent zones. The morphology of the blends was correlated with their linear viscoelastic properties by using the Palierne model. Very good agreement was found for the PP/EPDM 80/20 blends but for higher EPDM content, the Palierne model failed to describe the rheological behavior, which was attributed to percolation of the minor phase with increasing the concentration. Higher elasticity at low frequencies was observed for blends processed in the RMX®, which was attributed to a higher generated interfacial area. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:1444–1457, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

水杨酸对气相色谱-质谱法检测化妆品中苯酚的影响

2007版《化妆品卫生规范》规定,使用HPLC-DAD法检测化妆品中的苯酚,如有阳性结果,必须用GC-MS法进行验证。采用GC-MS法对含有水杨酸的化妆品进行检测,考察水杨酸对苯酚测定的影响。结果表明,水杨酸对热不稳定,在GC-MS检测条件下会高温分解并释放出苯酚,且热降解程度随着进样口温度的升高而显著增强。用GC-MS法检测含有水杨酸的化妆品时,会得到苯酚含量偏高或假阳性的检测结果。     

“Greening Up” Cross-Coupling Chemistry

New methodologies that enable palladium catalyzed cross-coupling reactions to be performed under environmentally benign conditions (in water and/or at room temperature) have been developed. Described approaches involve in situ activation of carbon–halogen or carbon–hydrogen bonds using zinc metal, or cationic palladium, respectively.     

Mechanical Property of HVOF Inconel 718 Coating for Aeronautic Repair

The module of elasticity is one of the most important mechanical properties defining the strength of a material which is a prerequisite to design a component from its early stage of conception to its field of application. When a material is to be thermally sprayed, mechanical properties of the deposited layers differ from the bulk material, mainly due to the anisotropy of the highly textured coating microstructure. The mechanical response of the deposited layers significantly influences the overall performance of the coated component. It is, therefore, of importance to evaluate the effective module of elasticity of the coating. Conventional experimental methods such as microindentation, nanoindentation and four-point bending tests have been investigated and their results vary significantly, mainly due to inhomogeneous characteristics of the coating microstructure. Synchrotron radiation coupled with a tensile test rig has been proposed as an alternative method to determine the coating anisotropic elastic behavior dependence on crystallographic orientations. The investigation was performed on Inconel 718 (IN718) HVOF coatings sprayed on IN718 substrates. Combining these experimental techniques yield a deeper understanding of the nature of the HVOF coating Young’s modulus and thus a tool for Design Practice for repair applications.     

5-Axis tool path smoothing based on drive constraints

In high speed machining, the real feedrate is often lower than the programmed one. This reduction of the feedrate is mainly due to the physical limits of the drives, and affects machining time as well as the quality of the machined surface. Indeed, if the tool path presents sharp geometrical variations the feedrate has to be decreased to respect the drive constraints in terms of velocity, acceleration and jerk. Thus, the aim of this paper is to smooth 5-axis tool paths in order to maximize the real feedrate and to reduce the machining time.Velocity, acceleration and jerk limits of each drive allow to compute an evaluation of the maximum reachable feedrate which is then used to localize the areas where the tool path has to be smoothed. So starting from a given tool path, the proposed algorithm iteratively smoothes the joint motions in order to raise the real feedrate. This algorithm has been tested in 5-axis end milling of an airfoil and in flank milling of an impeller for which a N-buffer algorithm is used to control the geometrical deviations. An important reduction of the measured machining time is demonstrated in both examples.