• Energy Research
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Light‐emitting solar cells (LESCs) have tremendous potential in the next‐generation optoelectronics industry due to their excellent photophysical properties and general configurational advantages. The important feature of these LESC devices is that it can reversibly transduce optical energy to electrical energy and vice versa in a single platform. Consequently, they have significant potential in the development of solar light‐emitting diode (LED) street lights in rural, semiurban, and urban areas. However, their commercial development has been limited so far due to the complex device geometry, unfavorable alignment of energy levels, poor quality of transport layers, incomplete coverage of the solar spectrum, and more notably, intrinsic instability of perovskites. Herein, the recent developments in the field are discussed, followed by a critical analysis of major challenges and possible solutions to overcome these challenges. Finally, a roadmap for the successful development of efficient and stable dual‐functioning perovskite‐based LESCs is provided, which can be useful for the energy industry.

The colossal significance of nanostructured materials and their implications is a coherent incentive for the exploration of novel conventional techniques. This brings attention to the major problem in developing nanomaterials i.e. the hazardous nature of reactants used. The hazardous reactants are harmful to the environment. So here, biogenic synthesis of nanostructured materials utilizing natural herb extracts has enthralled prodigious implications owing to its rapid, clean, eco-friendly, non-toxic, cost-effective, and as a flipside pathway to several chemical and physiochemical approaches. Titanium oxide materials have been the cynosure for several propitious implications due to their low cost, availability, chemical stability, and biocompatibility. Herein, we developed an efficient green chemistry method for the synthesis of titanium oxide nanoparticles utilizing neem (Azadirachta Indica) extracts. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed the polycrystalline titanium oxide (rutile) structure. The spherical shape of the nanoparticles was observed in TEM and SEM images and their size ranged from 10 to 20 nm. UV–vis studies showed an exciton emission peak at about 380 nm while the IR transmission spectrum revealed the characteristic stretching modes of TiO2. It is envisioned that this novel route for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles could be more beneficial in comparison to other conventional approaches. As the greener approach is being carried out in this paper, therefore, the toxic byproduct is not being released.

Abstract We have prepared and characterised a series of side-chain liquid crystalline homopolymers and terpolymers containing different azobenzene derivatives (RAzB), sulfonic groups (2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid, AMPS), and methyl(methacrylate) groups (MMA), as monomeric units. We have evaluated the effect of different para-substitutes of 6-(4-azobenzene -4′-oxy)hexyl methacrylate, at the side chains, OCH3, NO2 and H, on the phase behaviour and conductivity of the new polymers. The copolymers can form smectic and nematic phases, depending on their composition, and have light responsiveness, conferred by the azobenzene chromophores. The terpolymer with methoxy terminations, MeOAzB/AMPS/MMA, exhibits the highest conductivity values of the series (10−2/10−3 S·cm−1 range) through liquid crystalline phases and with signs of decoupling from polymeric segmental motions. These materials are promising candidates to develop new light-responsive polymeric electrolytes for electrochemical conversion devices in which ionic conductivity under anhydrous conditions can be controlled by their nanostructure.

Abstract Mixed phase metal oxide photocatalysts at optimised phase ratio are known to perform better than their monophasic counterpart in visible spectrum. In tungsten oxide (WO3) too high visible activity is seen in multi-phasic systemhaving dominant hexagonal phase and is attributable to its superior photon harvesting characteristicsthan other phases. In a hetero-composite with ceria due to suitable band edge position further enhancement in the photoactivity is seen mainly with its monoclinic(m-WO3) phase. In this work, h-WO3/Ce3+/Ce4+based hetero-composites have been realized with different molar ratio of W/Ce.While h-WO3 dominates all the systems,m-WO3appears in the system at low concentration of Ce and disappears at higher concentrations. The resultant sharp increase (13.66X) in the visible photocatalytic performance of mixed phase-WO3/ceria composite compared to pristine h-WO3 shows a further jump (44X) in the monophasic-WO3/ceria composite with the highest concentration of ceria synthesized. The characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-VIS spectroscopy (UV-VIS DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, transmission electronmicroscopy(TEM), and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) with energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) reveal the complex role distinct phase junctions of homo-/hetero-composites. The mixed-phase h-WO3/m-WO3homojunction, h-WO3/Ce3+ composite heterojunction and h-WO3/Ce3+/Ce2+ with both hetero-composite (h-WO3/Ce3+ and h-WO3/Ce2+) and homo-composite(Ce3+/Ce4+) heterojunction in the samples has been identified, and their roles have been analyzed to correlate with their respective visible light photoactivity.

Composite Electrolytes (1-x)CsH2PO4/xTiO2(0≤x≤0.4) were prepared and analyzed the structural, thermal, and transport properties. We have investigated the ionic conductivity of composite electrolytes highly pressurized pellets and found that the conductivity of pure CsH2PO4 (CDP) increased three orders of magnitude at the transition temperature. The conductivity value of the composites is greater than pure CDP after 250°C. Arrhenius plots have confirmed the conductive nature of ionic conduction. The dehydration behavior and thermal stability of the materials were observed in terms of differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential thermal analysis, and found that the minimum weight loss for the composite 0.6CDP/0.4TiO2. The electrodes were prepared with the technique of vapor deposition.

Air pollution is a major issue all over the world because of its impacts on the environment and human beings. The present review discussed the sources and impacts of pollutants on environmental and human health and the current research status on environmental pollution forecasting techniques in detail; this study presents a detailed discussion of the Artificial Intelligence methodologies and Machine learning (ML) algorithms used in environmental pollution forecasting and early-warning systems; moreover, the present work emphasizes more on Artificial Intelligence techniques (particularly Hybrid models) used for forecasting various major pollutants (e.g., PM2.5, PM10, O3, CO, SO2, NO2, CO2) in detail; moreover, focus is given to AI and ML techniques in predicting chronic airway diseases and the prediction of climate changes and heat waves. The hybrid model has better performance than single AI models and it has greater accuracy in prediction and warning systems. The performance evaluation error indexes like R2, RMSE, MAE and MAPE were highlighted in this study based on the performance of various AI models.