• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
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• Tsinghua University close

Flexible butyl interconnection segments are synthetically incorporated into an electronically conductive poly(pyrene methacrylate) homopolymer and its copolymer. The insertion of butyl segment makes the pyrene polymer more flexible, and can better accommodate deformation. This new class of flexible and conductive polymers can be used as a polymer binder and adhesive to facilitate the electrochemical performance of a silicon/graphene composite anode material for lithium ion battery application. They act like a “spring” to maintain the electrode mechanical and electrical integrity. High mass loading and high areal capacity, which are critical design requirements of high energy batteries, have been achieved in the electrodes composed of the novel binders and silicon/graphene composite material. A remarkable area capacity of over 5 mAh/cm2 and volumetric capacity of over 1700 Ah/L have been reached at a high current rate of 333 mA/g.

Comparison of the water budget for the typical cropland and pear orchard ecosystems in the North China Plain Comparison of the water budget for the typical cropland and pear orchard ecosystems in the North China Plain

This paper proposes a novel algorithm based on the identification of the most influential lines to speed up the simulation of severe cascading failures in power systems. To this end, we first extend the concept of interaction graph to take into account the impact of hidden failures. Then we devise a PageRank-based algorithm to assess the influence of individual lines, which remarkably facilitates finding such severe cascading failures. Numerical experiments carried out on the New England system show that our algorithm can enhance the efficiency of finding severe blackouts of 1∼2 orders of magnitude.

Ferrocene was introduced as a solid additive in organic solar cells (OSCs). The use of ferrocene provides PM6:Y6 based device with improved performance and stability, demonstrating its great potential in the fabrication of efficient and stable OSCs.

AbstractOrganic solar cells based on semiconducting polymers and small molecules have attracted considerable attention in the last two decades. Moreover, the power conversion efficiencies for solution‐processed solar cells containing A–π–D–π–A‐type small molecules and fullerenes have reached 11%. However, the method for designing high‐performance, photovoltaic small molecules still remains unclear. In this review, recent studies on A–π–D–π–A electron‐donating small molecules for organic solar cells are introduced. Moreover, the relationships between molecular properties and device performances are summarized, from which inspiration for the future design of high performance organic solar cells may be obtained.

Owing to the current serious environmental and climate problems, the energy industry must focus on the problem of energy utilization rates. High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) are fourth-generation reactors, characterized by high outlet temperatures. The combined cycle is composed of the gas turbine and steam turbine cycles, and it can realize the cascade utilization of high-quality energy. It is a highly competitive power conversion scheme for HTGRs. In this study, the matching characteristics of the combined cycle coupled with HTGRs are revealed through the progressive optimization method. In the combined cycle coupled with HTGRs, the topping and bottoming cycle are both closed cycles, therefore, the optimization for cycle efficiency is to match the topping and bottoming cycles. For a combined cycle with subcritical steam parameters, there are two extreme values of the combined cycle efficiency that have different power ratios. The characteristics revealed in this study are unique to closed combined cycle coupled with HTGRs.

With the rapid development of ancillary service market in China Southern Region, the battery energy storage attracts much more attention serving as an excellent regulating resource. There have been several bundle cases of thermal power and battery energy storage that show outstanding performance cooperatively serving in frequency regulation market. It is proposed that battery energy storage stations (BESS) on the grid side should be installed and would provide better ancillary service capability. However, the actual operation benefit and market performance of BESS is unknown and therefore the financial risk cannot be reasonably estimated. This paper develops a full-life-cycle operation simulation method for BESS in the ancillary service market, getting detailed service performance and participating benefit. This method could help investors make investment decisions that whether and what configuration of a BESS should be installed, and how much profit they could achieve. Two BESS cases in Guangdong ancillary service market are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.