Influence of Orientational Disorder on the Optical Absorption Properties of the Hybrid Metal-Halide Perovskite CH3NH3PbI3

An experimental and theoretical investigation is reported to analyze the relation between the structural and absorption properties of CH3NH3PbI3 in the tetragonal phase. More than 3000 geometry optimizations were performed to reveal the structural disorder and identify structures with the lowest energies. The electronic structure calculations...

Bias-Dependent Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells Studied Using Natural and Concentrated Sunlight

Degradation rates in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) were previously shown to be bias dependent; however, little is known about the mechanisms and driving factors that account for such degradation. Herein, stability studies under concentrated sunlight are demonstrated as a powerful experimental methodology to investigate bias-dependent PSC...

Enhancement of oxygen evolution activity of nickel oxyhydroxide by electrolyte alkali cations

Herein, the effect of the alkali cation (Li+, Na+, K+, and Cs+) in alkaline electrolytes with and without Fe impurities is investigated for enhancing the activity of nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Cyclic voltammograms show that Fe impurities have a significant catalytic effect on OER activity; however, both...

Mechanism and theory of d-glucopyranose homogeneous acid catalysis in the aqueous solution phase

A detailed systematic theoretical study of the mechanism of the homogeneous Brønsted-acid catalysis of d-glucose in aqueous solution phase ("acid hydrolysis") is reported. G4MP2 with the SMD solvation model at B3LYP/6-31G(2df,p) are employed to compute the free energies of the molecular and ionic species pertaining to the isomerization,...

Alteration of swelling clay minerals by acid activation

The bulk material of six dioctahedral and two trioctahedral swellable clay minerals was leached in H2SO4 and HCl at concentrations of 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 M at 80 °C for several hours. Alteration of the clay mineral structures was dependent on the individual character of each mineral (chemical composition and initial particle size). Acid attack...

Alteration of non-swelling clay minerals and magadiite by acid activation

The bulk material of three kaolins, a sepiolite, an illite and one magadiite were treated with 1, 5 and 10 M H2SO4 at 80 °C for several hours. The alteration of the non-swelling clay mineral structures was controlled by the individual character of each mineral (chemical composition and initial particle size). The reaction resulted in a...

Abscisic acid and 14-3-3 proteins control K* channel activity in barley embryonic root

Germination of seeds proceeds in general in two phases, an initial imbibition phase and a subsequent growth phase. In grasses like barley, the latter phase is evident as the emergence of the embryonic root (radicle). The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) inhibits germination because it prevents the embryo from entering and completing the growth phase....

A hepatocyte nuclear factor-3 site in the fibrinogen beta promoter is important for interleukin 6-induced expression, and its activity is influenced by the adjacent -148C/T polymorphism

An elevated plasma fibrinogen level is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Therefore, an understanding of the regulation of fibrinogen expression is important. Inflammation and genetic variation of the fibrinogen beta gene regulate plasma fibrinogen levels, and there are indications that inflammation and genetic variation...

Regional monitoring of temporal changes in groundwater quality

Changes in agricultural practices are expected to affect groundwater quality by changing the loads of nutrients and salts in recharging groundwater, but regional monitoring networks installed to register the changes often fail to detect them and interpretation of trend analysis results is difficult. This study aims to improve the detection and...

Morphology of neutralized low molecular weight maleated ethylene-propylene copolymers (MAn-g-EPM) as investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering

The thermoreversible nature of the ionic associations in aggregates makes ionomers with a low glass transition temperature interesting candidates for thermoplastic elastomers. In this paper, a low-Tg ionomer based on low molecular weight ethylene-propylene copolymers modified by maleic anhydride (MAn-g-EPM) is introduced, and the morphology of a...