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Thermosetting polymer gel electrolytes (TPGEs) based on poly(acrylic acid)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PAA-PEG) hybrid were prepared and applied to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) and γ-butyrolactone (GBL) were used as solvents for liquid electrolytes and LiI and KI as iodide source, separately. The microstructure of PAA-PEG shows a well swelling ability in liquid electrolyte and excellent stability of the swollen hybrid. The TPGE was optimized in terms of the liquid electrolyte absorbency and ionic conductivity photovoltaic performance. Quasi-solid-state DSCs containing TPGE with optimized KI electrolyte show higher efficiency, voltage, fill factor, and lower photocurrent than those with LiI electrolyte. The related mechanism was discussed. A quasi-solid-state DSC fabricated with optimized polymer gel electrolyte obtained an overall energy conversion efficiency of 4.90% under irradiation of 100 mW/cm2 (AM1.5). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of annealing temperature on the magnetic and giant magnetostriction (GMS) of [Fe/Tb/Fe/Dy]n multilayer films were investigated. X-ray diffraction showed that the multilayer films' microstructures were still in amorphous at annealing temperature 300°C. The multilayer films began to crystalline at annealing temperature 400°C. The saturation magnetization of multilayer films increased by the increasing annealed temperature. The coercivity first decreased at annealing temperature 300°C and then increased when the annealing temperature was higher than 400°C. The multilayer films had good low-field GMS, and the magnetostriction of the multilayer films increased by the increasing annealing temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique has been provided to prepare zinc sulfide (ZnS) thin films on glass substrates deposited at 80–82°C using a mixed aqueous solution of zinc sulfate, ammonium sulfate, thiourea, hydrazine hydrate, and ammonia at the alkaline conditions. Both the traditional magnetic agitation and the substrates vibration by hand frequently were done simultaneously during the deposition. The substrates vibration reduced the formation and residence of gas bubbles on the glass substrates during growth and resulted in growth of clean ZnS thin films with high quality. Ammonia and hydrazine hydrate were used as complexing agents. It is found that hydrazine hydrate played an important role in growth of ZnS films. The structure and microstructure of ZnS films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis spectroscopic methods. The XRD showed a hexagonal structure. The formed ZnS films exhibited good optical properties with high transmittance in the visible region and the band gap value was estimated to be 3.5–3.70 eV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsic zinc oxide (i-ZnO) film was prepared for CuInSe2 (CIS) solar cell application [L. Stolt and J. Hedstrom, Appl. Phys. Lett.62 (1993) 8; D. Rudmann, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Basel, Basel, (2004)] on glass substrate by inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-assisted DC magnetron sputtering and under a quite low temperature of 50°C. The sputtering was done in an Ar and O2 gas mixture and a ceramic ZnO target was used. The microstructures of the film were investigated by X-ray diffractometer and scanning electron microscope. It was shown that all of the films had a c-axis preferred orientation perpendicular to the substrate. In our work, film with resistivity of 7 × 108Ω·cm and transmittance of about 80% in the visible range was prepared under the conditions of 4 mTorr working pressure and 50°C temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and under a quite low vacuum level of 2.3 × 10-3Pa. The sputtering was done in an Ar and O2 gas mixture at a temperature of 200°C. A ceramic In2O3:SnO2 target (10 wt% SnO2) was used. The microstructures of the films were investigated by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and an X-ray diffractometer (XRD). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to characterize the composition of the films. ITO films with a high transparency in the visible wavelength range (80–95%) were obtained. The dependency of the electrical, optical and structural properties of ITO films on both the O2 flow ratio (O2/(O2 + Ar)) and the working pressure was investigated. In the case of low working pressure (1 Pa), the more highly transparent and conducting films were produced at the lower O2 flow ratio. High working pressure (2 Pa) gave rise to low quality, low transparency and amorphous films. Under RF sputtering at low vacuum level, the main contribution to the chamber atmosphere is due to water vapor. Oxygen originating from water vapor dissociation induced by plasma plays the same role as an oxygen or water vapor flux usually intentionally introduced in the system in order to have good quality films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]