Search

The disputes over imperial succession in the Yuan dynasty were an important factor in its decline and fall. Among these disputes, the succession of Yuan Chengzong ... (r. 1294-1307) deserves special attention. Chengzong was the first emperor to succeed after Shizu ... (r. 1260-1294) declared the dynastic name Da Yuan ... (Great Yuan), and he was also the first descendant of Jingim ... to take control of the throne. This paper re-examines several indicative political events before the succession of Chengzong, including the political storm caused by the death of Jingim, the tendency of Jingim's sons to become designated as heirs, the formation of Chengzong's ascendancy and the process of his accession to the throne. It also discusses the rise, fall and reorganization of political forces during Shizu's reign as seen in the above events, especially the political role played by Jingim's widow, Kökejin .... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the fabrication of a robust and flexible transparent electrode to replace costly and fragile indium tin oxide (ITO) used in flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells, composed of an aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO)/Ag-nanowires/aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) (AAA herein) sandwich structure. The Ag-NWs networks form low-resistance, long-range pathways throughout the electrode that are able to maintain efficient charge carrier collection and extraction after strenuous mechanical bending. The improved durability of the AAA electrode enables our CIGS solar cells to maintain ∼95% of their initial power conversion efficiency, following 1000 bending cycles. In comparison, devices fabricated using AZO and ITO electrodes are only able to maintain ∼57 and ∼5%, respectively, due to crack formation and delamination of the films. This AAA sandwich structure electrode could therefore serve as a high-performance electrode for numerous flexible optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile wet soaking process by immersing a CIGS thin film in a mixed aqueous solution, containing gallium trichloride and thioacetamide at 80 °C for a few tens of seconds, was proposed to reduce the existence of defects in the CIGS absorption layer which can be confirmed by the temperature dependence of the open-circuit voltage (Voc). The depth profiles of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that the gallium (Ga) concentration increases during the short wet soaking time, resulting in a widening of the band gap near the surface region. The enhanced carrier lifetime attributed to the Ga-induced defect reduction during thermal treatment of device fabrication was evaluated by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectroscopy. With wet and light soaking processes, Voc, short circuit current (Jsc) and fill factor (F.F.) can be increased, yielding a significant enhancement in cell efficiency from ∼1% to ∼6.4%. We believe that this fast, simple and effective method can further stimulate the development of CBD-Zn(O,S)/post-selenization CIGS solar cells toward commercialized thin film photovoltaics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spirit halls of imperial temples in the Yuan dynasty were almost all located in the capital area. The Great Tianyuan Yansheng Temple was one of them. An important temple of the middle and late periods of the Yuan dynasty, it set up spirit halls for emperors Xianzong and Mingzong and their empresses. Records pertinent to the temple are sketchy and often contradictory, making it difficult to confirm its exact location. This paper consults a wide variety of historical materials and research findings, and argues that the Great Tianyuan Yansheng Temple and the Great Tianyuan Yanshou Temple were two different temples, both located in the capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Mongolian and Han Chinese culture in the Yuan dynasty has been studied by many scholars. However, few have examined the cultural proclivities of the Mongolian royal women at the Yuan court. Dagi (?-1322), mother of the Yuan emperor Wuzong (r. 1307-1311) and Renzong (r. 1311-1320), played an important role in mid-Yuan politics. In the past, scholars had considered that Dagi, embedded with strong nomadic consciousness, was a representative of the Mongolian conservative nobility and promoter of their interests. This evaluation needs deliberation. The present paper reexamines Dagi's attitude towards Han Chinese culture; the study shows that Dagi had a few accomplishments in Chinese culture, and she was definitely not an outsider. She was friendly to the Han literati, was fond of Chinese paintings, and showed some familiarity with Chinese ancient books. Dagi's political role in the mid-Yuan period needs further research, but it is certain we cannot partially generalize on the basis of Mongolian-Han Chinese ideological and cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic resonance effect triggered by gold nanoparticles (NPs) is utilized to enhance light harvesting in different types of thin‐film solar cells. However, there is no report using the plasmonic resonance effect triggered by metal NPs in chalcopyrite absorber‐based devices because of the high reactivity between the metal NPs and indium/copper/gallium during the required high‐temperature selenization process. In this work, Au NPs encapsulated by a thin protective silicon oxide shell in the chalcopyrite absorber‐based solar cells deposited by scalable solution deposition techniques under the 600 °C selenization process are demonstrated. The increased scattering and surface plasmonic resonance induced field generated by the nanoparticles can lead to significant enhancement in light absorption and charge carrier generation across a broad spectral range. Enhanced power conversion efficiency in solution‐processed rigid CuIn(S,Se)2 from 1.95 to 2.26% and flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells from 9.28% to 10.88% is achieved after the addition of plasmonic Au‐SiO2 core‐shell NPs in the absorber layer. This work demonstrates a facile method for chalcopyrite solar cell enhancement, which is compatible with low‐cost and high‐throughput manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells on flexible substrates is a non-trivial task due to thermal and ion diffusion related issues. In order to circumvent these issues, we have developed a chemical-mechanical polishing lift-off (CMPL) transfer process, enabling the direct transfer of CIGS solar cells from conventional soda-lime glass (SLG) onto arbitrary flexible substrates up to 4 cm(2) in size. The structural and compositional nature of the pre- and post-transferred films is examined using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. We demonstrate the fabrication of solar cells on a range of flexible substrates while being able to maintain 75% cell efficiency (η) when compared to pre-transferred solar cells. The results obtained in this work suggest that our transfer process offers a highly promising approach toward large scale fabrication of CIGS-based solar cells on a wide variety of flexible substrates, suitable for use in the large scale CIGS photovoltaic industry.

The formation steps of inclusion complex caused by co-grinding loratadine (LOR) and hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HP-beta-CD) with a molar ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 were quantitatively investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with curve-fitting analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The phase solubility study and the co-evaporated solid products of the mixture of LOR and HP-beta-CD were also examined. The result indicates that the aqueous solubility of LOR was linearly increased with the increase of HP-beta-CD concentrations, in which the phase solubility diagram was classified as A(L) type. The higher apparent stability constant (2.22 x 10(4)M(-1)) reveals that the inclusion complex formed between LOR and HP-beta-CD was quite stable. The endothermic peak at 134.6 degrees C for the melting point of LOR gradually disappeared from DSC curves of LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixtures by increasing the cogrinding time, as the disappearance of the co-evaporated solid products. The disappearance of this endothermic peak from LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixture or the co-evaporated solid products was due to the inclusion complex formation between LOR and HP-beta-CD after cogrinding process or evaporation. Moreover, IR peaks at 1676 cm(-1) down-shifted from 1703 cm(-1) (CO stretching) and at 1235 cm(-1) upper-shifted from 1227 cm(-1) (C-O stretching) related to LOR in the inclusion complex were observed with the increase of cogrinding time, but the peak at 1646 cm(-1) due to O-H stretching of HP-beta-CD was shifted to 1640 cm(-1). The IR spectrum of 15 min-coground mixture was the same as the IR spectrum of the co-evaporated solid product, strongly indicating that the grinding process could cause the inclusion complex formation between LOR and HP-beta-CD. Three components (1700, 1676, and 1640 cm(-1)) and their compositions were certainly obtained in the 1740-1600 cm(-1) region of FTIR spectra for the LOR/HP-beta-CD coground mixture and the co-evaporated solid products by curve-fitting analysis. The component of 1700 cm(-1) detected was due to the un-included LOR in the inclusion complex. This implies that FTIR spectroscopy with curve-fitting analysis might be useful for discriminating the components and compositions in the inclusion complex., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)