Crystal Phase Ionic Liquids for Energy Applications: Heat Capacity Prediction via a Hybrid Group Contribution Approach.

In the selection and design of ionic liquids (ILs) for various applications, including heat transfer fluids, thermal energy storage materials, fuel cells, and solvents for chemical processes, heat capacity is a key thermodynamic property. While several attempts have been made to develop predictive models for the estimation of the heat capacity of ILs in their liquid phase, none so far have been reported for the ILs' solid crystal phase. This is particularly important for applications where ILs will be used for thermal energy storage in the solid phase. For the first time, a model has been developed and used for the prediction of crystal phase heat capacity based on extending and modifying a previously developed hybrid group contribution model (GCM) for liquid phase heat capacity. A comprehensive database of over 5000 data points with 71 unique crystal phase ILs, comprising 42 different cations and 23 different anions, was used for parameterization and testing. This hybrid model takes into account the effect of the anion core, cation core, and subgroups within cations and anions, in addition to the derived indirect parameters that reflect the effects of branching and distribution around the core of the IL. According to the results, the developed GCM can reliably predict the crystal phase heat capacity with a mean absolute percentage error of 6.78%. This study aims to fill this current gap in the literature and to enable the design of ILs for thermal energy storage and other solid phase applications.

High-performance p-type V2O3 films by spray pyrolysis for transparent conducting oxide applications.

High-quality epitaxial p-type V2O3 thin films have been synthesized by spray pyrolysis. The films exhibited excellent electrical performance, with measurable mobility and high carrier concentration. The conductivity of the films varied between 115 and 1079 Scm-1 while the optical transparency of the films ranged from 32 to 65% in the visible region. The observed limitations in thinner films' mobility were attributed to the nanosized granular structure and the presence of two preferred growth orientations. The 60 nm thick V2O3 film demonstrated a highly competitive transparency-conductivity figure of merit compared to the state-of-the-art.

Small and large scale plasmonically enhanced luminescent solar concentrator for photovoltaic applications: modelling, optimisation and sensitivity analysis.

Hybrid 3D Finite difference time domain-Monte Carlo ray tracing (FDTD-MCRT) algorithm has been developed to model and optimise small and large scale plasmonically-enhanced luminescent solar concentrator (pLSC) devices for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The configuration parameters (for example, dimensions, shape, and optical properties of metal nanoparticles, luminescent species, and host material) were used to characterise the probability of optical energy transfer and loss processes, as well as reflection, refraction, absorption, emission enhancement, and total internal reflection (TIR) in the pLSC. The algorithm was validated through modelling of various doping concentrations of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QD) and gold nano spheres (Au NS) where ∼50% enhancement in optical conversion efficiency (OCE) was observed for a plasmonic composite of 2 ppm Au NS and 0.008 wt. % QD.

Luminescent Solar Concentrators--a review of recent results.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) generally consist of transparent polymer sheets doped with luminescent species. Incident sunlight is absorbed by the luminescent species and emitted with high quantum efficiency, such that emitted light is trapped in the sheet and travels to the edges where it can be collected by solar cells. LSCs offer potentially lower cost per Wp. This paper reviews results mainly obtained within the framework of the Full-spectrum project. Two modeling approaches are presented, i.e., a thermodynamic and a ray-trace one, as well as experimental results, with a focus on LSC stability.