Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) create imitation photosynthesis by using chemical reactions to produce electricity from sunlight. DSSC has been pursued in numerous studies due to its capability to achieve efficiencies of up to 15% with artificial photosensitizer in diffuse light. However, artificial photosensitizers present a limitation because of the complex processing of metal compound. Therefore, various types of sensitizers were developed and synthesized to surpass the artificial sensitizer performances such as natural sensitizers from bio-based materials including plants, due to simple processing techniques and low environmental impact. Thus, this study examines the potential and properties of natural sensitizers from the waste of bio-based materials from Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen fruit) and Archidendron pauciflorum (jering fruit). Both fruits pericarps have dark color pigments as dark purple and dark brown, respectively, which promise a good absorption and has potential to be used as sensitizer for DSSC. Each pericarps dye extracted using cold extraction method in methanol solvent. Electrochemical properties and photovoltaic properties of the natural photosensitizers were studied. The highest peaks of photoluminescence spectra of mangosteen and jering sensitizers were at 490 and 670 nm, respectively, due to their different types of dye pigment extracted. We also obtained the absorption spectra for both mangosteen and jering sensitizers at 380-500 and 400-600 nm, respectively, in blue shift behavior. The redox reaction was also studied using cyclic voltammetry and identify their energy levels. The DSSC device with mangosteen sensitizer achieved an efficiency of 0.38% with 35.43% (IPCE at 337 nm) and 37.75 Ω (Rs), whereas that with jering sensitizer has efficiency of 0.07% with 25.31% (IPCE at 337 nm) and 490.70 Ω (Rs). Performance studies for both photosensitizers were weak due to their HOMO-LUMO levels, but the results show that both natural dyes can be potentially applied as photosensitizer in DSSC.
BACKGROUND: Sickle cell nephropathy, a heterogeneous group of renal abnormalities resulting from complex interactions of sickle cell disease (SCD)-related factors and non-SCD phenotype characteristics, is associated with an increased risk for morbidity and mortality. AIMS: The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of microalbuminuria (MA) among pediatric patients with SCD and to determine risk factors for MA among those patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A case–control study was carried out on 120 patients with SCD, 2–18 years old, registered at Basrah Center for Hereditary Blood Diseases, and 132 age-and sex-matched healthy children were included as a control group. Investigations included complete blood panel, blood urea, se
... Show MoreAlkaloids are regarded as important nitrogen-containing chemical compounds that serve as a rich source for discovering and developing new drugs where most plant-origin alkaloids have antiproliferation effects on different kinds of cancers. Alkaloids’ continence of Calotropis procera leaves are detected by two biochemical alkaloid reagents. Also GC-MS analysis for leaf alkaloid extract was done that showed the existence of one type of alkaloid compound at retention time12.8min detected as colchicine (C22H25N06( by comparing it with colchicine standard reference (Sigma Aldrich) with M.wt 399g/mol and percentage area 7.1%. Furthermore, identification, separation, and purification
... Show MoreThe red tripyrrole pigment known as prodigiosin (PG), which belongs to the prodigiosin family, is an interesting substance that has attracted the attention of scientists due to its versatility. Thanks to its striking red pigment and distinctive chemical characteristics, prodigiosin has caught the attention of researchers seeking new solutions across a variety of disciplines. Serratia marcescens and other bacteria like Hahella chejuensis, Vibrio gazogenes, Pseudoalteromonas rubra, Janthinobacterium lividum, Actinomadura madurae, and Streptomyces coelicolor produce prodigiosin, a red pigment that functions as secondary metabolite. Prodigiosin has shown promising activity as an antibacterial agent in numerous experiments. Prodigiosin is a prom
... Show MoreThe purpose of this paper is to shed light on the concept of fuzzy logic ,its application in linguistics ,especially in language teaching and the fuzziness of some lexical items in English.
Fuzziness means that the semantic boundaries of some lexical items are indefinite and ideterminate.Fuzzy logic provides a very precise approach for dealing with this indeterminacy and uncertainty which grows (among other reasons) out of human behavior and the effect of society.
The concept of fuzzy logic has emerged in the development of the theory of fuzzy set by Lotfi Zadeh(a professor of computer science at the university of California) in 1965.It can be thought of as the application side of the fuzzy set theory. In linguistics, few scholars
Mixed Kirkuk and Sharki-Baghdad crude oils were distilled into narrow fractions. The range of these narrow fractions were 10oC, starting from IBP to 350oC. The total distillates from mixed Kirkuk and Sharki-Baghdad crude oils were 58.25 vol % and 44.65 vol %, respectively.The hydrocarbons compositions (paraffin, naphthene, aromatic) in light fractions starting from IBP to 250oC were determined by using PONA analysis method. The results show that the paraffin content decreases with increasing mid percent boiling point of the fraction, while the naphthene, and aromatic increase with the increase of mid percent boiling point of mixed Kirkuk and Sharki-Baghdad crude oils. Three groups of empirical equations were developed for the prediction
... Show MoreThe solar eclipse occurs at short time before the crescent birth moment when the moon near any one of moon orbit nodes It is important to determine the synchronic month which is used to find Higree date. The 'rules' of eclipses are:
Y= ± 0.997 of Earth radius , the solar eclipse is central and 0.997 < |Y| < 1.026 the umbra cone touch the surface of the Earth, where Y is the least distance from the axis of the moon's shadow to the center of the Earth in units of the equatorial radius of the Earth.
A new model have been designed, depend on the horizontal coordinates of the sun, moon, the distances Earth-Moon (rm), Earth-sun (rs) and |Y| to determine the date and times of total solar eclipse and the geogra
... Show MoreWithin this work, to promote the efficiency of organic-based solar cells, a series of novel A-π-D type small molecules were scrutinised. The acceptors which we designed had a moiety of N, N-dimethylaniline as the donor and catechol moiety as the acceptor linked through various conjugated π-linkers. We performed DFT (B3LYP) as well as TD-DFT (CAM-B3LYP) computations using 6-31G (d,p) for scrutinising the impact of various π-linkers upon optoelectronic characteristics, stability, and rate of charge transport. In comparison with the reference molecule, various π-linkers led to a smaller HOMO–LUMO energy gap. Compared to the reference molecule, there was a considerable red shift in the molecules under study (A1–A4). Therefore, based on
... Show MoreReduce the required time for measuring the permeability of clayey soils by using new manufactured cell