Increasing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of silicon solar cells by improving their junction properties or minimizing light reflection losses remains a major challenge. Extensive studies were carried out in order to develop an effective antireflection coating for monocrystalline solar cells. Here we report on the preparation of a nanostructured cerium oxide thin film by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) as an antireflection coating for silicon solar cell. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of a cerium oxide nanostructure film are investigated as a function of the number of laser pulses. The X-ray diffraction results reveal that the deposited cerium oxide films are crystalline in nature and have a cubic fluorite. The field

Abstract: A home-made dc sputtering is characterized by cathode potential of 250-2500 V and sputtering gas pressures of (3.5×10-2 – 1.5) mbar. This paper studies in experiment the breakdown of argon, nitrogen, and oxygen in a uniform dc electric field at different discharge gaps and cathode potentials. Paschen curves for Argon, Nitrogen, and oxygen are obtained by measuring the breakdown voltage of gas within a stainless steel vacuum chamber with two planar, stainless steel electrodes. The Paschen curves in Ar, N2, and O2 gases show that the breakdown voltage between two electrodes is a function of pd (The product of the pressure inside the chamber and distance between the electrodes). Current-voltage characteristics visualization of the

ABSTRACT: Polypyrrole and polypyrrole / silver nanocomposites were fabricated by in-situ polymerization employing Ammonium Persulphate as an oxidizing agent. Nanocomposites were synthesized by combining polypyrrole and silver nanoparticles in various weight percentages (0.1%, 0.5%, 3%, 5% and 7% wt.). Crystallographic data were collected using X-ray diffraction.  PPy particles were found to have an orthorhombic symmetry. In contrast, PPy/Ag nanocomposites were reported to have monoclinic structure. The crystallite size was determined by XRD using Scherrer equation and considered to be within 49 nm range. DC conductivity of pelletized samples was evaluated in the temperature range of 323.15k to 453.15k. The conductivity displayed an

Background: Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a promising implant material due to its superior biomechanical strength. However, due to its hydrophobic nature and lack of cellular adhesion properties, it has poor integration with bone tissue. Methods: A fractional CO2 laser was used with various parameters for surface texturing of PEEK substrate to enhance its surface properties. An optical microscope and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) were used to examine the surface morphology of untextured and laser-textured samples. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was performed to determine the effect of the laser on the microstructure of PEEK. Surface microroughness, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and wettability were invest

Recently, a great rise in the population and fast manufacturing processes were noticed. These processes release significant magnitudes of waste. These wastes occupied a notable ground region, generating big issues for the earth and the environment. To enhance the geotechnical properties of fine-grained soil, a sequence of research projects in the lab were conducted to analyze the impacts of adding sludge waste (SW). The tests were done on both natural and mixed soil with SW at various proportions (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%) based on the dry mass of the soil used. The experiments conducted focused on consistency, compaction, and shear strength. With the addition of 10% of SW, the values of LL and PI decreased by 29.7% and 3

In this work, an investigation for the dynamic analysis of thin composite cylindrical and spherical shells is presented. The analytical solution is based upon the higher order shear deformation theory of elastic shells from which the developed equations are derived to deal with orthotropic layers. This will cover the determination of the fundamental natural frequencies and mode shapes for simply supported composites cylindrical and spherical shells.

      The analytical results obtained by using the derived equations were confirmed by the finite element technique using the well known Ansys package. The results have shown a good agreement with a maximum percentage of discrepancy, which gives a confidence o

This work deals with the production of light fuel cuts of (gasoline, kerosene and gas oil) by catalytic cracking treatment of secondary product mater (heavy vacuum gas oil) which was produced from the vacuum distillation unit in any petroleum refinery. The objective of this research was to study the effect of the catalyst -to- oil ratio parameter on catalytic cracking process of heavy vacuum gas oil feed at constant temperature (450 °C). The first step of this treatment was, catalytic cracking of this material by constructed batch reactor occupied with auxiliary control devices, at selective range of the catalyst –to- oil ratio parameter (  2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5) respectively.  The conversion of heavy vacuum gas

Cold plasma is a relatively low temperature gas, so this feature enables us to use cold plasma to treat thermally sensitive materials including polymers and biologic tissues. In this research, the non-thermal plasma system is designed with diameter (3 mm, 10 mm) Argon at atmospheric pressure as well as to be suitable for use in medical and biotechnological applications.
The thermal description of this system was studied and we observed the effect of the diameter of the plasma needle on the plasma, when the plasma needle slot is increased the plasma temperature decrease, as well as the effect of the voltages applied to the temperature of the plasma, where the temperature increasing with increasing the applied voltage . Results showed t