Pierre Tran-Van

New handy relationship between the conductivity of concentrated nonaqueous electrolyte solutions and the dielectric constant and viscosity of the solvents

Abstract For nonaqueous electrolyte solutions, we correlated the equivalent conductance Λ 0 at infinite dilution and the conductivity maximum κ MAX with only two intrinsic parameters of the pure solvents: the dielectric constant and the viscosity. On the basis of two new handy empirical formulas, predictions of Λ 0 and κ MAX can now be made for a given salt in any solvent on the basis of only one Λ 0 or κ MAX measurement in only one solvent.

Cathodic Behavior of Liquid Ammonia Solutions of Titanium Tetraiodide at Room Temperature

Til 4 is soluble in the liquid ammoniate Nal.3.3NH 3 . Ti(IV) can be reduced to Ti(III) at a smooth Pt electrode at - 1.63 V vs. ferrocene/ferricinium ([Fc] 0/+ ) couple. This reduction seems to be a quasi-reversible reaction. No further reduction to metallic titanium is observed.

Ultrathin Cu(In, Ga)Se 2 solar cells

Within the UltraCIS project we have started to explore the possibility of reducing down the thickness of the Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGSe) layer to the sub-micron level (0.1μm) while maintaining a high efficiency level of solar cells. The three main approaches we used are: — Reducing the CIGSe thickness by chemical etching combining the thickness reduction and smoothing effect of the absorber. Efficiency higher than 10 % on small area cells with an absorber thickness of 0.5 μm are obtained. Losses were attributed exclusively to the reduced photocurrent and the loss on texturation of the absorber — Optical management by front contact texturation or by replacement of the back contact by the “lift-off” of CIGSe layer from the Mo layer and deposition of a new reflective back contact. — Application of plasmonic structures to CIGSe solar cells enabling light confinement at the subwavelength scale