Yanhui Feng

Synthesis of confined Ag nanowires within mesoporous silica via double solvent technique and their catalytic properties.

Ag nanowires within the channels of mesoporous silica have been successfully synthesized via a double solvent technique, in which n-hexane is used as a hydrophobic solvent to disperse mesoporous silica and an AgNO(3) aqueous solution is used as a hydrophilic solvent to fill mesochannels. The morphology of the obtained Ag (nanowires, nanoparticles or nanorods) can be controlled by adjusting the concentration of AgNO(3) solution and the template pore size. HRTEM images demonstrate extensive Ag nanowires with several to tens of hundreds nanometers in length are deposited along the long axis of mesochannels when the atomic AgNO(3)/Si ratio is 0.090. When the atomic AgNO(3)/Si ratio is 0.068 or 0.11, there is a combination of Ag nanoparticles and nanowires; nanoparticles are mainly formed when the atomic AgNO(3)/Si ratio is higher than 0.14. Further, the catalytic results of the oxidation of styrene show that styrene oxide and benzaldehyde are the main products of the reaction, and the morphology and diversity of Ag in Ag/mesoporous silica composites have an effect on the conversion of styrene and selectivity of styrene oxide.

Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Keyhole Plasma Arc Welding

Modeling and simulation of fluid flow and heat transfer in keyhole plasma arc welding is of great significance for optimizing the process parameters, and obtaining deep insight of the process mechanisms. In this study, a three-dimensional transient model is established to analyze numerically the evolution of the weld pool, the keyhole shape and dimensions, and the fluid convection and temperature profiles in a PAW weld pool. The keyhole boundary is tracked by the VOF method, and the enthalphy–porosity technique is used to model latent heat during melting and solidification. The temperature distribution, fluid velocity field, and keyhole formation are computed. The dynamic development of keyhole geometry and its interaction with the weld pool are numerically simulated. The model is validated through comparing the predicted fusion lines of the PAW weld to the experimentally measured ones.

High-efficiency, stable and non-chemically doped graphene–Si solar cells through interface engineering and PMMA antireflection

In graphene–Si (Gr–Si) solar cells, chemical doping could remarkably enhance the performance of the cells, but weakens their stability, which limits their further application. However, in terms of the efficiency of pristine cells, the interfacial defect states and the increased thickness of the oxide layer in air also make high-efficiency and stable cells more difficult to achieve. Here we directly grew carbon nanowalls (CNWs) as a passivation layer onto the Si surface, which could obviously increase the efficiency. On the other hand, a poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA) film was retained after transferring graphene, which could not only keep the graphene intact, but could also serve as an efficient antireflection layer for greater light absorption of the Si. A maximum PCE of 8.9% was achieved for a PMMA-bilayer Gr-CNWs-Si solar cell. Our cell’s efficiency showed a slight degradation after being stored in air for 4 months. This result is far superior to other previously reported stability data for chemically doped Gr–Si solar cells. The PMMA-Gr-CNWs-Si solar cell, with high efficiency and stability, possesses important potential for practical photovoltaic applications.

Selective Adsorption and Selective Transport Diffusion of CO2–CH4 Binary Mixture in Coal Ultramicropores

The adsorption and diffusion of the CO2-CH4 mixture in coal and the underlying mechanisms significantly affect the design and operation of any CO2-enhanced coal-bed methane recovery (CO2-ECBM) project. In this study, bituminous coal was fabricated based on the Wiser molecular model and its ultramicroporous parameters were evaluated; molecular simulations were established through Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) and Molecular Dynamic (MD) methods to study the effects of temperature, pressure, and species bulk mole fraction on the adsorption isotherms, adsorption selectivity, three distinct diffusion coefficients, and diffusivity selectivity of the binary mixture in the coal ultramicropores. It turns out that the absolute adsorption amount of each species in the mixture decreases as temperature increases, but increases as its own bulk mole fraction increases. The self-, corrected, and transport diffusion coefficients of pure CO2 and pure CH4 all increase as temperature or/and their own bulk mole fractions increase. Compared to CH4, the adsorption and diffusion of CO2 are preferential in the coal ultramicropores. Adsorption selectivity and diffusivity selectivity were simultaneously employed to reveal that the optimal injection depth for CO2-ECBM is 800-1000 m at 308-323 K temperature and 8.0-10.0 MPa.

Flexible solar cells based on graphene-ultrathin silicon Schottky junction

We developed a flexible graphene–silicon (Gr–Si) photovoltaic device with high reliability and stability. Ultrathin Si film was fabricated via an anisotropic Si etching method, and exhibited excellent flexibility. Different from the traditional graphene transfer approach, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) film remained, by which the physical damage of graphene resulting from the PMMA dissolution process is avoided. Moreover, PMMA film could serve as an antireflection layer that reduces the reflectance from 40% to lower than 20%. The power conversion efficiency of a PMMA–Gr–Si film solar cell reached 5.09%, which far exceeds the efficiency of a Gr–Si solar cell with the same thickness of Si film of 10.6 μm. More importantly, the PMMA film worked as a packaging material to improve the device stability. The PMMA–Gr–Si solar cell could keep 93% of the original efficiency after bending 60 times. The simple, low-cost and flexible photovoltaic device shows promising prospects in potential applications for portable and wearable electronic products.

Measurement of In-Plane Thermal Conductivity of Ultrathin Films Using Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

We report a micro-Raman-based optical method to measure in-plane thermal conductivity of ultrathin films. With the use of 20-nm-thick SiO2 substrates that assure in-plane heat transfer, sub-100-nm Bi films and Al2O3 films as thin as 5 nm were successfully measured. The results of Bi films reveal that phonon boundary scattering, both at the surface/interface and at the grain boundaries, reduces in-plane lattice thermal conductivity. The measurements of amorphous Al2O3 films were accomplished using thin Bi film as a Raman temperature sensor, and the results agree with the minimum thermal conductivity models for dielectrics. Our work demonstrates that the micro-Raman method is promising for characterization of in-plane thermal conductivity and phonon behaviors of thin-film structures if the Raman temperature sensor material and substrate material are carefully selected.

Composite Transparent Electrode of Graphene Nanowalls and Silver Nanowires on Micropyramidal Si for High-Efficiency Schottky Junction Solar Cells

The conventional graphene-silicon Schottky junction solar cell inevitably involves the graphene growth and transfer process, which results in complicated technology, loss of quality of the graphene, extra cost, and environmental unfriendliness. Moreover, the conventional transfer method is not well suited to conformationally coat graphene on a three-dimensional (3D) silicon surface. Thus, worse interfacial conditions are inevitable. In this work, we directly grow graphene nanowalls (GNWs) onto the micropyramidal silicon (MP) by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. By controlling growth time, the cell exhibits optimal pristine photovoltaic performance of 3.8%. Furthermore, we improve the conductivity of the GNW electrode by introducing the silver nanowire (AgNW) network, which could achieve lower sheet resistance. An efficiency of 6.6% has been obtained for the AgNWs-GNWs-MP solar cell without any chemical doping. Meanwhile, the cell exhibits excellent stability exposed to air. Our studies show a promising way to develop simple-technology, low-cost, high-efficiency, and stable Schottky junction solar cells.

Dependence of Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanopeapods on Filling Ratios of Fullerene Molecules

Focusing on carbon nanopeapods (CNPs), i.e., carbon nanotubes (CNTs) filled with fullerene C60 molecules, the thermal conductivity and its dependence on the filling ratio of C60 molecules have been investigated by equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. It turns out that the CNP thermal conductivity increases first, reaches its maximum value at filling ratio of 50%, and then decreases with increasing filling ratio. The heat transfer mechanisms were analyzed by the motion of C60 molecules, the mass transfer contribution, the phonon vibrational density of states, and the relative contributions of tube and C60 molecules to the total heat flux. The mass transfer in CNPs is mainly attributed to the rotational and translational motion of C60 molecules in tubes. As the filling ratio is larger than 50%, the axially translational motion of C60 molecules gets more and more restricted with increasing filling ratio. For either the mass transfer contribution to heat transfer or the phonon coupling between the tube wall and C60, the peaking behavior occurs at a filling ratio of 50%, which confirms the corresponding maximum thermal conductivity of CNP. With the filling ratio increasing, the dominating contribution to heat transfer changes from tube-wall atoms to fullerene atoms. Their relative contributions almost keep stable when the filling ratio is larger than 50% until it reaches 100%, where the contribution from fullerene atoms suddenly drops because of strong confinement of translational motion of C60 molecules. This work may offer valuable routes for probing heat transport in CNT hybrid structures, and possible device applications.

Study on the structure and reactivity of COREX coal

COREX is the primary process in the current smelting reduction method. The process has strict coal quality standards. Combustion processes of coal used in the COREX operating system were analyzed using a synchronous thermogravimetric analyzer combined with a mass spectrometer. The microcosmic structure and macerals were observed by an electronic scanning microscope. The qualitative and quantitative determinations of oxygen functional groups, such as phenolic hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl, and methoxy groups were detected by the Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and through chemical analysis methods. In addition, the evolution of the chemical structure and transformation mechanism of organic oxygen functional groups during COREX coal combustion have been thoroughly investigated. This study proposes a new coal-requirement index system and coal blending method, which will increase the expansion of coal selection and decrease the overall usage of coal during COREX.

Experimental Study on Thermal Conductivity and Hardness of Cu and Ni Nanoparticle Packed Bed for Thermoelectric Application

The hot-wire method is applied in this paper to probe the thermal conductivity (TC) of Cu and Ni nanoparticle packed beds (NPBs). A different decrease tendency of TC versus porosity than that currently known is discovered. The relationship between the porosity and nanostructure is investigated to explain this unusual phenomenon. It is found that the porosity dominates the TC of the NPB in large porosities, while the TC depends on the contact area between nanoparticles in small porosities. Meanwhile, the Vickers hardness (HV) of NPBs is also measured. It turns out that the enlarged contact area between nanoparticles is responsible for the rapid increase of HV in large porosity, and the saturated nanoparticle deformation is responsible for the small increase of HV in low porosity. With both TC and HV considered, it can be pointed out that a structure of NPB with a porosity of 0.25 is preferable as a thermoelectric material because of the low TC and the higher hardness. Although Cu and Ni are not good thermoelectric materials, this study is supposed to provide an effective way to optimize thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) and HV of nanoporous materials prepared by the cold-pressing method.