A simple technique was developed to fabricate a large-area TiO2 electrode layer using electrospun nanorods for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Using this technique, we assembled DSSCs of area ∼1 cm2 consisting of a thin TiO2 nanoparticle layer and a thick TiO2 nanorod layer as electrode. The TiO2 nanorods were obtained by mechanically grinding electrospun TiO2 nanofibers. A titania sol was first spin-coated on a conductive glass plate and a TiO2 nanorod layer was next spray dried on it to fabricate TiO2 nanoparticle/nanorod layers. These layers were subsequently sintered. The best-performing DSSC evaluated under AM1.5G (1 sun) condition gave current density ∼13.6 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage ∼0.8 V, fill factor ∼51% and energy conversion efficiency ∼5.8%.

Using high-resolution direct numerical simulation and arguments based on the kinetic energy flux Π(u), we demonstrate that, for stably stratified flows, the kinetic energy spectrum E(u)(k)∼k(-11/5), the potential energy spectrum E(θ)(k)∼k(-7/5), and Π(u)(k)∼k(-4/5) are consistent with the Bolgiano-Obukhov scaling. This scaling arises due to the conversion of kinetic energy to the potential energy by buoyancy. For weaker buoyancy, this conversion is weak, hence E(u)(k) follows Kolmogorov's spectrum with a constant energy flux. For Rayleigh-Bénard convection, we show that the energy supply rate by buoyancy is positive, which leads to an increasing Π(u)(k) with k, thus ruling out Bolgiano-Obukhov scaling for the convective turbulence. Our numerical results show that convective turbulence for unit Prandt number exhibits a constant Π(u)(k) and E(u)(k)∼k(-5/3) for a narrow band of wave numbers.

The anatase TiO 2 nanofibers of average diameters 60, 100, and 150 nm were fabricated by controlled electrospinning of a polymeric solution and subsequent sintering of the as-spun fibers. The sintered fibers were polycrystalline and composed of densely packed TiO 2 grains of size ∼12 nm. The rutile phase nucleated at the particle interface of the dense anatase TiO 2 nanofibers at a temperature of <570 °C because of the increased surface stress observed in these nanofibers. X-ray and electron diffraction measurements and analysis of the sintered fibers showed that the lattice strain increased with a decrease in the fiber diameter. The diameter-dependent lattice strain is attributed to the increased surface energy in fibers of lower diameter. The strain most likely originates from interplay of the surface charge and grain boundary effects. The absorption spectra of the fibers showed a red shift with an increase in the fiber diameter, which is attributed to an increase in the surface stress with a decrease in the fiber diameter.

In this paper, we describe the recent developments in the field of buoyancy-driven turbulence with a focus on energy spectrum and flux. Scaling and numerical arguments show that the stably-stratified turbulence with moderate stratification has kinetic energy spectrum~-E k k u 11 5OPEN ACCESS RECEIVED on energy spectrum and flux in section 3, and scaling of large-scale quantities in section 4. Section 5 contains a brief description of the dynamics of flow reversal. We conclude in section 6.

In this paper we present scaling results of a FFT library, FFTK, and a pseudospectral code, Tarang, on grid resolutions up to 8192 3 grid using 65536 cores of Blue Gene/P and 196608 cores of Cray XC40 supercomputers. We observe that communication dominates computation, more so on the Cray XC40. The computation time scales as T comp ∼ p −1 , and the communication time as T comm ∼ n −γ2 with γ 2 ranging from 0.7 to 0.9 for Blue Gene/P, and from 0.43 to 0.73 for Cray XC40. FFTK, and the fluid and convection solvers of Tarang exhibit weak as well as strong scaling nearly up to 196608 cores of Cray XC40. We perform a comparative study of the performance on the Blue Gene/P and Cray XC40 clusters.

Through a combined experimental and theoretical investigation we have shown that the efficiency of charge injection in dye-sensitized solar cells constituted from dyes having a single carboxylic group is determined by the extent to which the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the dye falls on its anchoring group. This conclusion was brought by calculating the LUMO surface of three indoline dyes and comparing the conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated using those dyes. The Ruthenium based N3 dye was used as standard both in the calculation and experiment.

Abstract. With the advent of efficient techniques for multi-objective evolutionary optimization (EMO), real-world search and optimization problems are being increasingly solved for mulitple conflicting objectives. During the past decade of research and application, most emphasis has been spent on finding the complete Pareto-optimal set, although EMO researchers were always aware of the importance of procedures which would help choose one particular solution from the Pareto-optimal set for implementation. This is also one of the main issues on which the classical and EMO philosophies are divided on. In this paper, we address this long-standing issue and suggest an interactive EMO procedure which, for the first time, will involve a decision-maker in the evolutionary optimization process and help choose a single solution at the end. This study is the culmination of many year's of research on EMO and would hopefully encourage both practitioners and researchers to pay more attention in viewing the multi-objective optimization as a aggregate task of optimization and decision-making.

The electrochemical and optical properties of three indoline dyes, namely C(35)H(28)N(2)O(2) (D131), C(37)H(30)N(2)O(3)S(2) (D102), and C(42)H(35)N(3)O(4)S(3) (D149), were studied and compared with that of the N3 dye. D131 has the largest bandgap and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies compared to the other dyes. A size-dependent variation in the absorptivity of the indoline dyes was observed-the absorptivity increased with increase in the molecular size. The dyes were anchored onto TiO(2) nanorods. The TiO(2) nanorods were obtained by electrospinning a polymeric solution containing titanium isopropoxide and polyvinylpyrrolidone and subsequent sintering of the as-spun composite fibers. Absorption spectral measurements of the dye-anchored TiO(2) showed blue shifts in the excitonic transition of the indoline dyes, the magnitude of which increased with decrease in the molecular size. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using the indoline dyes, TiO(2) nanorods, and iodide/triiodide electrolyte. The D131 dye showed comparable energy conversion efficiency (η) to that of the N3 dye. A systematic change in the short circuit current density (J(SC)) and η of the indoline DSSCs was observed. The observed variation in J(C) is most likely originated from the difference in the electronic coupling strengths between the dye and the TiO(2).