We proposed a fabrication of nanoimprinted textures on a front glass/transparent conductive oxide interface for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). These textures were fabricated through polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanoimprint lithography on organosilsesquioxane solution. The texture structures were estimated via optical simulation. Master molds were anodic aluminum oxide templates with nano-texture (N-Tx) and micro-nano double texture (D-Tx). Meanwhile, replicate molds used a hard PDMS. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and titanium dioxide were deposited on textured glass substrates to generate electrodes for DSSCs. Unlike the DSSCs without texture, textured DSSCs realized 11.4% (N-Tx) and 10% (D-Tx) improvement in conversion efficiency.
A suspension of coreshell particles composed of a biodegradable polymer core and iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) exhibits higher heat generation under an alternating magnetic field compared with a suspension of IONPs at the same IONP concentration. The improvement of the heat generation will be attributed to the change of the strength of dipolar interactions between adjacent IONPs. The IONPs in the coreshell particles were relatively isolated, in contrast with that in IONP suspension before the formation of the coreshell particles. Therefore, in the coreshell particles, the dipolar interaction is reduced, and the heat-generating capability is increased. This explanation is brought through investigating the influence of the agglomerate size of IONPs on the heat-generating capability.
The fungal pathogen Candida albicans undergoes a transition from yeast cells to filamentous cells that is related to its pathogenicity. The complex multicellular processes involved in biofilm formation by this fungus also include this transition. In this work, we investigated the morphological role of the Bgl2 protein (Bgl2p) in the transition to filamentous cells during biofilm formation by C. albicans. Bgl2p has been identified as a β-1, 3-glucosyltransferase, and transcription of the CaBGL2 gene is upregulated during biofilm formation. We used scanning electron microscopy to observe the microstructure of a bgl2 null mutant during biofilm formation and found a delay in the transition to filamentous cells in the premature phase (24 hours) of biofilm formation. Deletion of the CaBGL2 gene led to a decrease in the expression of CPH2 and TEC1, which encode transcription factors required for the transition to the filamentous form. These findings indicate that Bgl2p plays a role in the transition to filamentous cells during biofilm formation by C. albicans.
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