Recent research results have indicated positive influences of inter-yarn friction on ballistic performance of woven fabrics and panels made from such fibers. The current investigation explores the effect of coating by means of atmospheric pressure plasma-enhanced vapor deposition with organic chemical (CH3)2Cl2Si on the inter-yarn friction. The scanning electron microscopy observations indicated that as the treatment time increases, more particles have been deposited on the surface of the fibers. The Fourier transform infrared spectra supported the existence of Si-O-Si vibration, which can be attributed to the chemical deposition. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis further supported the deposition of the chemical compound. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the coefficients of static and kinetic frictions between the yarns and the results showed that the inter-yarn coefficient of static friction was increased from 0.1617 to 0.2969 and that of the kinetic friction increased from 0.1554 to 0.2436, as the treatment time increased to 4 minutes. In addition, there is evidence that the mechanical properties of the treated yarns were not negatively affected by the treatment.

The effects of a fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) electrode, titanium dioxide (TiO 2Àx ) blocking layer (BL) and perovskite (methyl ammonium lead triiodide) preparation on the overall properties of the photovoltaic cells have been studied. The FTO electrode was deposited by atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD) and the hole blocking layer by spin coating, atomic layer deposition (ALD) or sputtering. We have shown the importance of obtaining uniform thin films of FTO, with low sheet resistance to aid the formation of pin hole free uniform TiO 2Àx blocking layers and hence well adhered, perovskite layers. The optimal BL thickness was 20 nm, while thicker films gave decreased shunt resistance and thinner a greater number of pin holes through the layers. We also showed that the conformal nature of ALD and magnetron sputtering, along with their increased uniformity control over spin coating again improved cell efficiency. The main improvement comes for the smaller R oc , attributed to an improved electrical transport through particularly the sputtered TiO 2Àx blocking layer. After identifying the optimised parameters, all the properties were combined to fabricate large solar cells (1 cm 2 ) yielding power conversion efficiencies beyond 16%.

Atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma CVD was used to deposit thin films of titania at 200 8C using two different precursors. The resulting films were characterised using techniques including XPS, RBS and XRD. It was established that annealing at temperatures as low as 275 8C produced crystalline films that were photocatalytically active. When annealed at 300 8C the photoactivity was greater than that of commercially available ''self-cleaning'' titania films. The effects of the different precursors, annealing times and temperatures on the crystallinity and photoactivity are discussed.

Thin films of polycrystalline NiO were deposited by Flame Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition, which is an ideal process for in-line, atmospheric pressure deposition of wide area coatings. This, along with the ability to use aqueous salts rather than organic precursors or solvents makes it well suited for industrial integration. To establish the capability of FACVD deposited NiO for use as a low cost, commercially viable option planar perovskite cells were fabricated under ambient conditions. The resulting cells showed the importance of both the flame composition and NiO thickness. A continuous NiO Hole Transport Layer (HTL) was achieved for ca. 36 nm thick film, which showed a maximum higher efficiency of 12.3% over that of the control (11.8%) which used a spin coated HTL. This was mainly driven by the large improvement in the current density from 16.6 mA/cm 2 to 19.0 mA/cm 2 .

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Highly effective TiO2−x electron transport layers produced by continuous atmospheric pressure PECVD achieve efficiency gains in mesoporous perovskite photovoltaic cells.

We report for the first time deposition of aluminium oxide thin films by APGD, plasma-enhanced CVD. This approach allows deposition at substantially lower substrate temperatures than normally used in atmospheric pressure based processing. The films are analysed by SEM, XPS, RBS, XRD, and optical properties. It is demonstrated that the APGD approach yields films which are essentially smooth, conformal and free from pinholes or other imperfections.SEM image of alumina film on glass (film G).

Abstract:In this work, the impact of translation rates in fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films using atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (APCVD) were studied. We demonstrated that by adjusting the translation speeds of the susceptor, the growth rates of the FTO films varied and hence many of the film properties were modified. X-ray powder diffraction showed an increased preferred orientation along the (200) plane at higher translation rates, although with no actual change in the particle sizes. A reduction in dopant level resulted in decreased particle sizes and a much greater degree of (200) preferred orientation. For low dopant concentration levels, atomic force microscope (AFM) studies showed a reduction in roughness (and lower optical haze) with increased translation rate and decreased growth rates. Electrical measurements concluded that the resistivity, carrier concentration, and mobility of films were dependent on the level of fluorine dopant, the translation rate and hence the growth rates of the deposited films.