After the collapse of the Soviet system, every new independent state selected its own way of development, own goals and speed of transformation. Dramatic changes were linked not only to the political and economic sphere, but also to environmental governance as a whole and waste management in particular. 25 years later the authors looked at 6 post-soviet countries and analysed the situation in the sector of municipal solid waste management by comparing this with EU member states (some of them have a socialistic past). We used BiPRO approach (BiPRO, 2012) and looked for answers related to the question: how far developed is the current state of waste management in post-soviet countries compared to EU members? Which factors define the potential efficiency of waste management system and its full conformity with the situation in "old" EU member states? The overall scores of 6 post-soviet countries range from 2 (Georgia) to 11 (Belarus). The common reasons for these low scores in all mentioned countries are weak waste management policies, and landfilling as a main way of waste disposal, the lack of economic instruments for stimulating reducing of waste generation and recycling, as well as underdeveloped infrastructure for waste treatment facilities. Specific problems for post-soviet countries are, for example, the high share of landfilled biodegradable waste, incomplete coverage of waste collection systems, the lack of forecasting of waste quantities and planning of waste management, preserved obsolete soviet approach to tariff policy, statistical accounting and administrative procedures in the sector of waste management. The improvement of waste management systems should aim at the legislative ban on the disposal of municipal solid waste at landfills, the re-establishment of a separate waste collection system (disestablished after USSR collapse), the establishment of economic and financial mechanisms supporting the waste processing sector and stimulating the population to reduce waste generation.
The problem of copper diffusion in semiconductor devices has been known for several decades as copper has been used as an interconnecting (bonding) metal and has been intensively studied due to its high diffusion coefficient. The influence of the intensive diffusion of copper, depending on the technology of the deposition regimes, has been investigated in thin-film solar cells based on copper, zinc, and titanium oxides obtained by DC-reactive magnetron sputtering. The observed effect significantly changes the structure of the CuO films and affects the properties of the TiO2:ZnO/CuO photocell. The composition of the layers and the copper diffusion in the photocells were studied using a cross-section obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The influence of the copper diffusion in the layers on the current–voltage (I-V) and power–voltage (P-V) characteristics and optical properties was investigated. The photoelectric behavior of two structures of thin-film solar cells was confirmed through -V research. The values of the open-circuit voltage (VOC) and short-circuit current density (JSC) of photovoltaic devices reached (11 ÷ 15) mV and (6.1 ÷ 6.8) μA, respectively. Furthermore, the Pmax, FF, RS, and RSH values were calculated and analyzed. The difference in the composition of the upper layer of the structure caused changes in the reflection spectra in the wavelength range of 190–2500 nm and, depending on the wavelength, varies in the range of 0–27%.
Within the methods of electron density functional and ab initio pseudopotential, we have obtained the spatial distributions of the density of valence electrons and the electron energy spectra for metallic and oxidized small clusters from the atoms of Cu, Ni, and Co with the aim to determine the mechanisms of their high catalytic activity. We have determined a certain organization of the electronic structure of the isolated metallic (Cu, Ni, Co) atoms in the ground and excited states, which is conserved at the association of these atoms in two atomic clusters. This has allowed us to draw conclusion about the easier excitation of 𝑑-electrons of copper as compared with the electrons of nickel and cobalt. This provides a possible freeing of 𝑑-orbitals that is fundamentally important for the catalytic activity of copper centers.
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