Thin films of ZnSe and PEO-chitosan blend polymer doped with NH 4 I and iodine crystals were prepared to form the two sides of a semiconductor electrolyte junction. ZnSe was electrodeposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) conducting glass. The polymer is a blend of 50 wt% chitosan and 50 wt% polyethylene oxide. The polymer blend was complexed with ammonium iodide (NH 4 I), and some iodine crystals were added to the polymer-NH 4 I solution to provide the I − /I 3− redox couple. The room temperature ionic conductivity of the polymer electrolyte is 4.32 × 10 −6 S/cm. The polymer film was sandwiched between the ZnSe semiconductor and an ITO glass to form a ZnSe/polymer electrolyte/ITO photovoltaic cell. The open circuit voltage (V oc ) of the fabricated cells ranges between 200 to 400 mV and the short circuit current between 7 to 10 μA.
In this study, the abundant availability of clamshell, as the potential of the biomass resources for the production of the inorganic filler such as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and calcium oxide (CaO) is fully utilized. In addition, the effect of filler loadings toward mechanical properties of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biopolymer was studied using various ranges of loadings such as 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt%. The tensile strength and modulus of PHB showed significant improvement with the incorporation of the filler up to 30 wt %, and this finding was supported by micrographs obtained from scanning electron microscope (SEM) which revealed uniform distribution of the filler in the polyhydroxybutyrate region. However, the elongations at break of the specimen shows vice versa, they start to deteriorate with the addition of the filler.
This paper discusses the dependence of microstructure and mechanical properties of sintered biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) on sintering temperature and compacting pressure of BCP dense bodies. BCP nanopowders were prepared via hydrothermal method using eggshell as the calcium source, followed by compaction into circular disc shape at various pressure and sintered pressureless in air at various sintering temperatures. X-ray diffraction analysis of nanopowders revealed the existences of hydroxyapatite (HA) as the main phase, with β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) as the second phases. Morphological evaluation by scanning electron microscopy showed BCP exhibited uniform microstructure at low temperature and coalescence of pores and exaggerated grain growth at increasing temperature. Mechanical strength tests shown by compression strength and Vickers’ hardness test revealed an increase of strength with increasing temperature of up to 1100°C, after which it dropped. Mechanical strength also proved to be better with higher compacting pressure.
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