Injection Molding Plastic Solar Cells.

While organic photovoltaics are accessing specific application sectors taking advantage of their unique properties, it is important to identify as many differentiators as possible to expand the market penetration and consolidation of this technology. In this work, for the first time, the large-scale fabrication of organic photovoltaic modules embedded into structural plastic parts through industrial injection molding is demonstrated. Thermoplastic polyurethane is chosen as the injected material to show that this additional processing step can yield flexible, lightweight photovoltaic modules with enhanced device robustness and virtually unchanged performance. The critical optomechanical and physico-chemical material properties, as well as the plastic processing parameters to enable in-mold plastic solar cells with improved performance and stability, are discussed and provided with perspective.

Fully automated station for testing, characterizing and modifying screen-printed electrodes.

Electrochemical detection systems that provide either quantitative or sample-to-answer information are promising for various analytical applications in the emerging field of point-of-care testing (POCT). Nevertheless, in mobile POC systems optical detection is currently more preferred compared to electrochemical detection due to the insufficient robustness of electrochemical detection approaches toward "real world" use. Over the last couple of decades, screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) have emerged as a simple and low-cost electrochemical detection platform. Here, we report, firstly and solely, a novel benchtop system for the processing of electrochemical methods on SPE platforms. Our solution prevents operator errors from occurring while processing and testing SPEs, achieves an automatic processing of more than 300 electrodes per day and enables comparative testing due to the presence of two simultaneous working channels; furthermore, the SPEs used can be stored in specially-designed cartridges. This novel device helps to overcome the major disadvantages in processing SPE technology, such as a low level of automation and issues with process repeatability, making this technology more efficient and enabling faster growth in industry.

Study of New Nitrogen-Fireable Copper-Nickel Thick Film Paste Formulation Compatible with Thick Printed Copper.

This paper is focused on a new copper-nickel thick film resistive paste which was designed and experimentally developed for the realization of low-ohmic power resistors. This copper-nickel paste has been designed for use in combination with thick printed copper conductors and in comparison with conventional ruthenium-based thick film resistor pastes allows firing in a nitrogen protective atmosphere. The copper-nickel paste was prepared from copper and nickel microparticles, glass binder particles and a combination of organic solvents optimized for its firing in a nitrogen atmosphere. This paper covers a detailed description of copper-nickel paste composition and its thermal properties verified by simultaneous thermal analysis, a description of the morphology of dried and fired copper-nickel films, as well as the electrical parameters of the final printed resistors. It has been proven by electron microscopy with element distribution analysis that copper and nickel microparticles diffused together during firing and created homogenous copper-nickel alloy film. This film shows a low temperature coefficient of resistance ±45 × 0-6 K-1 and low sheet resistance value 45 mΩ/square. It was verified that formulated copper-nickel paste is nitrogen-fireable and well-compatible with thick printed copper pastes. This combination allows the realization of power substrates with directly integrated low-ohmic resistors.

Synthesis and optical properties of N→Ga coordinated gallium boroxines.

Reactions of the N,C,N-chelated organogallium amide LGa(NEt2)2 (1), where L is {2,6-(Me2NCH2)2C6H3}-, with organoboronic acids RB(OH)2 yielded molecular gallium boroxines LGa(O3B2R2) (2: R = OH, 3: R = Ph, 4: R = 4-MeO-C6H4, 5: R = 4-CHO-C6H4, 6: R = Fc), neutral analogues of gallaborates. The molecular structures revealed the presence of a six-membered central GaB2O3 ring. The film forming properties of 5 allowed the deposition of transparent thin films by a spin coating method. The thicknesses, refractive index, energy of the optical gap (Eoptg), activation energy of surface electrical conductivity (Esa) and pre-exponential factor (σ0) of the thin layers of 5 were measured and they are close to those found for related oxygen glass. Finally, GBO 5 was also used as an additive to printing ink and a thin film of 5 was prepared by the gravure printing technique.

An Electrochemical Amperometric Ethylene Sensor with Solid Polymer Electrolyte Based on Ionic Liquid.

An electrochemical amperometric ethylene sensor with solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) and semi-planar three electrode topology involving a working, pseudoreference, and counter electrode is presented. The polymer electrolyte is based on the ionic liquid 1-butyl 3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [BMIM][NTf2] immobilized in a poly(vinylidene fluoride) matrix. An innovative aerosol-jet printing technique was used to deposit the gold working electrode (WE) on the solid polymer electrolyte layer to make a unique electrochemical active SPE/WE interface. The analyte, gaseous ethylene, was detected by oxidation at 800 mV vs. the platinum pseudoreference electrode. The sensor parameters such as sensitivity, response/recovery time, repeatability, hysteresis, and limits of detection and quantification were determined and their relation to the morphology and microstructure of the SPE/WE interface examined. The use of additive printing techniques for sensor preparation demonstrates the potential of polymer electrolytes with respect to the mass production of printed electrochemical gas sensors.

Determination of Zinc, Cadmium, Lead, Copper and Silver Using a Carbon Paste Electrode and a Screen Printed Electrode Modified with Chromium(III) Oxide.

In this study, the preparation and electrochemical application of a chromium(III) oxide modified carbon paste electrode (Cr-CPE) and a screen printed electrode (SPE), made from the same material and optimized for the simple, cheap and sensitive simultaneous determination of zinc, cadmium, lead, copper and the detection of silver ions, is described. The limits of detection and quantification were 25 and 80 µg·L-1 for Zn(II), 3 and 10 µg·L-1 for Cd(II), 3 and 10 µg·L-1 for Pb(II), 3 and 10 µg·L-1 for Cu(II), and 3 and 10 µg·L-1 for Ag(I), respectively. Furthermore, this promising modification was transferred to the screen-printed electrode. The limits of detection for the simultaneous determination of zinc, cadmium, copper and lead on the screen printed electrodes were found to be 350 µg·L-1 for Zn(II), 25 µg·L-1 for Cd(II), 3 µg·L-1 for Pb(II) and 3 µg·L-1 for Cu(II). Practical usability for the simultaneous detection of these heavy metal ions by the Cr-CPE was also demonstrated in the analyses of wastewaters.

Reliability and uncertainty in the estimation of pKa by least squares nonlinear regression analysis of multiwavelength spectrophotometric pH titration data.

When drugs are poorly soluble then, instead of the potentiometric determination of dissociation constants, pH-spectrophotometric titration can be used along with nonlinear regression of the absorbance response surface data. Generally, regression models are extremely useful for extracting the essential features from a multiwavelength set of data. Regression diagnostics represent procedures for examining the regression triplet (data, model, method) in order to check (a) the data quality for a proposed model; (b) the model quality for a given set of data; and (c) that all of the assumptions used for least squares hold. In the interactive, PC-assisted diagnosis of data, models and estimation methods, the examination of data quality involves the detection of influential points, outliers and high leverages, that cause many problems when regression fitting the absorbance response hyperplane. All graphically oriented techniques are suitable for the rapid estimation of influential points. The reliability of the dissociation constants for the acid drug silybin may be proven with goodness-of-fit tests of the multiwavelength spectrophotometric pH-titration data. The uncertainty in the measurement of the pK (a) of a weak acid obtained by the least squares nonlinear regression analysis of absorption spectra is calculated. The procedure takes into account the drift in pH measurement, the drift in spectral measurement, and all of the drifts in analytical operations, as well as the relative importance of each source of uncertainty. The most important source of uncertainty in the experimental set-up for the example is the uncertainty in the pH measurement. The influences of various sources of uncertainty on the accuracy and precision are discussed using the example of the mixed dissociation constants of silybin, obtained using the SQUAD(84) and SPECFIT/32 regression programs.

Number of species in complexation equilibria of o-, m- and p-CAPAZOXS with Cd2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ ions by PCA of UV-vis spectra.

A critical comparison of the selected derivative principal component analysis (PCA) methods on the absorbance matrix data concerning the complexation equilibria between o-CAPAZOXS and Cd(2+), Pb(2+) and Zn(2+) or m-CAPAZOXS and Cd(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+) and Zn(2+) or p-CAPAZOXS and Cd(2+) and Zn(2+) at 25 degrees C is provided. As the number of complex species in a complex-forming equilibria mixture is an important step in spectral data treatment, the nine selected index functions for the prediction of the number of light-absorbing species that contribute to a set of spectra is critically tested by the PCA. An improved identification with the second SD(AE) or third derivative TD(AE) and derivative ratio function ROD(AE) for the average error criterion AE is preferred. After the number of various complexes formed the stability constants of species ML, ML(2) (and ML(3), respectively) type log beta(11), log beta(12) (and log beta(13), respectively) for the system of o-CAPAZOXS (ligand L) with the metals (the standard deviation s(log beta(pq)) of the last valid digits is given in brackets) Cd(2+) (6.39(5) and 11.51(9)), Pb(2+) (4.24(2) and 9.01(2)) and Zn(2+) (5.18(7) and 9.06(10)) and for the system of m-CAPAZOXS with Cd(2+) (6.59(20) and 11.51(32)), Co(2+) (7.19(6) and 12.19(8)), Ni(2+) (7.64(7) and 13.39(12)) and Zn(2+) (4.83(3) and 9.57(3)) and for the system of p-CAPAZOXS with Cd(2+) (6.44(5), 10.99(10) and 14.57(25)) and Zn(2+) (6.84(16), 13.05(29) and 18.74(43)) at 25 degrees C are estimated using SQUAD(84) nonlinear regression of the mole-ratio spectrophotometric data. The computational strategy is presented with goodness-of-fit tests and various regression diagnostics capable of proving the reliability of the chemical model proposed.

Tutorial on a chemical model building by least-squares non-linear regression of multiwavelength spectrophotometric pH-titration data.

Although the modern instrumentation enables for the increased amount of data to be delivered in shorter time, computer-assisted spectra analysis is limited by the intelligence and by the programmed logic tool applications. Proposed tutorial covers all the main steps of the data processing which involve the chemical model building, from calculating the concentration profiles and, using spectra regression, fitting the protonation constants of the chemical model to multiwavelength and multivariate data measured. Suggested diagnostics are examined to see whether the chemical model hypothesis can be accepted, as an incorrect model with false stoichiometric indices may lead to slow convergence, cyclization or divergence of the regression process minimization. Diagnostics concern the physical meaning of unknown parameters beta(qr) and epsilon(qr), physical sense of associated species concentrations, parametric correlation coefficients, goodness-of-fit tests, error analyses and spectra deconvolution, and the correct number of light-absorbing species determination. All of the benefits of spectrophotometric data analysis are demonstrated on the protonation constants of the ionizable anticancer drug 7-ethyl-10-hydroxycamptothecine, using data double checked with the SQUAD(84) and SPECFIT/32 regression programs and with factor analysis of the INDICES program. The experimental determination of protonation constants with their computational prediction based on a knowledge of chemical structures of the drug was through the combined MARVIN and PALLAS programs. If the proposed model adequately represents the data, the residuals should form a random pattern with a normal distribution N(0, s2), with the residual mean equal to zero, and the standard deviation of residuals being near to experimental noise. Examination of residual plots may be assisted by a graphical analysis of residuals, and systematic departures from randomness indicate that the model and parameter estimates are not satisfactory.

Number of species in complexation equilibria of SNAZOXS or Naphtylazoxine 6S and Cd(2+), Co(2+), Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Pb(2+) and Zn(2+) ions by PCA of UV-vis spectra.

A critical comparison of the various PCA methods on the absorbance matrix data concerning the complexation equilibria between SNAZOXS and Cd(2+), Co(2+), Cu(2+), Ni(2+), Pb(2+) and Zn(2+) or Naphtylazoxine 6S and Cd(2+), Cu(2+), Ni(2+) and Zn(2+) at 25 degrees C is performed. The number of complex species in a complex-forming equilibria mixture is the first important step for further qualitative and quantitative analysis in all forms of spectral data treatment. Therefore, the accuracy of the nine selected index functions for the prediction of the number of light-absorbing components that contribute to a set of spectra is critically tested using the principal component PCA algorithm INDICES in S-Plus software. Four precise methods based upon a knowledge of the experimental error of the absorbance data and five approximate methods requiring no such knowledge are discussed. Precise methods always predict the correct number of components even a presence of the minor species in mixture. Due to the large variations in the index values and even at logarithmic scale they do not reach an obvious point where the slope changes. An improved identification with the second or third derivative and derivative ratio function for some indices is preferred. Behind the number of various complexes formed the stability constants of species ML, ML(2), (and ML(3), respectively) type logbeta(11), logbeta(12), (and logbeta(13), respectively) for the system of SNAZOXS (ligand L) with six metals (the standard deviation s(logbeta(pq)) of the last valid digits are in brackets) Cd(2+) (4.50(3), 8.36(7)), Co(2+) (5.75(6), 9.79(9), 13.05(2)), Cu(2+) (6.69(6), 11.40(7)), Ni(2+) (6.44(8), 10.91(11), 15.07(10)), Pb(2+) (5.63(5), 9.97(9)) and Zn(2+) (5.11(3), 8.84(5)) and for system of Naphtylazoxine 6S with Cd(2+) (6.08(4), 11.44(7), 16.06(11)), Cu(2+) (7.80(8), 13.41(14)), Ni(2+) (6.35(12), 11.43(19), 16.68(24)) and Zn(2+) (7.01(8), 12.65(15)) at 25 degrees C are estimated with SQUAD(84) nonlinear regression of the mole-ratio spectrophotometric data. The proposed strategy of an efficient experimentation in a stability constants determination, followed by a computational strategy, is presented with goodness-of-fit tests and various regression diagnostics able to prove the reliability of the chemical model proposed.

The thermodynamic dissociation constants of ambroxol, antazoline, naphazoline, oxymetazoline and ranitidine by the regression analysis of spectrophotometric data.

The mixed dissociation constants of five drug acids-ambroxol, antazoline, naphazoline, oxymetazoline and ranitidine-at various ionic strengths I of range 0.01 and 1.0 and at temperatures of 25 and 37 degrees C were determined using SQUAD(84) regression analysis of the pH-spectrophotometric titration data. A proposed strategy of efficient experimentation in a protonation constants determination, followed by a computational strategy for the chemical model with a protonation constants determination, is presented on the protonation equilibria of ambroxol. The thermodynamic dissociation constant pK(a)(T) was estimated by non-linear regression of {pK(a), I} data at 25 and 37 degrees C: for ambroxol p K (a ,1)(T )=8.05 (6) and 8.25 (4), logbeta (21)(T )=11.67 (6) and 11.83 (8), for antazoline p K (a ,1)(T )=7.79 (2) and 7.83 (6), p K (a ,2)(T )=9.74 (3) and 9.55 (2), for naphazoline pK (a ,1)(T )=10.81 (1) and 10.63 (1), for oxymethazoline pK (a ,1)(T )=10.62 (2) and 10.77 (7), pK(a,2)(T)=12.03(3) and 11.82 (4) and for ranitidine p K (a ,1)(T )=1.89 (1) and 1.77 (1). Goodness-of-fit tests for various regression diagnostics enabled the reliability of the parameter estimates to be found.