Photonic crystal coupled with plasmonic nanoparticle arrays to form a periodic plasmonic architecture was prepared by loading Au nanoparticles inside the inverse opal TiO(2) film. The visible and near infrared light absorption was increased by 62% and the overall light-to-electricity conversion yield was thus increased by 41% compared with the control test.

TiO2 NSAs/graphene/Cu2O was fabricated on the carbon fiber to use as photocastalysts by coating Cu2O on the graphene (G) decorated TiO2 nanosheet arrays (NSAs). The research focus on constructing the composite structure and investigating the reason to enhance the photocatalytic ability. The morphological, structural, and photocatalytic properties of the as-synthesized products were characterize...

We propose a design to confine light absorption in flat and ultra-thin amorphous silicon solar cells with a one-dimensional silver grating embedded in the front window of the cell. We show numerically that multi-resonant light trapping is achieved in both TE and TM polarizations. Each resonance is analyzed in detail and modeled by Fabry-Perot resonances or guided modes via grating coupling. Thi...

The visible absorption spectra of Kodak X-Omat V film, which had been exposed to various doses of radiation, have been investigated to analyse the dosimetry characteristics of the film with various densitometers. Common densitometers can use fluorescent light (broad band visible), helium-neon (632 nm) or other spectra of specific bandwidth. The visible absorption spectra show a slight peak in a...

The light absorbing fraction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), known as chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) showed wide seasonal variations in the temperate estuarine zone in front of the Po River mouth. DOC concentrations increased from winter through spring mainly as a seasonal response to increasing phytoplankton production and thermohaline stratification. The monthly dependence of...

Anthocyanins are food colourants with strong antioxidant activities, but poor thermal stability limits their application in neutral foods. In the present study, impacts of yeast mannoproteins on the thermal stability of anthocyanins were studied at pH 7.0. The degradation of anthocyanins at 80 and 126 °C followed first order kinetics, and the addition of mannoproteins reduced the degradation ra...

We analyze mesoscale light absorption and carrier collection in a tandem junction photoelectrochemical device using electromagnetic simulations. The tandem device consists of silicon (E(g,Si) = 1.1 eV) and tungsten oxide (E(g,WO3) = 2.6 eV) as photocathode and photoanode materials, respectively. Specifically, we investigated Si microwires with lengths of 100 µm, and diameters of 2 µm, with a 7 ...

We have carried out detailed investigations on the light absorption mechanism in single crystalline silicon (c-Si) (core)/amorphous Si (a-Si) (shell) coaxial nanowires (NWs). Based on the Lorenz-Mie light scattering theory, we have found that the light absorption in the coaxial NWs relies on the leaky mode resonances and that the light absorption can be optimized towards photovoltaic applicatio...

The mechanism that nature applies to dissipate excess energy from solar UV light absorption in DNA is fundamental, because its efficiency determines the vulnerability of all genetic material to photodamage and subsequent mutations. Using femtosecond time-resolved broadband spectroscopy, we have traced the electronic excitation in both time and space along the base stack in a series of single-st...