Bottom-up growth of fully transparent contact layers of indium tin oxide nanowires for light-emitting devices

Thin layers of indium tin oxide are widely used as transparent coatings and electrodes in solar energy cells, flat-panel displays, antireflection coatings, radiation protection and lithium-ion battery materials, because they have the characteristics of low resistivity, strong absorption at ultraviolet wavelengths, high transmission in the visible, high reflectivity in the far-infrared and strong attenuation in the microwave region. However, there is often a trade-off between electrical conductivity and transparency at visible wavelengths for indium tin oxide and other transparent conducting oxides. Here, we report the growth of layers of indium tin oxide nanowires that show optimum electronic and photonic properties and demonstrate their use as fully transparent top contacts in the visible to near-infrared region for light-emitting devices.

Assessment of primary energy conversions of oscillating water columns. II. Power take-off and validations

This is the second part of the assessment of primary energy conversions of oscillating water columns (OWCs) wave energy converters. In the first part of the research work, the hydrodynamic performance of OWC wave energy converter has been extensively examined, targeting on a reliable numerical assessment method. In this part of the research work, the application of the air turbine power take-off (PTO) to the OWC device leads to a coupled model of the hydrodynamics and thermodynamics of the OWC wave energy converters, in a manner that under the wave excitation, the varying air volume due to the internal water surface motion creates a reciprocating chamber pressure (alternative positive and negative chamber pressure), whilst the chamber pressure, in turn, modifies the motions of the device and the internal water surface. To do this, the thermodynamics of the air chamber is first examined and applied by including the air compressibility in the oscillating water columns for different types of the air turbine PTOs. The developed thermodynamics is then coupled with the hydrodynamics of the OWC wave energy converters. This proposed assessment method is then applied to two generic OWC wave energy converters (one bottom fixed and another floating), and the numerical results are compared to the experimental results. From the comparison to the model test data, it can be seen that this numerical method is capable of assessing the primary energy conversion for the oscillating water column wave energy converters.