CdTe film was deposited using the electrophoretic deposition technique onto an ITO glass at various bath temperatures. Four batch film compositions were used by mixing 1 to 4 wt% concentration of CdTe powder with 10 mL of a solution of methanol and toluene. X-ray Diffraction analysis showed that the films exhibited polycrystalline nature of zinc-blende structure with the (111) orientation as the most prominent peak. From the Atomic Force Microscopy, the thickness and surface roughness of the CdTe film increased with the increase of CdTe concentration. The optical energy band gap of film decreased with the increase of CdTe concentration, and with the increase of isothermal bath temperature. The film thickness increased with respect to the increase of CdTe concentration and bath temperature, and following, the numerical expression for the film thickness with respect to these two variables has been established.
A series of binary tellurite based glasses (Bi(2)O(3))(x) (TeO(2))(100-) (x) was prepared by melt quenching method. The density, molar volume and refractive index increase when bismuth ions Bi(3+) increase, this is due to the increased polarization of the ions Bi(3+) and the enhanced formation of non-bridging oxygen (NBO). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results show the bonding of the glass sample and the optical band gap, E(opt) decreases while the refractive index increases when the ion Bi(3+) content increases.
Spectrophotometric studies of lead borotellurite glasses were carried out before and after gamma irradiation exposure. The increasing peak on the TeO(4) bi-pyramidal arrangement and TeO(3+1) (or distorted TeO(4)) is due to augmentation of irradiation dose which is attributed to an increase in degree of disorder of the amorphous phase. The structures of lead tellurate contain Pb(3)TeO(6) consisting of TeO(3) trigonal pyramid connected by PbO(4) tetragonal forming a three-dimensional network. The decrease of glass rigidity is due to irradiation process which is supported by the XRD diffractograms results. The decreasing values of absorption edge indicate that red shift effect occur after irradiation processes. A shift in the optical absorption edge attributed to an increase of the conjugation length. The values of optical band gap, E(opt) were calculated and found to be dependent on the glass composition and radiation exposure. Generally, an increase and decrease in Urbach's energy can be considered as being due to an increase in defects within glass network.
Multicomposition of Er3+ -Y11-3+ codoped tellurite oxide, Te02-ZnO-PbO-Ti02-Na20 glass has been investigated. A detailed spectroscopic study of the Judd-Ofelt analysis has been performed from the measured absorption spectrum in order to obtain the intensity parameters S2, (t=2, 4, 6). The calculated S2, values were then utilized in the determination of transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes and branching ratios of the Er3+ transitions between the J(upper)-J'(lower) manifolds. Both visible upconversion and near-infrared spectra were characterized under the 980 nm laser diode excitation at room temperature.
In this study, we aimed to increase the knowledge regarding the response mechanisms which were associated with the formation of CdS thin films. CdS thin film remains the most appealing alternative for many researchers, as it has been a capable buffer material for effect in film based polycrystalline solar cells (CdTe, CIGSe, CZTS). The Linker Assisted and Chemical Bath Deposition (LA-CBD) technique, which combines the Linker Assisted (LA) technique and the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method for forming high quality CdS thin film, was presented as an efficient and novel hybrid sensitization technique. CdS films were bound to soda lime with the help of electrostatic forces, which led to the formation of the intermediate complexes [Cd (NH3)4]2+ that helped in the collision of these complexes with a soda lime slide. Salvia dye and as a linker molecule 3-Mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) was used in the one step fabrication technique. Optical results showed that the bandgap varied in the range of (2.50 to 2.17) eV. Morphological properties showed a homogeneous distribution of the particles that aspherical in shape in the CdS + MPA + Salvia dye films. This technique significantly affected on the electrical characterizations of CdS films after the annealing process. The CdS + Ag + MPA + Salvia dye films showed the maximum carrier concentration and minimum resistivity, as 5.64 × 10 18 cm-3 and 0.83 Ω cm respectively.
Radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering was used to deposit tungsten disulfide (WS2) thin films on top of soda lime glass substrates. The deposition power of RF magnetron sputtering varied at 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 W to investigate the impact on film characteristics and determine the optimized conditions for suitable application in thin-film solar cells. Morphological, structural, and opto-electronic properties of as-grown films were investigated and analyzed for different deposition powers. All the WS2 films exhibited granular morphology and consisted of a rhombohedral phase with a strong preferential orientation toward the (101) crystal plane. Polycrystalline ultra-thin WS2 films with bandgap of 2.2 eV, carrier concentration of 1.01 × 1019 cm-3, and resistivity of 0.135 Ω-cm were successfully achieved at RF deposition power of 200 W. The optimized WS2 thin film was successfully incorporated as a window layer for the first time in CdTe/WS2 solar cell. Initial investigations revealed that the newly incorporated WS2 window layer in CdTe solar cell demonstrated photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 1.2% with Voc of 379 mV, Jsc of 11.5 mA/cm2, and FF of 27.1%. This study paves the way for WS2 thin film as a potential window layer to be used in thin-film solar cells.
We report significant enhancements in Er(3+) luminescence as well as in Raman intensity in silver nanoparticles embedded zinc-tellurite glass. Surface enhanced Raman scattering effect is highlighted for the first time in tellurite glass containing silver NPs resulting in an enhanced Raman signal (~10 times). SAED manifest the growth of Ag(0) nanoparticles along the (111) and (200) crystallographic planes having average diameter in the range 14-36 nm. Surface plasmon resonance bands are observed in the range 484-551 nm. Furthermore, four prominent photoluminescence bands undergo significant enhancements up to 3 times. The enhancement is majorly attributed to the local field effect of silver NPs.
Despite being disparaged for their malodorous and toxic demeanour, compounds of selenium, a bio-essential element, and tellurium, offer possibilities as therapeutic agents. Herein, their potential use as drugs, for example, as anti-viral, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory agents, etc., will be surveyed along with a summary of the established biological functions of selenium. The natural biological functions of tellurium remain to be discovered.
A systematic set of borotellurite glasses doped with manganese (1-x) [(B(2)O(3))(0.3)(TeO(2))(0.7)]-xMnO, with x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 mol%, were successfully synthesized by using a conventional melt and quench-casting technique. In this study, the remelting effect of the glass samples on their microstructure was investigated through density measurement and FT-IR spectra and evaluated by XRD techniques. Initial experimental results from XRD evaluation show that there are two distinct phases of glassy and crystallite microstructure due to the existence of peaks in the sample. The different physical behaviors of the studied glasses were closely related to the concentration of manganese in each phase. FTIR spectra revealed that the addition of manganese oxide contributes the transformation of TeO(4) trigonal bipyramids with bridging oxygen (BO) to TeO(3) trigonal pyramids with non-bridging oxygen (NBO).
Enhanced red and orange fluorescence emissions of Sm3+ Rare earth (RE) ions were observed in sodium‑zinc tellurite glasses embedded with silver and gold nanoparticles (NPs). The fine distribution of NPs in the glass matrix with an average diameter ~ 11.09 nm and ~3.86 nm for Ag and Au NPs respectively were confirmed by using transmission electron microscope (TEM). The embedding of Ag and Au NPs into the glass structure caused an increasing in the transition emission intensity of Sm3+ ions, which is ascribed to the progress of the presence of the localized surface Plasmon resonance (LSPR) indicating from the characteristic absorption peaks. The luminescence and absorption spectra have been discussed using a standard hypothesis Judd-Ofelt theory for a certain absorption transitions 6P3/2, 4I11/2, 6F11/2, 6F9/2, 6F7/2, 6F5/2, 6F3/2, 6H15/2, 6F1/2 and emission transitions 6H5/2, H7/2, 6H9/2 and H11/2 under 409 nm excitation of the Sm3+ ions. The decay life time curve exhibited a non-exponential behavior of the studied glass samples and the results were compared with the similar reported glasses. An efficient red and orange fluorescence emission illustrate that the Sm3+-doped sodium‑zinc tellurite embedded with Ag and Au NPs are potential materials for the laser illumination.
Due to the low titer or uneven distribution of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) in field samples, detection of CTV by using conventional detection techniques may be difficult. Therefore, in the present work, the cadmium-telluride quantum dots (QDs) was conjugated with a specific antibody against coat protein (CP) of CTV, and the CP were immobilized on the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to develop a specific and sensitive fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based nanobiosensor for detecting CTV. The maximum FRET efficiency for the developed nano-biosensor was observed at 60% in AuNPs-CP/QDs-Ab ratio of 1:8.5. The designed system showed higher sensitivity and specificity over enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a limit of detection of 0.13μgmL(-1) and 93% and 94% sensitivity and specificity, respectively. As designed sensor is rapid, sensitive, specific and efficient in detecting CTV, this could be envisioned for diagnostic applications, surveillance and plant certification program.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causing agent of tuberculosis, comes second only after HIV on the list of infectious agents slaughtering many worldwide. Due to the limitations behind the conventional detection methods, it is therefore critical to develop new sensitive sensing systems capable of quick detection of the infectious agent. In the present study, the surface modified cadmium-telluride quantum dots and gold nanoparticles conjunct with two specific oligonucleotides against early secretory antigenic target 6 were used to develop a sandwich-form fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based biosensor to detect M. tuberculosis complex and differentiate M. tuberculosis and M. bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin simultaneously. The sensitivity and specificity of the newly developed biosensor were 94.2% and 86.6%, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of polymerase chain reaction and nested polymerase chain reaction were considerably lower, 74.2%, 73.3% and 82.8%, 80%, respectively. The detection limits of the sandwich-form fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based biosensor were far lower (10 fg) than those of the polymerase chain reaction and nested polymerase chain reaction (100 fg). Although the cost of the developed nanobiosensor was slightly higher than those of the polymerase chain reaction-based techniques, its unique advantages in terms of turnaround time, higher sensitivity and specificity, as well as a 10-fold lower detection limit would clearly recommend this test as a more appropriate and cost-effective tool for large scale operations.