Cutin is the main component of plant cuticles constituting the framework that supports the rest of the cuticle components. This biopolymer is composed of esterified bi- and trifunctional fatty acids. Despite its ubiquity in terrestrial plants, it has been underutilized as raw material due to its insolubility and lack of melting point. However, in recent…
The adsorption of Cs+ by clay minerals is a complicate process, being cation exchange and frayed-edge sites the major mechanisms that govern it. However, environmental variables have a significant impact on the process. In this work, the influence of the temperature and time in the cesium adsorption capacity of Na-Mica-n (n = 2 and 4)…
The efficiency of thin-film CIGS based cells at the laboratory scale is now getting closer to conventional Silicon technologies. As a consequence, the long-term stability of CIGS is now one of the main challenges left to address in order to assess its potential as an alternative for photovoltaic plants. This paper reports an overview of…
The effect of partial graphitization on electrical and galvanomagnetic properties of BE-C(Fe) biomorphic carbons produced by beech wood carbonization at temperatures of 850-1600A degrees C in the presence of an iron-containing catalyst is studied. The use of an Fe catalyst at D cent (carb) ae<yen> 1000A degrees C leads to the formation of nanoscale graphite-phase…
The use of portable X-ray stress analyzers, which utilize an area detector along with the newly adopted ‘cos alpha’ or full-ring fitting method, has recently attracted increasing interest. In laboratory conditions, these measurements are fast, convenient and precise because they employ a single-exposure technique that does not require sample rotation. In addition, the effects of…
In article number 1600024, José A. Heredia‐Guerrero, Athanassia Athanassiou, and co‐workers present new, sustainable composite materials inspired by plant cuticles. These materials are fabricated by the impregnation of fibrous cellulose substrates with a naturally occurring polyhydroxylated fatty acid, and subsequent polymerization of the latter into a polyester. In the image a piece of this new…
Self-standing films of poly(-hydroxyl hexadecanoic acid) [poly(-OHC16)] have been prepared by noncatalyzed melt-polycondensation in air at 150, 175, and 200 degrees C. Poly(-OHC16)s obtained are characterized as polyesters by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and solid state magic angle spinning C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (C-13 MAS-NMR). Structurally, poly(-OHC16)s are quite crystalline as revealed by wide angle X-ray…
Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGS) technology is one of the best absorber materials with record efficiencies among photovoltaic thin-film technologies (22.3% at lab scale and 16% at large commercial module). Although research on this material was originally motivated by low-cost, glass-glass applications focusing to fixed photovoltaic structures, the high efficiency values make CIGS an interesting alternative for low…
The microstructure and amplitude dependences of the Young’s modulus E and internal friction (logarithmic decrement δ), and microplastic properties of biocarbon matrices BE-C(Fe) obtained by beech tree carbonization at temperatures Tcarb = 850–1600°C in the presence of an iron-containing catalyst are studied. By X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy, it is shown that the use of Fe-catalyst during…
