Volume 5, Issue 1-2 -

Energy harvesting has drawn increasing attention due to the fast development of wireless sensors and devices. Most research has been focused on mechanical energy harvesting using piezoelectric ceramics; however, little is known on their experimental capabilities to harvest thermal energy at different temperature ranges and the impact that the temperature range has on the energy conversion efficiency. Majority of piezoelectric ceramics are pyroelectric in nature thus enabling them to couple energy between thermal and electrical domains. This paper demonstrates the use of Lithium Niobate (LNB) as a thermal energy harvesting device for high temperature applications. A custom testing setup was developed to test the LNB sample temperatures up to 225 °C. Pyroelectric coefficient of the material was characterized at different temperature ranges. Pyroelectric coefficient was found to increase with temperature, with a maximum value of −196 μC·m −2  °C −1 . Power output of the sample was also characterized in different temperature ranges. A maximum value of over 20.5 μW was found when cycling the sample between 75 °C and 100 °C. Meanwhile, a maximum value of 14.8 μW was found in the 125 °C to 150 °C range. Finally, a peak value of 255 nW was found when cycling the sample in the 200 °C to 225 °C range.

Conditions of nuclear fusion and nuclear fusion devices were described, and some possible applications of nanomaterials for nuclear fusion devices were presented in the present article. Muon-catalyzed fusion is one of methods for nuclear fusion to cause even at room temperature or lower, and protons or heavy ions with huge energy are irradiated to metals such as beryllium or copper, which results in emission of negative or positive charged muons from the metals. An experiment using a pyroelectric power source using lithium tantalite crystal was also reported to achieve nuclear fusion in a desktop-like device. Hydrogen storage is also important for the fusion devices, and the possibility of hydrogen storage in hydrogen storage metallic alloys was studied by diffusion calculation and potential calculation of deuterium fusion. Enhancement of deuterium diffusion in the Pd alloys would be one of the key points for energy materials. Carbon(C)/copper(Cu)-based composite materials with high thermal conductivity and good stability at high temperatures were also developed by adding a small amount of titanium, which has a low enthalpy of alloy formation with C and Cu. These carbon-based materials could be a candidate material for the plasma facing components of fusion devices.

We explored, the absorption spectra, excited states and electronic injection parameters of anthocyanidin and anthocyanin pigments using the level of theory (TD)CAM-B3LYP/6–31 + G(d,p). For all isolated dyes, the distribution pattern of HOMO and LUMO spread over the whole molecules, which lead an efficient electronic delocalization. The calculated LHEs are all near unity. Methoxy group in Peonidin molecule lead the largest oscillator strength and LHE. The presence of water lead a higher spontaneous electronic inject process, with ΔG inject average of −1.14 eV. The ΔG inject order is Peonidin<Delphinidin<Cyanin<Cyanidin. Similarly, the adsorption energies (E ads ) onto anatase surface model were obtained from level of theory GGA(PBE)/DNP. E ads of anthocyanin-(TiO 2 ) 30 complex was calculated to be from 17 to 24 eV, indicating both, the strong interactions between the dyes and the anatase (TiO 2 ) surface and stronger electronic coupling strengths of the anthocyanin-(TiO 2 ) 30 complex, which corresponded to higher observed η . The HOMO and LUMO shape showed the electrons delocalized predominantly on the anthocyanin structure while, the LUMO + 1 shape is localized into the (TiO 2 ) 30 surface. Therefore we expected a electronic injection from HOMO to LUMO + 1 in the anthocyanin-(TiO 2 ) 30 adsorption complex, after the light absorption.