An affordable green energy source—Evolving through current developments of organic,dye sensitized,and perovskite solar cells

Intensive R&D efforts made in solar photovoltaic area has enabled Si, GaAs, CdTe, and CIGS devices exhibiting nearly ideal efficiencies. However, cost incurred per unit energy does not allow them to qualify for alternate energy source besides environmental issues at production floors. Consequently, search is still continuing not only to reduce cost by improved efficiency, reduced materials cost, and simplified processing resulting in a cleaner and greener technology. Current successes in organic, dye-sensitized, and perovskite solar cells with efficiencies in 10–15% range raise concrete hope for evolving a low cost and green technology involving solution processable organic/inorganic compounds extendable to roll-to-roll production. The current status and future prospects of these three promising routes are reviewed here highlighting the possibility of an emerging alternate green energy source to supplement the conventional ones at commercial level.     

Zinc effect on the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus immunological competence

Pollution by heavy metals has become one of the most important problems in marine coastal areas as a consequence of anthropogenic inputs. Among metal contaminants, zinc, being considered not very toxic, is sometimes released into the sea in appreciable quantities and its concentration is loosely regulated.In this work we analyzed the effects of a high zinc concentration on the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus immune system. In particular, after 24 h of zinc treatment, we evaluated coelomocytes morphology and composition as well as the zinc influence on some humoral parameters such as hemolysis, lysozyme-like activity and antibacterial activity on Vibrio alginolyticus. Our results evidenced that the presence of zinc affected both cellular and acellular components of the sea urchin immune system. The P. lividus coelomocytes changed in morphology and number; moreover, the amebocytes changed from a petaloid to a filipodial-like shape and the red spherula cells increased in number. Among the considered humoral effectors lysozyme-like activity and antibacterial activity on V. alginolyticus decreased in short-term to zinc treatment. The modifications in the sea urchin immunological competence might give an early indication of disease susceptibility thus suggesting to consider the examined defence mechanisms as potential biological indicators of metal pollution.     

The aryl receptor inhibitor epigallocatechin-3-gallate protects INS-1E beta-cell line against acute dioxin toxicity

The aim of this research was to investigate the mechanism(s) underlying the acute toxicity of dioxin in pancreatic beta cells and to evaluate the protective effects of epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the most abundant of the green tea’s catechins and a powerful inhibitor of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). Using the insulin-secreting INS-1E cell line we have explored the effect of 1 h exposure to different concentrations of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), alone or in the presence of EGCG, on: (a) cell survival; (b) cellular ultrastructure; (c) intracellular calcium levels; (d) mitochondrial membrane potential; (e) glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and (f) activation of MAP kinases. Our results demonstrate that TCDD is highly toxic for INS-1E cells, suggesting that pancreatic beta cells should be considered a relevant and sensitive target for dioxin acute toxicity. EGCG significantly protects INS-1E cells against TCDD-induced toxicity in terms of both cell survival and preservation of cellular ultrastructure. The mechanism of this protective effect seems to be related to: (a) the ability of EGCG to preserve the mitochondrial function and thus to prevent the TCDD-induced inhibition of glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and (b) the ability of EGCG to inhibit the TCDD-induced activation of selected kinases, such as e.g. ERK 1/2 and JNK. Our results clearly show that EGCG is able to protect pancreatic beta cells against dioxin acute toxicity and indicate the mitochondrion as the most likely target for this beneficial effect.     

Control strategies for biohydrogen production by immobilized co-culture of Clostridium butyricum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris

In this study, we evaluated biohydrogen production of Clostridium butyricum and Rhodopseudomonas palustris by immobilized co-culture. Effects of free cells and immobilized cells, immobilized biomass ratio, sucrose concentration, and initial pH on hydrogen production were investigated. The immobilized co-culture can achieve high cumulative hydrogen volume yield (604 mL) as compared to free co-culture cumulative hydrogen volume (513 mL) while the initial sucrose concentration was 17.8 g/L. The optimum C. butyricum/R. palustris ratio was 1:10, yielding the highest cumulative hydrogen (728 mL). High sucrose concentration (above 35.6 g/L) would inhibit hydrogen production. The optimal initial pH value for hydrogen production of immobilized co-culture was 7.0 (cumulative hydrogen volume 830 mL).     

利用太阳能驱动的一体化氧化沟的运行方式

污水处理的高能耗和新能源利用已引起人们的关注,本文根据太阳光照强度的周期变化和农村污水昼夜排放量悬殊的特征,提出了一种新型的利用无蓄电池太阳能光伏系统驱动的污水生物处理系统,可有效降低太阳能光伏系统的成本。生物反应器是一个双沟式一体化氧化沟。按照启动的用电设备的数量,一体化氧化沟具有5种运行方式。在不同的运行方式下,一体化氧化沟的内沟和外沟具有不同的功能,其中运行方式3到运行方式5对污染物去除效率最高。采用阶梯型电量输出模式,可以充分利用太阳能,并保障一体化氧化沟的高效运行时间。在160 d的连续运行实验中,COD、氨氮、总氮和总磷的平均去除率分别为87.8%、98.4%、68.7%和80.3%。证明无蓄电池太阳能光伏系统驱动污水生物反应器处理农村分散污水是可行的。     

铁碳布空气阴极微生物燃料电池的产电性能

使用铁代替铂作为阴极催化剂,制作含铁碳布空气阴极并构建单室MFC(Fe-C-ACMFC)。以乙酸钠为燃料,通过稳态放电法和循环伏安测试等测试手段,分析了不同铁含量对Fe-C-ACMFC产电性能的影响以及性能最优Fe-C-ACM-FC的连续运行稳定性。结果表明,随着铁含量的增加,Fe-C-ACMFC启动期开路电压(OCV)逐步提高,达到峰值后,随着铁含量的增加而降低;同样,Fe-C-ACMFC极化性能和功率密度等产电性能也随铁含量的增加先升高再降低;当铁含量为0.7 mg/cm2时,MFC的产电性能最优,最大开路电压为593 mV,表观内阻为89Ω,最大功率密度达到12 907 mW/m3,并且经循环伏安测试,电池放电容量几乎没有变化,表明Fe-C-ACMFC的性能比较稳定,能够长期运行。由于铁催化剂价格远远低于铂催化剂,因此,铁碳布空气阴极MFC更利于推广应用。     

脱氮副球菌YF1微生物燃料电池生物阴极脱氮和产电

以脱氮副球菌YF1构建纯种生物阴极微生物燃料电池(microbial fuel cell,MFC)进行脱氮和产电机理的研究。研究结果发现,阴极碳氮比、pH值对产电和脱氮效率有明显影响。当MFC的阴极运行条件pH值为8.0,碳氮比为20时,运行时间15 h时,脱氮率高达100%,输出电压为150 mV。上述结果表明,微生物燃料电池运行过程中,细菌降解硝酸根的机理为将硝酸根还原为N2或者直接将其作为自身的营养物质而利用。循环伏安(CV)与扫描电镜(SEM)的结果表明,在微生物燃料电池运行中,副球菌YF1通过接触导电作为产电的电子供体。     

从HPRT和CD59基因的变化研究石英（MQZ）的诱变效应

通过用３１,６２．５,１２５和２５０μｇ／ｍＬ的ＭＱＺ剂量处理人与中国仓鼠杂交ＡＬ细胞２４ｈ,探讨石英对细胞生长、存活和突变效应。研究发现,细胞对ＭＱＺ微粒的吞噬作用随着处理剂量的增加而增大。吞噬的ＭＱＺ微粒多位于细胞质中。细胞的存活率与处理剂量成正比。基因突变率研究显示,ＭＱＺ的致突变效应并不强,对于ＨＰＲＴ基因位点,其最高处理剂量（ρ＝５００μｇ／ｍＬ）的基因突变率略高于４Ｇｙ的γ射线的突变频     

Community analysis of ammonia and nitrite oxidizers in start-up of aerobic granular sludge reactor

A lab-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was setup and the aerobic granular sludge was successfully incubated by using anaerobic granular sludge as seed sludge. Nitrogen was partially removed by simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) via nitrite with free ammonia (FA) of about 10 mg/L. The denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) method was used to investigate community structure of α-Proteobacteria, β-Proteobacteria, ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB), and Nitrospira populations during start-up. The population sizes of bacteria, AOB and Nitrospira were examined using real-time PCR method. The analysis of community structure and Shannon index showed that stable structure of AOB population was obtained at the day 35, while the communities of α-Proteobacteria, β-Proteobacteria, and Nitrospira became stable after day 45. At stable stage, the average cell densities were 1.1×1012, 2.2×1010 and 1.0×1010 cells/L for bacteria, AOB and Nitrospira, respectively. The relationship between characteristics of nitrifying bacteria community and nitrogenous substrate utilization constant was discussed by calculating Pearson correlation. Certain correlation seemed to exist between population size, biodiversity, and degradation constant. And the influence of population size might be greater than that of biodiversity.