Sustainable Production of Biomass-Derived Graphite and Graphene Conductive Inks from Biochar.

Graphite is a commonly used raw material across many industries and the demand for high-quality graphite has been increasing in recent years, especially as a primary component for lithium-ion batteries. However, graphite production is currently limited by production shortages, uneven geographical distribution, and significant environmental impacts incurred from conventional processing. Here, an efficient method of synthesizing biomass-derived graphite from biochar is presented as a sustainable alternative to natural and synthetic graphite.

Spatially Varying Costs of GHG Abatement with Alternative Cellulosic Feedstocks for Sustainable Aviation Fuels.

Cellulosic biomass-based sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) can be produced from various feedstocks. The breakeven price and carbon intensity of these feedstock-to-SAF pathways are likely to differ across feedstocks and across spatial locations due to differences in feedstock attributes, productivity, opportunity costs of land for feedstock production, soil carbon effects, and feedstock composition. We integrate feedstock to fuel supply chain economics and life-cycle carbon accounting using the same system boundary to quantify and compare the spatially varying greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities and costs of GHG abatement with SAFs derived from four feedstocks (switchgrass, miscanthus, energy sorghum, and corn stover) at 4 km resolution across the U.

Atmospheric Humidity Underlies Irreproducibility of Formamidinium Lead Iodide Perovskites.

Metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are infamous for their batch-to-batch and lab-to-lab irreproducibility in terms of stability and performance. Reproducible fabrication of PSCs is a critical requirement for market viability and practical commercialization. PSC irreproducibility plagues all levels of the community; from institutional research laboratories, start-up companies, to large established corporations.

Effects of MgFanti-reflection coating on optical losses in metal halide perovskite solar cells.

The importance of light management for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has recently been emphasized because their power conversion efficiency approaches their theoretical thermodynamic limits. Among optical strategies, anti-reflection (AR) coating is the most widely used method to reduce reflectance loss and thus increase light-harvesting efficiency. Monolayer MgFis a well-known AR material because of its optimal refractive index, simple fabrication process, and physical and chemical durabilities.

Similar photosynthetic but different yield responses of C and C crops to elevated O.

The deleterious effects of ozone (O) pollution on crop physiology, yield, and productivity are widely acknowledged. It has also been assumed that C crops with a carbon concentrating mechanism and greater water use efficiency are less sensitive to O pollution than C crops. This assumption has not been widely tested.

Saturated buffer design flow and performance in Illinois.

There are few peer-reviewed studies documenting saturated buffer annual nitrate (NO ) removal or that have assessed the federal practice standard design criteria. Drainage flow, NO , and dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) were monitored at three saturated buffers in Illinois, USA, for a combined 10 site-years. Nitrate loss reduction averaged 48 ± 19% with removals of 3.

Stability-limiting heterointerfaces of perovskite photovoltaics.

Optoelectronic devices consist of heterointerfaces formed between dissimilar semiconducting materials. The relative energy-level alignment between contacting semiconductors determinately affects the heterointerface charge injection and extraction dynamics. For perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the heterointerface between the top perovskite surface and a charge-transporting material is often treated for defect passivation to improve the PSC stability and performance.

Testing unified theories for ozone response in C species.

There is tremendous interspecific variability in O  sensitivity among C  species, but variation among C  species has been less clearly documented. It is also unclear whether stomatal conductance and leaf structure such as leaf mass per area (LMA) determine the variation in sensitivity to O across species. In this study, we investigated leaf morphological, chemical, and photosynthetic responses of 22 genotypes of four C bioenergy species (switchgrass, sorghum, maize, and miscanthus) to elevated O in side-by-side field experiments using free-air O concentration enrichment (FACE).

Genomic Variation Shaped by Environmental and Geographical Factors in Prairie Cordgrass Natural Populations Collected across Its Native Range in the USA.

Prairie cordgrass ( Link) is a native perennial warm-season (C4) grass common in North American prairies. With its high biomass yield and abiotic stress tolerance, there is a high potential of developing prairie cordgrass for conservation practices and as a dedicated bioenergy crop for sustainable cellulosic biofuel production. However, as with many other undomesticated grass species, little information is known about the genetic diversity or population structure of prairie cordgrass natural populations as compared to their ecotypic and geographic adaptation in North America.

Bioenergy sorghum maintains photosynthetic capacity in elevated ozone concentrations.

Elevated tropospheric ozone concentration (O ) significantly reduces photosynthesis and productivity in several C crops including maize, switchgrass and sugarcane. However, it is unknown how O affects plant growth, development and productivity in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.), an emerging C bioenergy crop.

Simulated Biomass Sorghum GHG Reduction Potential is Similar to Maize.

Policy support for cellulosic biofuels is contingent on their achieving much greater reductions in life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions than corn starch ethanol. Biomass sorghum has been suggested as a genetically and agronomically tractable feedstock species to augment near-term cellulosic feedstock production. This study used DayCent modeling to investigate biomass sorghum production emissions relative to corn with and without stover utilization at 3,265 across the rainfed United States.

Effect of alkaline earth metal chloride additives BCl (B = Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba) on the photovoltaic performance of FAPbI based perovskite solar cells.

Additive engineering is known to be an effective method for inducing a simultaneous effect of enlarging the grain size and surface passivation. As compared to the monovalent halides frequently used as additives, divalent halides are relatively less investigated in the role of additives. In this work, we report effects of alkaline earth metal halides BCl (B = Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) as additives on the opto-electronic properties and photovoltaic performance of FAPbI based perovskite solar cells (PSCs).

Light Emission Enhancement by Tuning the Structural Phase of APbBr (A = CHNH, Cs) Perovskites.

Lead halide perovskite (APbX) has recently emerged as a promising active layer in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as well as an absorber for photovoltaic devices. For better LED properties, it is important to understand the fundamental mechanism of the optoelectronic behaviors, e.g.

CH NH PbI and HC(NH ) PbI Powders Synthesized from Low-Grade PbI : Single Precursor for High-Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells.

High-efficiency perovskite solar cells are generally fabricated by using highly pure (>99.99 %) PbI mixed with an organic iodide in polar aprotic solvents. However, the use of such an expensive chemical may impede progress toward large-scale industrial applications.

The Interplay between Trap Density and Hysteresis in Planar Heterojunction Perovskite Solar Cells.

Anomalous current-voltage (J-V) hysteresis in perovskite (PSK) solar cell is open to dispute, where hysteresis is argued to be due to electrode polarization, dipolar polarization, and/or native defects. However, a correlation between those factors and J-V hysteresis is hard to be directly evaluated because they usually coexist and are significantly varied depending on morphology and crystallinity of the PSK layer, selective contacts, and device architecture. In this study, without changing morphology and crystallinity of PSK layer in a planar heterojunction structure employing FACsPbI, a correlation between J-V hysteresis and trap density is directly evaluated by means of thermally induced PbI regulating trap density.

The complete chloroplast genomes of three Korean Echinochloa crus-galli accessions.

The complete chloroplast (cp) genomes of three Echinochloa crus-galli accessions (KR822684, KR822685, and KR822686) are reported in this work. The cp genome size is similar in three accessions, ranging from 139 846 bp to 139 860 bp. All three genomes have two inverted repeats (IR) of 22 748 bp per each IR with a large single copy (LSC) region of 81 833-81 844 bp and a small single copy (SSC) region of 12 517-12 520 bp.

Assessment of metals pollution on agricultural soil surrounding a lead-zinc mining area in the Karst region of Guangxi, China.

Soil samples were collected on farmland in a lead-zinc mining area in the Karst region of Guangxi, China. The contamination of the soil by eight metals (Cd, Hg, As, Cu, Pb, Cr, Zn, Ni) was determined. Among all these metals, Cd is the most serious pollutant in this area.

Comparison of phosphate materials for immobilizing cadmium in soil.

A study was conducted to compare the effects of phosphate (P) materials in reducing cadmium extractability. Seven P materials (commercial P fertilizers--fused phosphate (FP), 'fused and superphosphate' [FSP], and rock phosphate [RP]; P chemicals--Ca[H(2)PO(4)](2).H(2)O, [NH(4)](2)HPO(4), KH(2)PO(4), and K(2)HPO(4)) were selected for the test.

Effects of oyster shell on soil chemical and biological properties and cabbage productivity as a liming materials.

Oyster shell, a byproduct of shellfish-farming in Korea and containing a high amount of CaCO(3), has a high potential to be used as a liming material in agriculture. However, the agricultural utilization of oyster shell is limited due to its high concentration NaCl. The oyster-shell meal collected had a low concentration of water soluble NaCl (mean 2.

Feasibility of phosphate fertilizer to immobilize cadmium in a field.

To reduce effectively cadmium (Cd) phytoextractability by phosphate fertilizer in Cd contaminated soil, fused and superphosphate (FSP) was applied at the rate of 0, 33.5 (recommendation level), 167.5, and 335 kg P ha(-1) for radish (Raphanus sativa L.

Liming effects on cadmium stabilization in upland soil affected by gold mining activity.

To reduce cadmium (Cd) uptake of plants cultivated in heavy metal-contaminated soil, the best liming material was selected in the incubation test. The effect of the selected material was evaluated in the field. In the incubation experimentation, CaCO(3), Ca(OH)(2), CaSO(4).