Modelling and Numerical Evaluation of Photovoltaic Parameters of a Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Cell Based on Methylammonium Tin Iodide.

Designing a high-performance solar cell structure requires the understanding of material innovation, device engineering, charge behavior, operation characteristics and efficient photoconversion of light to generate electricity. This study offers a detailed numerical evaluation of the device physics in a highly efficient methylammonium-based perovskite solar cell (PSC) of the configuration, FTO/WO/CH₃NH₃SnI₃/GO/Fe. Utilizing the SCAPS-1D device simulator, an impressive open-circuit voltage (V) of 1.

The impact of puff frequency on respirable particulate matter in mainstream cigarette smoke.

Background: Inhalation of particulate matter (PM) from cigarette smoke is hazardous to smokers and non-smokers. This contribution simulates the deposition of cigarette PM on the lung surface by trapping tobacco smoke particulates on Croton megalocarpus biochar. This study investigated one commercial cigarette (MM) and one local cigarette (RR).

A review of the characteristic properties of selected tobacco chemicals and their associated etiological risks.

Objectives: Despite the quantum of research findings on tobacco epidemic, a review on the formation characteristics of nicotine, aldehydes and phenols, and their associated etiological risks is still limited in literature. Accordingly, knowledge on the chemical properties and free radical formation during tobacco burning is an important subject towards unravelling the relationship between smoking behaviour and disease. This review investigates how scientific efforts have been advanced towards understanding the release of molecular products from the thermal degradation of tobacco, and harm reduction strategies among cigarette smokers in general.

Dioxin and dibenzofuran like molecular analogues from the pyrolysis of biomass materials-the emerging challenge in bio-oil production.

Introduction: The aggressive search for renewable energy resources and essential pyrosynthetic compounds has marked an exponential rise in the thermal degradation of biomass materials. Consequently, clean and sustainable transport fuels are increasingly desirable in a highly industrialized economy, for energy security and environmental protection. For this reason, biomass materials have been identified as promising alternatives to fossil fuels despite the challenges resulting from the possible formation of toxic nitrogen-based molecules during biomass degradation.

A review of tobacco abuse and its epidemiological consequences.

Aim: The economic burden caused by death and disease in the world is credited mainly to tobacco use-currently linked to approximately 8,000,000 deaths per year with approximately 80% of these faralities reported in low and middle income economies. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 7,000,000 deaths are attributed to direct tobacco use, while approximately 1,200,000 non-smokers exposed to second hand cigarette smoke die every year. Accordingly, tobacco use is a major threat to the public health infrastructure; therefore, proper cessation interventions must be put in place to curb tobacco abuse and ease economic and social burdens caused by the tobacco epidemic.

Mechanistic formation of hazardous molecular heterocyclic amines from high temperature pyrolysis of model biomass materials: cellulose and tyrosine.

Background: Research inventories on the co-pyrolysis of major biomass components such as cellulose with amino acid materials is scarce in literature despite the fact that such studies are critical in understanding toxic product relations from high temperature cooking, combustion of bio-fuels, cigarette smoking and forest fires. This paper explores, quantitatively, the yields of heterocyclic nitrogenated molecular reaction products of grave mutagenetic concern from the co-pyrolysis of model biomass materials; tyrosine and cellulose. Research has established that heterocyclic amines such as isocyanates are mutagens as well precursors for asthma, and other respiratory disorders.

Free radicals and ultrafine particulate emissions from the co-pyrolysis of Croton megalocarpus biodiesel and fossil diesel.

Background: The atmosphere has become a major transport corridor for free radicals and particulate matter from combustion events. The motivation behind this study was to determine the nature of particulate emissions and surface bound radicals formed during the thermal degradation of diesel blends in order to assess the health and environmental hazards of binary transport fuels.

Methodology: Accordingly, this contribution explored the interactions that occur when Croton megalocarpus biodiesel and fossil diesel in the ratio of 1:1 by weight were co-pyrolyzed in a quartz reactor at a residence time of 0.

Environmentally persistent free radicals and particulate emissions from the thermal degradation of Croton megalocarpus biodiesel.

Pyrolysis of biodiesel at high temperatures may result in the formation of transient and stable free radicals immobilized on particulate emissions. Consequently, free radicals adsorbed on particulates are believed to be precursors for health-related illnesses such as cancer, cardiac arrest, and oxidative stress. This study explores the nature of free radicals and particulate emissions generated when Croton megalocarpus biodiesel is pyrolyzed at 600 °C in an inert environment of flowing nitrogen at a residence time of 0.

The Degradation of O-ethyltoluene and 1,3,5-Trimethylbenzene in Lake Naivasha Wetland, Kenya.

The primary degradation of benzene derivatives in aquatic environments occurs via microbial and chemical processes. This study investigated the kinetic degradation of o-ethyltoluene and 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene in the wetland of Lake Naivasha. Sediment samples were collected from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM at intervals of 3 h during the dry season of December 2017.

Surface bound radicals, char yield and particulate size from the burning of tobacco cigarette.

Background: Tobacco smoke is a toxic gas-phase cocktail consisting of a broad range of organics, and free radical intermediates. The formation of smoke from a burning cigarette depends on a series of mechanisms, including generation of products by pyrolysis and combustion, aerosol formation, and physical mass transfer processes.

Methods: The current study simulates the deposition of particulate matter on the human lung surface by trapping the tobacco smoke particulates in situ on silica gel.

Kinetic modeling of nicotine in mainstream cigarette smoking.

Background: The attempt to understand the kinetic behavior of nicotine in tobacco will provide a basis for unraveling its energetics in tobacco burning and the formation of free radicals considered harmful to the cigarette smoking community. To the best of our knowledge, the high temperature destruction kinetic characteristics of nicotine have not been investigated before; hence this study is necessary especially at a time addiction science and tobacco research in general is gaining intense attention.

Methods: The pyrolysis of tobacco under conditions simulating cigarette smoking in the temperature region 200-700 °C has been investigated for the evolution of nicotine and pyridine from two commercial cigarettes coded ES1 and SM1 using gas chromatography hyphenated to a mass selective detector (MSD).

Molecular modeling of major tobacco alkaloids in mainstream cigarette smoke.

Background: Consensus of opinion in literature regarding tobacco research has shown that cigarette smoke can cause irreparable damage to the genetic material, cell injury, and general respiratory landscape. The alkaloid family of tobacco has been implicated is a series of ailments including addiction, mental illnesses, psychological disorders, and cancer. Accordingly, this contribution describes the mechanistic degradation of major tobacco alkaloids including the widely studied nicotine and two other alkaloids which have received little attention in literature.

Phenols from pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis of tobacco biomass components.

Phenol and its derivatives (phenol, o-, m-, p-cresols, catechol, hydroquinone, methoxy substituted phenols, etc. referred to as phenolic compounds or phenols) are well-known toxicants that exist in the environment and affect both human and natural ecosystems. This study explores quantitatively the yields of phenolic compounds from the thermal degradation (pyrolysis and oxidative pyrolysis) of common tobacco biomass components (lignin, tyrosine, ethyl cellulose, sodium alginate, and laminarin) as well as some mixtures (lignin/tyrosine, ethyl cellulose/tyrosine and sodium alginate/tyrosine) considered important in high temperature cooking, tobacco smoking, and forest fires.

Molecular products from the thermal degradation of glutamic acid.

The thermal behavior of glutamic acid was investigated in N2 and 4% O2 in N2 under flow reactor conditions at a constant residence time of 0.2 s, within a total pyrolysis time of 3 min at 1 atm. The identification of the main pyrolysis products has been reported.

Molecular products from the pyrolysis and oxidative pyrolysis of tyrosine.

The thermal degradation of tyrosine at a residence time of 0.2s was conducted in a tubular flow reactor in flowing N2 and 4% O2 in N2 for a total pyrolysis time of 3min. The fractional pyrolysis technique, in which the same sample was heated continuously at each pyrolysis temperature, was applied.