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Buckypaper-Cored Novel Photovoltaic Sensors for In-Situ Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Materials Using Hybrid Quantum Dots

  • Conference paper
Mechanics of Composite and Multi-functional Materials, Volume 7

Abstract

This paper reports on work developing an efficient distributed photovoltaic (PV) sensor using Buckypaper (BP) as working electrodes (WEs). BP is a thin sheet made from an aggregate of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with the advantages of good mechanical properties, high electrical conductivity and flexibility. These advantages enable sensor flexibility and significantly improve the charge transfer speed. In addition to BPs, quantum dots (QD) have recently drawn attention in photoconversion systems due to high absorption coefficient, tunable band gap and multiple exciton generation (MEG) effects. Herein, this work proposes to apply np-TiO2/mp-TiO2/CdS/CdSe/N719 hybrid structure to realize both MEG effects and multiple electron transmission paths. Previous research has confirmed that a liquid electrolyte and glass cladding were also components of the assembly process which additionally improve sensor efficiency. However, the reported efficiency (>5 %) of the solid state sensor is ten times that seen in previous work utilizing metal-cored wire-shaped liquid PV sensor. This article also discusses surface characterization of nanowires and the functionalization of solid-solid interfacial properties. Moreover, the distributed PV sensor construction is the basis of ongoing work towards embedded smart composites with intrinsic triboluminescent/mechanoluminescent (TL/ML) features.

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Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through grant ID CMMI-0969413 and Air Force Research Laboratory. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Zhiyong (Richard) Liang (High-Performance Materials Institute, Florida, USA) for providing both random and aligned Buckypapers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High Performance Materials Institute, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University, 2525 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA

    Jin Yan, Deborah E. Daramola, Julian M. Antolinez, Nnamdi Okoli, Tarik J. Dickens & Okenwa I. Okoli

Authors
  1. Jin Yan
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  2. Deborah E. Daramola
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  3. Julian M. Antolinez
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  4. Nnamdi Okoli
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  5. Tarik J. Dickens
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  6. Okenwa I. Okoli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Okenwa I. Okoli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Research Institute, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

    Carter Ralph

  2. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Meredith Silberstein

  3. The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan, USA

    Piyush R. Thakre

  4. Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

    Raman Singh

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© 2016 The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc.

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Yan, J., Daramola, D.E., Antolinez, J.M., Okoli, N., Dickens, T.J., Okoli, O.I. (2016). Buckypaper-Cored Novel Photovoltaic Sensors for In-Situ Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Materials Using Hybrid Quantum Dots. In: Ralph, C., Silberstein, M., Thakre, P., Singh, R. (eds) Mechanics of Composite and Multi-functional Materials, Volume 7. Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21762-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21762-8_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21761-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21762-8

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