Over the last 20 years, much attention has been paid to renewable energy technology. Photovoltaic is a promising alternative to conventional fossil fuels. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) attract notable interest, not only due to their high efficiency and environmentally friendly nature, but also their easy fabrication and relatively low manufacture costs. Despite the high efficiencies, iodine/triiodine electrolytes have some disadvantages, such as the corrosion of the metallic electrodes and the sealing materials. It also absorbs visible light around 430 nm. Therefore, it is important to exploit the iodine-free redox couple in DSCs. An organic disulfide material of 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMcT) is proved here to reduce and oxidize independently via homopolymerization and depolymerization. DMcT has been applied as cathode active material for lithium rechargeable batteries. Meanwhile, the self-redox property could be used as redox mediator in lieu of iodine/triiodine electrolytes. DMcT can be oxidized by self-polymerizing into PDMcT, which can be reduced by depolymerizing back to DMcT. In contrast to the conventional redox couples consisted of two different materials, DMcT can independently act as the redox mediator, which is the main difference between DMcT and the redox couples reported previously. Dye-sensitized solar cells consist of mesoporous TiO2, N719 dye, and this novel electrolyte achieved power conversion efficiency of 1.6% under 100 mW.cm(-2) simulated sunlight (AM 1.5G) and a higher efficiency of 2.6% at weak illumination (13 mW.cm(-2)), implying its promising application prospect. Although the conversion efficiency is relatively low to the iodine/triiodine-based DSCs, this novel single self-redox mediator provides a new promising way to the iodine-free dye-sensitized solar cells.
This paper extends the current literatures on the relation between fund expenses and fund flows using data from Taiwan. Our findings for the Taiwan market differ from previous studies on the U.S. market. Specifically, we find no support for the notion of “out of sight, out of mind”. For Taiwan mutual funds, net flows and inflows are negatively related to operating expenses but not front-end loads. The discrepancy between our results and those reported for the U.S. market may be attributed to the fee structure in Taiwan, where operating expenses are much higher than front-end loads and seem to have a bigger impact on fund performance. The negative relation between net flows (inflows) and operating expenses is more pronounced for funds with high institutional investor participation and funds charging high operating expenses. However, investor types show no significant impact on the relations between front-end loads and various measures of fund flows.
According to the Montreal Protocol, China is required to phase-out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) by 2030. Compound 1,1-dichloro-1-fluoroethane (CH3CCl2F, HCFC-141b) has an ozone depleting potential (ODP, 0.11) and global warming potential (GWP, 782), and is widely used in the polyurethane foam and solvent sectors in China. This study compiles a comprehensive emission inventory of HCFC-141b during 2000–2013 and makes a projection to 2050. Our results showed that HCFC-141b emissions in China increased from 0.8 Gg/yr (0.6 CO2-eq Tg/yr) in 2000 to 15.8 Gg/yr (12.4 CO2-eq Tg/yr) in 2013 with an accelerated growth rate. The provincial emission distribution showed that Shandong, Jiangsu, and Guangdong are key emission areas in China. A large amount of stock was retained in installed equipment, which may have an impact in the future. For future phasing-out, it was estimated that under the Montreal Planned Phase-out scenario (MPP), the accumulative reduction of HCFC-141b emissions during 2014–2050 would be 3071.0 Gg (2401.5 CO2-eq Tg) compared to that under the Business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. This study reviewed and predicted HCFC-141b emissions and their environmental impacts in China.