Alireza Aghaei | Materials and Energy Research Center (original) (raw)

Papers by Alireza Aghaei

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

Journal of Materials Science, 2014

ABSTRACT The role of BiFeO3 addition on the crystal structure, microstructure, and the electrical... more ABSTRACT The role of BiFeO3 addition on the crystal structure, microstructure, and the electrical and electromechanical properties of high-sensitivity Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 ferroelectric ceramics for compositions at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) is investigated. A perovskite solid solution from nano-sized BiFeO3 and Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 powders is obtained, in which the persistence of a MPB in the ternary system is demonstrated. The structural characterization, along with the electrical properties, indicates the stabilization of intermediate domain configurations, associated with a decrease of the temperature for the development of the ferroelectric long-range order. As a consequence, high phase-change electromechanical response is found for certain small BiFeO3 additions. This result is very promising for the processing of textured ceramics taking advantage of the decomposition behaviour of BiFeO3. Ceramic texturing is demonstrated, a key technology for developing lead-free piezoelectrics that can replace Pb(Zr,Ti)O3.

Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering

Materials Research Express

International Journal of Materials Research

New J. Chem.

In the present study, hybrid nanostructures of porous Co3O4 nanoball/carbon aerogel were prepared... more In the present study, hybrid nanostructures of porous Co3O4 nanoball/carbon aerogel were prepared via the in situ growth of Co3O4 nanoballs with nanosized uniform structures within the pores of a pre-synthesized atmospheric pressure-dried highly mesoporous carbon aerogel.

Materials Science and Engineering: A, 2008

Molecular dynamic simulation is exploited to obtain a deep insight of atomic scale mixing and amo... more Molecular dynamic simulation is exploited to obtain a deep insight of atomic scale mixing and amorphization mechanisms happening during mechanical mixing. Impact–relaxation cycles are performed to simulate the mechanical alloying process. The results obtained by ...

Journal of Nanoparticle …

In this study, the authors first review the previously developed, thermodynamics-based theory for... more In this study, the authors first review the previously developed, thermodynamics-based theory for size dependency of the cohesion energy of freestanding spherically shaped Al nanoparticles. Then, this model is extrapolated to the cubic and truncated octahedron Al nanoparticle shapes. A series of computations for Al nanoparticles with these two new shapes are presented for particles in the range of 1-100 nm. The thermodynamics computational results reveal that there is a second critical size around 1.62 and 1 nm for cubes and truncated octahedrons, respectively. Below this critical size, particles behave as if they consisted only of surface-energy-state atoms. A molecular dynamics simulation is used to verify this second critical size for Al nanoparticles in the range of 1-5 nm. MD simulation for cube and truncated octahedron shapes shows the second critical point to be around 1.63 and 1.14 nm, respectively. According to the modeling and simulation results, this second critical size seems to be a material property characteristic rather than a shape-dependent feature.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 2016

Pigm Resin Technol, 2010

ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pig... more ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pigment by inclusion of hematite in a transparent zirconium silicate crystal. The purpose of this paper is to compare solution combustion and co-precipitation methods as two different routes for synthesis of zircon-based coral pigment. Design/methodology/approach - X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and simultaneous thermal analysis were used to characterise and evaluate the precipitated zircon and Fe 2 O 3 phases. The synthesised samples were incorporated into a suitable ceramic glaze and then their L*, a* and b* colour parameters were measured via Commission Internationale de I'Eclairage colorimetric method. Findings - The results revealed that partial reduction of hematite ( a -Fe 2 O 3 ) to maghemite ( ? -Fe 2 O 3 ) destroyed the quality of the pigment obtained from the combustion processing method. Nevertheless, it is found that co-precipitation would be an appropriate method for synthesis coral pigment. Research limitations/implications - It is found that the solution combustion method is not able to directly synthesise a zircon-based coral pigment during combustion reaction. Furthermore, the presence of carbon has led to partial reduction of hematite resulting in unwanted crystalline maghemite phase. This reveals that solution combustion method is not suitable to obtain zircon-based coral pigment. Practical implications - The conventional method to synthesise ceramic pigments is a solid-state reaction that requires high temperature and long processing time. The products are usually coarse and inhomogeneous so this method requires further processing like wet or dry milling in order to produce fine powders. Diffusion barrier in solid-state processing prevents the control of the microstructure and the reactivity of the system. Soft-chemical routes such as solution combustion and co-precipitation methods are better choices to get finer powders and to achieve the desired phases at lower temperatures in shorter time as well. Originality/value - Co-precipitation synthesis of iron-zircon coral pigment using sodium silicate (water glass) as Si source and its comparison with solution combustion method is valuable and has not been reported until now.

Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2001

Conducting the RBAO process through the liquid-gas reaction regime could be an appropriate route ... more Conducting the RBAO process through the liquid-gas reaction regime could be an appropriate route to produce alumina membranes/supports. Such ceramic structures have a larger permeability compared to conventional alumina membranes and, at the same time, do posses high flexural strength. The initial Al content in the Al/Al 2 O 3 mixture powder to be milled strongly affects permeability (negative), flexural strength (positive) and, to a lesser extent, porosity (negative) of the fired samples. Oxidation during milling is low ( < 6 wt.%), but strongly depends on the initial Al content. #

Materials Characterization, Dec 1, 2010

ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized via a simple microwave-hydrothermal method on dif... more ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized via a simple microwave-hydrothermal method on different substrates using zinc nitrate and methenamine aqueous solutions. Single crystal ZnO nanorods with hexagonal structure were obtained in the absence of surfactant, ...

Electrochimica Acta, 2016

Materials Characterization, 2015

This paper aims to explore the impact of the parameters such as pH of the system, refluxing tempe... more This paper aims to explore the impact of the parameters such as pH of the system, refluxing temperature, water quantity and chemical composition on the sol-gel synthesis of lithium-mica glass-ceramic nano-powder. The synthesis process was accomplished using two chemical composition formula (Li (1 + x) Mg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6.5x F 2 and LiMg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6x F 2 ). X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurement and scanning electron microscopy techniques were applied to evaluate a variety of as-synthesized samples. Consequently, a transparent homogeneous sol was obtained under the conditions as pH ≤ 4, synthesis temperature ≤ 50°C, and mol ratio of water to chemicals ≤ 2. The prepared nano-powders under such conditions were in the range of 60-100 nm. The results also revealed that the mica glass-ceramics prepared based on the composition Li (1 + x) Mg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6.5x F 2 possessed finer powders due to their slow hydrolysis process. Moreover, any reduction in the stoichiometric deviation of lithium mica (x) leads to acquiring finer powders.

International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series, 2012

In present study ZnO nanorods were synthesized in an aqueous solution using a domestic microwave ... more In present study ZnO nanorods were synthesized in an aqueous solution using a domestic microwave oven for irradiation. The nanorods have been grown on substrates immersed in an aqueous solution which contains zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine as precursors. Eventually, effect of some parameters such as precursor's concentration and heating time on growth mechanism was characterized. The product phase was detected using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) exhibited the resultant structure is uniform and single crystalline. Finally Uv-Vis spectroscopy was used to measure the nanorod's band gap.

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2014

Monolithic aerogels and xerogels were obtained by drying gels at super critical condition and amb... more Monolithic aerogels and xerogels were obtained by drying gels at super critical condition and ambient pressure after aging at room temperature for various lengths of time. Heat treatment of porous xerogels at low temperature (≤1000°C) in air and flowing ammonia resulted dense, homogeneous oxide and oxynitride glasses, respectively. The chemical bonding state and properties of gels and glasses were investigated employing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dilatometry, and Brunauer-Emmitt-Teller (BET) methods. Nitrogen content of oxynitride glasses were determined by oxygen nitrogen analyzer. Based on the compressive strength measurement, the strength of gels was increased from 0.73 to 1.5 (Mpa) with aging time. The pore size distribution was also changed significantly during aging process via hydrolysis and condensation reactions; the latter is confirmed by the FTIR spectra. The dilatometric softening point temperature of glasses and their micro-hardness were increased after nitridation process. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that nitrogen was chemically dissolved in the network of glass and its content was increased from 0.67 to 2.08 (wt.%) after nitridation for 5 and 15 h, respectively .

Pigment & Resin Technology, 2010

ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pig... more ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pigment by inclusion of hematite in a transparent zirconium silicate crystal. The purpose of this paper is to compare solution combustion and co-precipitation methods as two different routes for synthesis of zircon-based coral pigment. Design/methodology/approach - X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and simultaneous thermal analysis were used to characterise and evaluate the precipitated zircon and Fe 2 O 3 phases. The synthesised samples were incorporated into a suitable ceramic glaze and then their L*, a* and b* colour parameters were measured via Commission Internationale de I&#39;Eclairage colorimetric method. Findings - The results revealed that partial reduction of hematite ( a -Fe 2 O 3 ) to maghemite ( ? -Fe 2 O 3 ) destroyed the quality of the pigment obtained from the combustion processing method. Nevertheless, it is found that co-precipitation would be an appropriate method for synthesis coral pigment. Research limitations/implications - It is found that the solution combustion method is not able to directly synthesise a zircon-based coral pigment during combustion reaction. Furthermore, the presence of carbon has led to partial reduction of hematite resulting in unwanted crystalline maghemite phase. This reveals that solution combustion method is not suitable to obtain zircon-based coral pigment. Practical implications - The conventional method to synthesise ceramic pigments is a solid-state reaction that requires high temperature and long processing time. The products are usually coarse and inhomogeneous so this method requires further processing like wet or dry milling in order to produce fine powders. Diffusion barrier in solid-state processing prevents the control of the microstructure and the reactivity of the system. Soft-chemical routes such as solution combustion and co-precipitation methods are better choices to get finer powders and to achieve the desired phases at lower temperatures in shorter time as well. Originality/value - Co-precipitation synthesis of iron-zircon coral pigment using sodium silicate (water glass) as Si source and its comparison with solution combustion method is valuable and has not been reported until now.

Pigment & Resin Technology, 2015

Electrochimica Acta, 2014

dye-sensitized solar cell cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl redox electrolyte asymmetric supercapacito... more dye-sensitized solar cell cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl redox electrolyte asymmetric supercapacitor nickel oxide integrated photocapacitor a b s t r a c t A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) based on the metal-free organic sensitizer and the cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl electrolyte was integrated here within an asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing cobalt-doped nickel oxide and activated carbon as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. A low cost nickel foil served as intermediate (auxiliary) bifunctional electrode separating two parts of the device and permitting the DSC electrolyte regeneration at one side and charge storage within cobalt-doped nickel oxide at the other. The main purpose of the research was to develop an integrated photocapacitor system capable of both energy generation and its further storage. Following irradiation at the 100 mW cm −2 level, the solar cell generated an open-circuit voltage of 0.8 V and short-circuit current of 8 mA cm −2 which corresponds to energy conversion efficiency of 4.9%. It was further shown that upon integration with asymmetric supercapacitor, the photogenerated energy was directly injected into porous charge storage electrodes thus resulting in specific capacitance of 32 F g −1 and energy density of 2.3 Wh kg −1 . The coulumbic and total (energy conversion and charge storage) efficiency of photocapacitor were equal to 54% and 0.6%, respectively. (N. Bagheri). systems such as batteries or electrochemical capacitors (supercapacitors). The latter systems attract growing interest due to their high power density, reasonable energy density, and long life cycle . Moreover, the electrode materials used in supercapacitors are often cost-effective and non-toxic thus making them friendly for users and environment. When integrated together with solar cell, a supercapacitor may act as both energy reservoir and power buffer which makes the system advantageous in comparison to the performance of conventional low power charge-storage devices (e.g. batteries or accumulators).

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids

Journal of Materials Science, 2014

ABSTRACT The role of BiFeO3 addition on the crystal structure, microstructure, and the electrical... more ABSTRACT The role of BiFeO3 addition on the crystal structure, microstructure, and the electrical and electromechanical properties of high-sensitivity Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 ferroelectric ceramics for compositions at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) is investigated. A perovskite solid solution from nano-sized BiFeO3 and Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3–Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 powders is obtained, in which the persistence of a MPB in the ternary system is demonstrated. The structural characterization, along with the electrical properties, indicates the stabilization of intermediate domain configurations, associated with a decrease of the temperature for the development of the ferroelectric long-range order. As a consequence, high phase-change electromechanical response is found for certain small BiFeO3 additions. This result is very promising for the processing of textured ceramics taking advantage of the decomposition behaviour of BiFeO3. Ceramic texturing is demonstrated, a key technology for developing lead-free piezoelectrics that can replace Pb(Zr,Ti)O3.

Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering

Materials Research Express

International Journal of Materials Research

New J. Chem.

In the present study, hybrid nanostructures of porous Co3O4 nanoball/carbon aerogel were prepared... more In the present study, hybrid nanostructures of porous Co3O4 nanoball/carbon aerogel were prepared via the in situ growth of Co3O4 nanoballs with nanosized uniform structures within the pores of a pre-synthesized atmospheric pressure-dried highly mesoporous carbon aerogel.

Materials Science and Engineering: A, 2008

Molecular dynamic simulation is exploited to obtain a deep insight of atomic scale mixing and amo... more Molecular dynamic simulation is exploited to obtain a deep insight of atomic scale mixing and amorphization mechanisms happening during mechanical mixing. Impact–relaxation cycles are performed to simulate the mechanical alloying process. The results obtained by ...

Journal of Nanoparticle …

In this study, the authors first review the previously developed, thermodynamics-based theory for... more In this study, the authors first review the previously developed, thermodynamics-based theory for size dependency of the cohesion energy of freestanding spherically shaped Al nanoparticles. Then, this model is extrapolated to the cubic and truncated octahedron Al nanoparticle shapes. A series of computations for Al nanoparticles with these two new shapes are presented for particles in the range of 1-100 nm. The thermodynamics computational results reveal that there is a second critical size around 1.62 and 1 nm for cubes and truncated octahedrons, respectively. Below this critical size, particles behave as if they consisted only of surface-energy-state atoms. A molecular dynamics simulation is used to verify this second critical size for Al nanoparticles in the range of 1-5 nm. MD simulation for cube and truncated octahedron shapes shows the second critical point to be around 1.63 and 1.14 nm, respectively. According to the modeling and simulation results, this second critical size seems to be a material property characteristic rather than a shape-dependent feature.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 2016

Pigm Resin Technol, 2010

ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pig... more ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pigment by inclusion of hematite in a transparent zirconium silicate crystal. The purpose of this paper is to compare solution combustion and co-precipitation methods as two different routes for synthesis of zircon-based coral pigment. Design/methodology/approach - X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and simultaneous thermal analysis were used to characterise and evaluate the precipitated zircon and Fe 2 O 3 phases. The synthesised samples were incorporated into a suitable ceramic glaze and then their L*, a* and b* colour parameters were measured via Commission Internationale de I&#39;Eclairage colorimetric method. Findings - The results revealed that partial reduction of hematite ( a -Fe 2 O 3 ) to maghemite ( ? -Fe 2 O 3 ) destroyed the quality of the pigment obtained from the combustion processing method. Nevertheless, it is found that co-precipitation would be an appropriate method for synthesis coral pigment. Research limitations/implications - It is found that the solution combustion method is not able to directly synthesise a zircon-based coral pigment during combustion reaction. Furthermore, the presence of carbon has led to partial reduction of hematite resulting in unwanted crystalline maghemite phase. This reveals that solution combustion method is not suitable to obtain zircon-based coral pigment. Practical implications - The conventional method to synthesise ceramic pigments is a solid-state reaction that requires high temperature and long processing time. The products are usually coarse and inhomogeneous so this method requires further processing like wet or dry milling in order to produce fine powders. Diffusion barrier in solid-state processing prevents the control of the microstructure and the reactivity of the system. Soft-chemical routes such as solution combustion and co-precipitation methods are better choices to get finer powders and to achieve the desired phases at lower temperatures in shorter time as well. Originality/value - Co-precipitation synthesis of iron-zircon coral pigment using sodium silicate (water glass) as Si source and its comparison with solution combustion method is valuable and has not been reported until now.

Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2001

Conducting the RBAO process through the liquid-gas reaction regime could be an appropriate route ... more Conducting the RBAO process through the liquid-gas reaction regime could be an appropriate route to produce alumina membranes/supports. Such ceramic structures have a larger permeability compared to conventional alumina membranes and, at the same time, do posses high flexural strength. The initial Al content in the Al/Al 2 O 3 mixture powder to be milled strongly affects permeability (negative), flexural strength (positive) and, to a lesser extent, porosity (negative) of the fired samples. Oxidation during milling is low ( < 6 wt.%), but strongly depends on the initial Al content. #

Materials Characterization, Dec 1, 2010

ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized via a simple microwave-hydrothermal method on dif... more ZnO nanorods have been successfully synthesized via a simple microwave-hydrothermal method on different substrates using zinc nitrate and methenamine aqueous solutions. Single crystal ZnO nanorods with hexagonal structure were obtained in the absence of surfactant, ...

Electrochimica Acta, 2016

Materials Characterization, 2015

This paper aims to explore the impact of the parameters such as pH of the system, refluxing tempe... more This paper aims to explore the impact of the parameters such as pH of the system, refluxing temperature, water quantity and chemical composition on the sol-gel synthesis of lithium-mica glass-ceramic nano-powder. The synthesis process was accomplished using two chemical composition formula (Li (1 + x) Mg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6.5x F 2 and LiMg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6x F 2 ). X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area measurement and scanning electron microscopy techniques were applied to evaluate a variety of as-synthesized samples. Consequently, a transparent homogeneous sol was obtained under the conditions as pH ≤ 4, synthesis temperature ≤ 50°C, and mol ratio of water to chemicals ≤ 2. The prepared nano-powders under such conditions were in the range of 60-100 nm. The results also revealed that the mica glass-ceramics prepared based on the composition Li (1 + x) Mg 3 AlSi 3(1 + x) O 10+ 6.5x F 2 possessed finer powders due to their slow hydrolysis process. Moreover, any reduction in the stoichiometric deviation of lithium mica (x) leads to acquiring finer powders.

International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series, 2012

In present study ZnO nanorods were synthesized in an aqueous solution using a domestic microwave ... more In present study ZnO nanorods were synthesized in an aqueous solution using a domestic microwave oven for irradiation. The nanorods have been grown on substrates immersed in an aqueous solution which contains zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine as precursors. Eventually, effect of some parameters such as precursor's concentration and heating time on growth mechanism was characterized. The product phase was detected using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) exhibited the resultant structure is uniform and single crystalline. Finally Uv-Vis spectroscopy was used to measure the nanorod's band gap.

Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2014

Monolithic aerogels and xerogels were obtained by drying gels at super critical condition and amb... more Monolithic aerogels and xerogels were obtained by drying gels at super critical condition and ambient pressure after aging at room temperature for various lengths of time. Heat treatment of porous xerogels at low temperature (≤1000°C) in air and flowing ammonia resulted dense, homogeneous oxide and oxynitride glasses, respectively. The chemical bonding state and properties of gels and glasses were investigated employing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dilatometry, and Brunauer-Emmitt-Teller (BET) methods. Nitrogen content of oxynitride glasses were determined by oxygen nitrogen analyzer. Based on the compressive strength measurement, the strength of gels was increased from 0.73 to 1.5 (Mpa) with aging time. The pore size distribution was also changed significantly during aging process via hydrolysis and condensation reactions; the latter is confirmed by the FTIR spectra. The dilatometric softening point temperature of glasses and their micro-hardness were increased after nitridation process. Spectroscopic evidence indicated that nitrogen was chemically dissolved in the network of glass and its content was increased from 0.67 to 2.08 (wt.%) after nitridation for 5 and 15 h, respectively .

Pigment & Resin Technology, 2010

ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pig... more ABSTRACT Purpose - It is essentially valuable to use simpler methods for making the protected pigment by inclusion of hematite in a transparent zirconium silicate crystal. The purpose of this paper is to compare solution combustion and co-precipitation methods as two different routes for synthesis of zircon-based coral pigment. Design/methodology/approach - X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and simultaneous thermal analysis were used to characterise and evaluate the precipitated zircon and Fe 2 O 3 phases. The synthesised samples were incorporated into a suitable ceramic glaze and then their L*, a* and b* colour parameters were measured via Commission Internationale de I&#39;Eclairage colorimetric method. Findings - The results revealed that partial reduction of hematite ( a -Fe 2 O 3 ) to maghemite ( ? -Fe 2 O 3 ) destroyed the quality of the pigment obtained from the combustion processing method. Nevertheless, it is found that co-precipitation would be an appropriate method for synthesis coral pigment. Research limitations/implications - It is found that the solution combustion method is not able to directly synthesise a zircon-based coral pigment during combustion reaction. Furthermore, the presence of carbon has led to partial reduction of hematite resulting in unwanted crystalline maghemite phase. This reveals that solution combustion method is not suitable to obtain zircon-based coral pigment. Practical implications - The conventional method to synthesise ceramic pigments is a solid-state reaction that requires high temperature and long processing time. The products are usually coarse and inhomogeneous so this method requires further processing like wet or dry milling in order to produce fine powders. Diffusion barrier in solid-state processing prevents the control of the microstructure and the reactivity of the system. Soft-chemical routes such as solution combustion and co-precipitation methods are better choices to get finer powders and to achieve the desired phases at lower temperatures in shorter time as well. Originality/value - Co-precipitation synthesis of iron-zircon coral pigment using sodium silicate (water glass) as Si source and its comparison with solution combustion method is valuable and has not been reported until now.

Pigment & Resin Technology, 2015

Electrochimica Acta, 2014

dye-sensitized solar cell cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl redox electrolyte asymmetric supercapacito... more dye-sensitized solar cell cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl redox electrolyte asymmetric supercapacitor nickel oxide integrated photocapacitor a b s t r a c t A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) based on the metal-free organic sensitizer and the cobalt (II, III) polypyridyl electrolyte was integrated here within an asymmetric supercapacitor utilizing cobalt-doped nickel oxide and activated carbon as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. A low cost nickel foil served as intermediate (auxiliary) bifunctional electrode separating two parts of the device and permitting the DSC electrolyte regeneration at one side and charge storage within cobalt-doped nickel oxide at the other. The main purpose of the research was to develop an integrated photocapacitor system capable of both energy generation and its further storage. Following irradiation at the 100 mW cm −2 level, the solar cell generated an open-circuit voltage of 0.8 V and short-circuit current of 8 mA cm −2 which corresponds to energy conversion efficiency of 4.9%. It was further shown that upon integration with asymmetric supercapacitor, the photogenerated energy was directly injected into porous charge storage electrodes thus resulting in specific capacitance of 32 F g −1 and energy density of 2.3 Wh kg −1 . The coulumbic and total (energy conversion and charge storage) efficiency of photocapacitor were equal to 54% and 0.6%, respectively. (N. Bagheri). systems such as batteries or electrochemical capacitors (supercapacitors). The latter systems attract growing interest due to their high power density, reasonable energy density, and long life cycle . Moreover, the electrode materials used in supercapacitors are often cost-effective and non-toxic thus making them friendly for users and environment. When integrated together with solar cell, a supercapacitor may act as both energy reservoir and power buffer which makes the system advantageous in comparison to the performance of conventional low power charge-storage devices (e.g. batteries or accumulators).