International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems is significantly influenced by surface contamination, which can reduce light transmission and energy conversion performance. In this study, self-cleaning nanostructured coatings based on titanium dioxide (TiO₂ ), zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂ ), and their doped and composite variants (with Y₂ O₃ and Eu₂ O₃ ) were synthesized using the sol-gel method and applied to photovoltaic glass substrates. The coatings were characterized in terms of their optical transmittance, surface morphology (AFM), wettability (contact angle), and crystallographic properties (XRD). Results indicate that TiO₂ coatings offer superior superhydrophilic behavior, while stabilized ZrO₂ -based composites show excellent transparency, surface homogeneity, and long-term durability. Eu₂ O₃ -doped coatings exhibit additional luminescent functionalities, potentially useful for photonic enhancement. These findings highlight the potential of sol-gel coatings in improving PV panel performance via integrated passive cleaning mechanisms and multifunctional surface engineering.

The physic-technological basis for fabrication of bulk rods and plates of amorphous, amorphous-nanocrystalline and 100% nanocrystalline alloys at melt cooling rates from 80 to 3200 K/s with crystal sizes from 10 to 50 nm has been developed. The multiphase structure formed in the initial bulk samples, as well as in the process of nanocrystallization of amorphous ribbons, is characterized by record microhardness values of 17-22 GPa. Amorphous powders (20-100 μm) of Fe55Ni8Co6Mo4Cr2V1Al2P9C6B5Si2 and Fe61.37Co6.84Cr3.78V0.85W0.82Mo1.06Nb0.85B19.87C1.99Si2.57 alloys are used to create a wear-resistant coating on structural stainless steels and low-carbon St3 by the gas-thermal “cold” method » sputtering and subsequent melting of the applied layer.The values of microhardness (Hμ) of nano-coatings significantly exceed the microhardness of all known tool steels. Examples of technology transfer and practical using of developed amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys are presented.

The combustion synthesis (CS) is an autogenous and strongly exothermic chemical reaction in a powdered mixture of a strong reducer and oxidizer. Such processes, due to short duration and fast quench, can be a source of novel nanomaterials. Here we present (i) the CS synthesis of SiC nanowires (SiCNWs) and (ii) the magnesiothermic reduction of the asbestos waste. The resulting raw and purified products were analyzed with different chemical and physicochemical techniques (XRD, SEM, TGA and Raman spectroscopy) to verify its composition and morphology.

Mechanical or thermodynamic excitations in solid state physics – phonons, cause all fundamental physical properties of materials and always are present, regardless of what is the main carrier of transport properties and ordering (for example, in electroconductivity, it can be electrons / holes, ions, etc., and in magnetism – magnons). In particular, phonons play a different and more subtle role in low-dimensional nano-scale samples, because they, due to the confinement effects, influence the creation of completely unusual and altered characteristics in relation to large (bulk) samples of exactly the same material. Therefore, the possible phonon spectra and states in model of crystal nanostructures: ultrathin films, nano-wires and quantum dots were founded in the paper. The most noticeable phenomenon is the consequence of the dimensional quantization, but also the shape of the boundary surfaces, as well as the presence of the environment surrounding the nano-pattern. In addition to the analysis of the microscopic properties of the phonon subsystem, the calculation of the temperature dependence of the thermal capacity and entropy of these nano systems was also calculated and performed by comparisons with the same for bulk structure.

Nano-level surface processing is becoming increasingly important in the development of modern materials. Laser technology allows to change the processing parameters in a wide range and achieve the desired surface properties – hydrophilic and hydrophobic for various fluids. In such circumstances, the benefit of any researcher would be to provide software that can quickly and visibly see and measure the shape, size and configuration of nano and microstructures to be obtained. It is especially important that the obtained results in the form of 3D graphs allow us to see the evolutionary trends of surface nanostructures and help to decide on changes in the processing parameters. The researcher would be given the opportunity to input a wide variety of parameters – laser wavelength, pulse power, polarization angle, pulse frequency, pulse duration, processing time or number of impulses per coordinate – and the result obtained in a short time would serve to better understand common trends and help to make an informed decision for the actual processing parameters to be used in the experiment.