Developing new electrode materials is important for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Previous research has mostly been limited to simple binary oxides. The application of multication oxides in DSSC has been rarely explored. In this communication, we report the promising application of Zn2SnO4 nanoparticles in DSSC. An overall light-to-electricity efficiency as high as 3.8% has been achieved under 1 sun AM 1.5 illumination. In comparison with ZnO and SnO2 as its simple component oxides, a Zn2SnO4 cell is more stable against acidic dyes than a ZnO cell, while it has much better performance than a SnO2 cell. Our results suggest that multication oxides, with the availability of a wide range of compositions and tunable properties, hold great promise as new electrode materials for DSSCs.

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Forest roads produce fine sediment with traffic during wet weather. If the forest road is connected to a stream, it can be a source of turbidity and fine sediment, which may be detrimental to aquatic organisms, especially salmonids. The goal of this work was to investigate turbid runoff during wet-weather use from the pavement of forest roads designed to reduce sediment production. This research tested alternatives for road pavements that were designed specifically to minimize turbid runoff caused by subgrade mixing during wet-weather hauling. Alternative designs of the pavement for unbound aggregate roads influenced the production of sediment, but results were not consistent; the pavement treatments produced different results across different research locations. There was no statistically significant treatment effect. This factor suggested that fine sediment in surface runoff did not originate from the subgrade but rather from the surface aggregate. Road managers who want to minimize the production of sediment from forest roads should be concerned with the unbound aggregate pavement rather than the subgrade. Road segments that developed ruts produced considerably more sediment than road segments where ruts did not form. Thus, to minimize sediment production during wet-weather hauling, managers should design the aggregate pavement to resist rut formation and with consideration of the availability of fine sediment in the aggregate.

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