The performance of optical devices is dependent on their optical transparency (OT). This is evident when such devices are exposed to environmental conditions that can reduce OT. The development of a robust, transparent and self-cleaning coating is highly desirable, for applications likeoptical windows and solar panels. This work reports the design of such coatings based on a hydrophobic thin film fabricated using a sol-gel process. Coating properties were optimised by modification of the surface topography of the coatings, achieved by the incorporation of silica nanoparticles(NPs). The coating was characterised by water contact angle(WCA), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and white light interferometry (WLI). The efficacy and robustness of the coating foroptical application was assessed.

The importance of understanding the growth fundamentals of ZnO/TiO2 nanolaminate structures deposited by atomic layer deposition is explored.

The use of sugarcane as a biofactory and source of renewable biomass is being investigated increasingly due to its vigorous growth and ability to fix a large amount of carbon dioxide compared to other crops. The high biomass resulting from sugarcane production (up to 80 t/ha) makes it a candidate for genetic manipulation to increase the production of other sugars found in this research that are of commercial interest. Sucrose is the major sugar measured in sugarcane with hexoses glucose and fructose present in lower concentrations; sucrose can make up to 60% of the total dry weight of the culm. Species related to modern sugarcane cultivars were examined for the presence of sugars other than glucose, fructose and sucrose with the potential of this crop as a biofactory in mind. The species examined form part of the Saccharum complex, a closelyrelated interbreeding group. Extracts of the immature and mature internodes of six different species and a hybrid were analysed with gas chromatography mass spectrometry to identify mono-, di-and tri-saccharides, as well as sugar acids and sugar alcohols. Thirty two sugars were detected, 16 of which have previously not been identified in sugarcane. Apart from glucose, fructose and sucrose the abundance of sugars in all plants was low but the research demonstrated the presence of sugar pathways that could be manipulated. Since species from the Saccharum complex can be interbred, any genes leading to the production of sugars of interest could be introgressed into commercial Saccharum species or manipulated through genetic engineering.

Pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or more correctly atomic layer deposition (ALD) outside of the ALD thermal window, was used to grow vanadium pentoxide films using Tetrakis(dimethylamino)vanadium (IV) (V(NMe2)4) as the vanadium source and either oxygen-argon plasma, oxygen or water as the co-reagent. Growths were performed at 150-300 °C for 400 cycles, resulting in a range of both stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric vanadium oxides. Post growth annealing in air at 400 °C for both thermal and plasma assisted methods resulted in the formation of α-V2O5. Electrochemical characterization revealed that the samples grown at 250 °C using a plasma process and a post growth anneal demonstrate the best electrochemical properties in terms of current density and charge density with values of 0.35 mAcm -2 and 55 mCcm -2 respectively. The influence of growth parameters on material properties is discussed.

Over the past few years single junction perovskite solar cells have been extensively studied with reported power conversion efficiencies approaching 20% [1-3]. Despite such advances, high efficiency combined with low fabrication cost, parasitic absorptions and long term stability have remained issues. One approach to curtail some of these obstacles has been the investigation of planar architectures where the mesoporous TiO2/Al2O3 is removed from the cell and the electron transport layer (ETL) is reduced to a nanometre scale compact charge blocking layer [4]. Typically this layer has been TiO2 but more recently band gap engineering studies have shown that SnO2 has significant potential in removing TiO2 hysteresis effects whilst maintaining efficiencies [5] In this study we examined planar stacks comprising glass/FTO/ETL/perovskite/spiro MeOTAD hole transport layer/contacts with an aim to further optimize the metal oxide ETL. The metal oxides studied in this work were atomic layer deposition grown SnO2, nominally undoped TiO2 and doped TiO2, all grown at temperatures below 180°C to align with the requirements of silicon-perovskite heterojunction cells [6]. The influence of the ALD growth parameters and composition of the ETL on the subsequent perovskite deposition, as well as the resultant cell performance are highlighted and discussed in terms of efficiency and hysteresis. W.S. Yang et al., Science, 348, 1234-1237 (2015). N.J. Jeon et al., Nature, 517, 476- 480, (2015). S.D. Stranks et al., Science 342, 341-344, (2013) M. Liu et al., Nature, 501, 395- 398, (2013). J.P. Correa Baena, Energy and Environment Science, DOI:10.1039/c5ee02608c, (2015). J.P. Mailoa et al., Applied Physics Letters, 106, 121105 (2015).