相关论文: What limits photosynthesis? Identifying the thermo…
Earth is expected to have acquired a reduced proto-atmosphere enriched in H2 and CH4 through the accretion of building blocks that contain metallic Fe and/or the gravitational trapping of surrounding nebula gas. Such an early, wet, reduced…
An isolated single-junction solar cell's temperature in outer space depends only on its radiation exchange with its environment. We consider a cell with zero emissivity below its bandgap and unity above it -- an idealization so far…
The evaporation of water is ubiquitous in nature and industrial technologies. The known mechanism for evaporation is "thermal evaporation" which highlights the energy input for evaporation is via heat. Due to the weak absorption of water to…
As the 21st century progresses, photovoltaic technology is becoming a major provider of the worlds electricity, while effects of global climate change unfold. This development begs the question: is climate change affecting the energy…
Evaporation rates from porous evaporators under sunlight have been reported to exceed the solar-thermal limit, determined by relating the incoming solar energy to the latent and sensible heat of water, for applications in desalination and…
Photosynthetic organisms use networks of chromophores to absorb sunlight and deliver the energy to reaction centres, where charge separation triggers a cascade of chemical steps to store the energy. We present a detailed model of the…
Photochemistry has the potential to substantially impact the atmospheric composition of exoplanets with consequences on the radiative transfer, thermal structure and dynamics of the atmospheres, particularly in UV-rich stellar environments.…
Recent advances in nonequilibrium statistical physics have provided unprecedented insight into the thermodynamics of dynamic processes. The author recently used these advances to extend Landauer's semi-formal reasoning concerning the…
The thermodynamic limit for the efficiency of solar cells is predominantly defined by the energy bandgap of the used semiconductor. In case of organic solar cells both energetics and kinetics of three different species play role: excitons,…
We propose a unified framework linking silicate weathering feedbacks, ecohydrological optimality and vegetation-climate interactions to explain Earth's Global Average Temperature evolution over the Phanerozoic. The framework integrates two…
Living systems maintain or increase local order by working against the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Thermodynamic consistency is restored as they dissipate heat, thereby increasing the net entropy of their environment. Recently introduced…
We analyze standard theoretical models of solar energy conversion developed to study solar cells and photosynthetic systems. We show that the assumption that the energy transfer to the reaction center/electric circuit is through a decay…
Atmospheric water harvesting is urgently needed given increasing global water scarcity. Current sorbent-based devices that cycle between water capture and release have low harvesting rates. We envision a radically different multi-material…
Nearly all energy generated by fusion in the solar core is ultimately radiated away into space in the solar atmosphere, while the remaining energy is carried away in the form of neutrinos. The exchange of energy between the solar gas and…
If life is sustained by a process of photosynthesis, not necessarily the same existing on Earth, the surface temperature of the star and the orbit of the host planet cannot be whatsoever. In fact the global life cycle, no matter how…
Life is a complex biological phenomenon represented by numerous chemical, physical and biological processes performed by a biothermodynamic system/cell/organism. Both living organisms and inanimate objects are subject to aging, a biological…
Even photosynthesis -- the most basic natural phenomenon underlying Life on Earth -- involves the non-trivial processing of excitations at the pico- and femtosecond scales during light-harvesting. The desire to understand such natural…
To explain reported solar interfacial-evaporation rates from porous materials beyond an apparent 100% efficiency using the thermal evaporation mechanism, many publications hypothesize that intermediate water inside porous materials have a…
Mathematical models of photosynthesis-irradiance relationships in phytoplankton are used to compute integrated water-column photosynthetic rates and predict primary production. Models typically ignore an important phenomenon observed in…
The terrestrial water cycle links the soil and atmosphere moisture reservoirs through four fluxes: precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and atmospheric moisture convergence (net import of water vapor to balance runoff). Each of these…