Goutam Kumar Dalapati

Global plastic waste is increasing rapidly. In general, densely populated regions generate tons of plastic waste daily, which is sometimes disposed of on land or diverged to sea. Most of the plastics created in the form of waste have complex degradation behavior and are non-biodegradable by nature. These remain intact in the environment for a long time span and potentially originate complications within terrestrial and marine life ecosystems. The strategic management of plastic waste and recycling can preserve environmental species and associated costs. The key contribution in this work focuses on ongoing efforts to utilize plastic waste by introducing blockchain during plastic waste recycling. It is proposed that the efficiency of plastic recycling can be improved enormously by using the blockchain phenomenon. Automation for the segregation and collection of plastic waste can effectively establish a globally recognizable tool using blockchain-based applications. Collection and sorting of plastic recycling are feasible by keeping track of plastic with unique codes or digital badges throughout the supply chain. This approach can support a collaborative digital consortium for efficient plastic waste management, which can bring together multiple stakeholders, plastic manufacturers, government entities, retailers, suppliers, waste collectors, and recyclers.

Tin dioxide (SnO₂) used in various applications due to suitable band gap and tunable conductivity. It has excellent thermal, mechanical and chemical stability.

Herein, it is demonstrated that incorporating ultrathin p‐type cupric oxide (CuO) enhances the performance and stability of solution‐processed Cu₂(Zn_0.6Cd_0.4)SnS₄ (CZCTS)/CdS thin film solar cells. In sol–gel CZCTS/CdS thin film solar cells, nanoscale CuO films (4–32 nm) are deposited on top of molybdenum (Mo) by magnetron sputtering and this is used as an intermediate layer (IL). The CuO IL thickness has a significant effect on the short‐circuit current density (J_SC) in CZCTS/CdS solar cell devices. As a result, a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.77% is measured for the optimized device with 4 nm CuO compared with 10.03% for the reference device without a CuO layer. Furthermore, the stability of the devices is enhanced significantly by incorporating the CuO IL. This work demonstrates that through proper design of the CuO IL thickness, both the back interface quality and optical property of the CZCTS absorber can be tuned to enhance the device performance.