Unsymmetrical donor—acceptor—donor—acceptor type indoline based organic semiconductors with benzothiadiazole cores for solution-processed bulk heterojunction solar cells

Bulk heterojunction(BHJ) solar cells based on small molecules have attracted potential attention due to their promise of conveniently defined structures, high absorption coefficients, solution process-ability and easy fabrication. Three D—A—D—A type organic semiconductors(WS-31,WS-32 and WS-52) are synthesized, based on the indoline donor and benzotriazole auxiliary acceptor core, along with either bare thiophene or rigid cyclopentadithiophene as π bridge, rhodanine or carbonocyanidate as end-group. Their HOMO orbitals are delocalized throughout the whole molecules. Whereas the LUMOs are mainly localized on the acceptor part of structure, which reach up to benzothiadiazole, but no distribution on indoline donor. The first excitations for WS-31 and WS-32 are mainly originated by electron transition from HOMO to LUMO level, while for WS-52, partly related to transition between HOMO and LUMO+1 level. The small organic molecules are applied as donor components in bulk heterojunction(BHJ) organic solar cells, using PC_(61)BM as acceptor material to check their photovoltaic performances. The BHJ solar cells based on blended layer of WS-31:PC_(61)BM and WS-32:PC_(61)BM processed with chloroform show overall photoelectric conversion efficiency(PCE) of 0.56% and 1.02%, respectively. WS-32 based BHJ solar cells show a higher current density originated by its relatively larger driving force of photo-induced carrier in photo-active layer to LUMO of PC_(61)BM.

Boosted urea electro-oxidation over Ni_(3)N-based nanocomposite via systematic regulation tactic

Exploiting high-efficiency Ni-based materials for electrocatalytic urea oxidation reaction(UOR) is critical for urea-related technologies.The catalytic site density,intrinsic activity,charge transfer,and mass diffusion determine overall electrocatalytic efficiency.Simultaneous modulation over the above four factors promises advanced electrocatalysis,yet challenging.Herein we propose a systematic regulation tactic over composition and geometric structure,constructing a nanocomposite comprising Mn doped Ni_(3)N nanoparticles anchored on reduced graphene oxide(rGO/Mn-Ni_(3)N),achieving elegant integration of four design principles into one,thereby eminently boosting UOR.Particularly,Mn doping in Ni_(3)N can modulate electronic state to induce intrinsic activity regulation.Combining metallic Mn-Ni_(3)N with rGO to engineer hierarchical architecture not only promotes charge transfer,but also enriches active site population.Intriguingly,improved hydrophilicity could impart better electrolyte penetration and gas escape.Consequently,such system-optimized rGO/Mn-Ni_(3)N demonstrates state-of-the-art-level UOR electrocatalysis.This work offers a novel paradigm to create advanced catalysts via systematic and integrated modulation.

Linker gadolinium as charge channel and singlet oxygen activation site in graphitic carbon nitride for enhancing photocatalytic decomposition of tetracycline

Reactive oxygen species are essential in photocatalytic water treatment.In this paper,Gd doped carbon nitride(CN)photocatalysts were prepared by simple thermal polymerization for the photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation.The photodegradation rate of 1.OGdCN is as high as 95%in 18 min,and the photocatalytic performance is much higher than that of CN.The improvement of photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the fact that Gd ion implantation directly provides active sites for oxygen activation and induces the formation of N vacancies.The results of characterizations show that the introduction of Gd in CN can improve the conversion ability of activated oxygen,carrier separation and energy band structure adjustment.Therefore,1.0GdCN photocatalyst can be employed for efficient photocatalytic synthesis of tetracycline.Furthermore,three ways of photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline were revealed by high performance liquid chromatographymass spectrometry.This work provides insights into the doping strategy of CN to improve the production of reactive oxygen species for environmental remediation.

A Bi-layer Composite Film Based on TiO_2 Hollow Spheres, P25,and Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Photoanode of Dye-sensitized Solar Cell

A bi-layer photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cell(DSSC) was fabricated, in which TiO_2 hollow spheres(THSs) were designed as a scattering layer and P25/multi-walled carbon nanotubes(MWNTs) as an under-layer. The THSs were synthesized by a sacrifice template method and showed good light scattering ability as an over-layer of the photoanode. MWNTs were mixed with P25 to form an under-layer of the photoanode to improve the electron transmission ability of the photoanode. The power conversion efficiency of this kind of DSSC with bi-layer was enhanced to 5.13 %,which is 14.25 % higher than that of pure P25 DSSC.Graphical Abstract A bi-layer composite photoanode based on P25/MWNTs-THSs with improved light scattering and electron transmission, which will provide a new insight into fabrication and structure design of highly efficient dyesensitized solar cells.

Conformations and Structures of Ethoxycarbonyl Isothiocyanate Revealed by Rotational Spectroscopy

The ethoxycarbonyl isothiocyanate has been investigated by using supersonic jet Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy.Two sets of rotational spectra belonging to conformers TCC(with the backbone of C-C-O-C,C-O-C=O,and O-C(=O)-NCS being trans,cis,and cis arranged,respectively)and GCC(gauche,cis,and cis arrangement of the C-C-O-C,C-O-C=O,and O-C(=O)-NCS)have been measured and assigned.The measurements of13C,15N and34S mono-substituted species of the two conformers have also been performed.The comprehensive rotational spectroscopic investigations provide accurate values of rotational constants and14N quadrupole coupling constants,which lead to structural determinations of the two conformers of ethoxycarbonyl isothiocyanate.For conformer TCC,the values of Pcckeep constant upon isotopic substitution,indicating that the heavy atoms of TCC are effectively located in the ab plane.

Efficient p-i-n structured perovskite solar cells employing low-cost and highly reproducible oligomers as hole transporting materials

The development of p-i-n structured perovskite solar cells(PSCs) requires more extensive explorations on seeking efficient, low cost and stable hole transporting materials(HTMs). Small molecular HTMs are superior to polymeric ones in terms of synthetic reproducibility as well as purity. However, thin films composed of small molecules are usually labile during the solution-based perovskite deposition. Herein, we propose a molecular engineering strategy of incorporating oligothiophene as conjugation bridge to develop robust oligomer HTMs for p-i-n type PSCs. Upon increasing the oligothiophene chain length from α-bithiophene to α-quaterthiophene and α-hexathiophene, their HOMO energy levels remain unchanged, but their solubility in common organic solvents decreased remarkably, thus greatly enhancing their tolerance to the perovskite deposition. The rational design of oligothiophene chain length can effectively tune their optoelectronic properties as well as thin film stability under polar solvent soaking. The best performance is achieved by an α-quaterthiophene based HTM(QT), showing a high efficiency of 17.69% with fill factor of 0.81, which are comparable to those of a commercially available benchmark polymer HTM(poly[bis(4-phenyl)(2,4-dimethylphenyl) amine], PTAA) based devices fabricated under the same conditions. Our developed oligomer system not only provides the definite molecular structures like small molecule-type HTMs, but also exhibits the excellent filmforming like polymer-type HTMs, thus achieving the well-balanced parameters among solvent tolerance, thin film conductivity,and interfacial charge transfer efficiency, especially building up a platform to develop low cost and reproducible efficient HTMs in p-i-n structured perovskite solar cells.

Organic sensitizers with different thiophene units as conjugated bridges:molecular engineering and photovoltaics

Three structural modifications with incorporation of alkyl,alkoxy and vinyl bond into the skeleton of thiophene bridge in D-π-A featured organic sensitizers are specifically developed for insight into their influences on photophysical,electrochemical as well as photovoltaic properties in nanocrystalline TiO_2-based dye sensitized solar cells(DSSCs).The insertion of vinyl bond into the conjugation bridge leads to the molecular planar configuration,and the conjugation bridge of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene(EDOT)is prone to positively shift its highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO).The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS)results indicate that the grafted long alkyl chain onto thiophene is favorable to suppress dye aggregation when adsorbed onto TiO_2film and modification on interface of TiO_2/dye/electrolyte,resulting in a relatively high open-circuit voltage(V_(oc)).Under optimized conditions,dye LS-4 bearing hexylthiophene as the conjugation bridge shows a relatively high overall conversion efficiency of5.45%,with a photocurrent of 11.61 mA cm^(-2),V_(oc)of 744 mV.