The Physiologic Reaction of Cucumber to Low Temperature and Low Light Intensity

The dynamics of chlorophyll content, leaf area and photosynthesis of cucumber seedlings were studied under sole stress of two low temperatures and low light intensity as well as combined stresses of low light intensity and the two low temperatures. The results showed that low light intensity reduced sensitivity of cucumber to low temperature and improved chlorophyll content, leaf area and chlorophyll fluorescence quantum yield. The photosynthesis rate was reduced under low light intensity. The intensity of light played the leading role in growth of cucumber under the low temperature condition, while the low temperature played the leading role under the critical low temperature condition. There were differences in reaction to light and temperature among different varieties. The tolerance to low temperature and low light intensity was not always synergetic for the same cucumber variety.

Three‐terminal perovskite/integratedbackcontactsilicon tandem solar cells under low light intensity conditions

The current climate and energy crisis urgently needs solar cells with efficiencies above the 29% single junction efficiency bottleneck.Silicon/perovskite tandem solar cells are a solution,which is attracting much attention.While silicon/perovskite tandem cells in 2-terminal and 4-terminal configurations are well documented,the three-terminal concept is still in its infancy.It has significant advantages under low light intensities as opposed to concentrated sunlight,which is the critical factor in designing tandem solar cells for low-cost terrestrial applications.This study pre-sents novel studies of the sub-cell performance of the first three-terminal perovskite/silicon selective band offset barrier tandem solar cells fabricated in an ongoing research project.This study focuses on short circuit current and operating voltages of the subcells under light intensities of one sun and below.Lifetime studies show that the perovskite bulk carrier lifetime is insensitive to illumination,while the silicon cell's lifetime decreases with decreasing light intensity.The combination of perovskite and silicon in the 3T perovskite-silicon tandem therefore reduces the sensitivity of V_(OC) to light intensity and maintains a relatively higher V_(OC) down to low light intensities,whereas silicon single-junction cells show a marked decrease.This technological advantage is proposed as a novel advantage of three-terminal perovkite/silicon solar cells for low light intensities of one sun or less.

Contributions of DPOR at Low Light Intensity to Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Growth in the Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

The chlL gene encoding one component of light-independent (dark) protochlorophyllide oxido reductase (DPOR) was deleted in cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 (S.6803). The resulting chlL- mutant lost DPOR activity. No significant differences of chlorophyll (Chl) content and growth rate were observed between the wild and the mutant strains grown at 50 mE·m2·s1 light intensity for photomixtrophic and photoautotrophic growth. However, differences were observed at 1 mE·m2·s1 light intensity. For photomixtrophic growth, the mutant Chl content was 50% of the wild content with continuous light and 35.7% of the wild content with a 10 h light/ 14 h dark cycle. For photoautotriphic growth, the mutant Chl level was 76.3% of the wild content with continuous light and 63.2% with a 10 h light/ 14 h dark cycle. The results indicate that DPOR contributes to Chl synthesis and increases the growth rate in cyanobacteria phototrophically cultured at 1mE·m2·s1 light intensity. In contrast, the photosynthetic capacity on a per-cell basis of the mutant is 5% higher than that of the wild strain with continuous light and 27% higher than that of the wild strain with a 10 h light/14 h dark cycle at 1 mE·m2·s1 light intensity for photoautotrophic growth. With the low Chl content, the cyanobacteria have the ability to improve their photosynthetic capacity by decreasing the ratio of PSI to PSII by unknown morphological or physiological means.

100 cm^(2) Organic Photovoltaic Cells with 23%Efficiency under Indoor Illumination

The application of organic photovoltaic(OPV)cells to drive off-grid microelectronic devices under indoor light has attracted broad attention.As organic semiconductors intrinsically have less ordered intermolecular packing than inorganic materials,the relatively larger energetic disorder is one of the main results that limit the photovoltaic efficiency of the OPV cells at low carrier density.Here,we optimize the alkyl chains of non-fullerene acceptors to get suppressed energetic disorder.We find the optimal acceptor DTz-R1 with the shortest alkyl chain has the strongest crystalline property and lowest energetic disorder.As a result,over 26%efficiency is recorded for the 1 cm^(2) OPV cells under a light-emitting diode illumination of 500 lux.We also fabricate a 100 cm^(2) cell device and get a PCE of 23.0%,which is an outstanding value for large-area OPV cells.These results suggest that modulation of the energetic disorder is of great importance for further improving the efficiency of OPV cells,especially for indoor applications.