Preparation and Characterization of Poly(amide-imide)/ZnO Nanocomposites Containing Pendent Benzoxazole and Benzimidazole Segments

In the present investigation, novel poly（amid-imide）/zinc oxide nanocomposites（PAI/Zn O NCs） containing benzoxazole and benzimidazole pendent groups with different amounts of modified zinc oxide nanoparticles（Zn O NPs） were successfully prepared via the ex situ method. Poly（amid-imide）（PAI） was prepared by direct polycondensation of 2-[3,5-bis（N-trimellitimidoyl）phenyl]benzoxazole（DCA） with 5-（2-benzimidazole）-1,3-phenylenediamine（DAMI） and provided the polymeric matrix with well-designed groups. The surface of Zn O NPs was functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane（APS） coupling agent to have a better dispersion and enhancing possible interactions of NPs with functional groups of polymer matrix. The amount of APS bonded to the Zn O surface was determined by thermogravimetric analysis. PAI/Zn O nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, X-ray diffraction（XRD）, and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. SEM analysis showed that the modified Zn O nanoparticles were homogeneously dispersed in polymer matrix. In addition, TGA data indicated an enhancement of thermal stability of the nanocomposite compared with the neat polymer.

Hydrothermal fabrication of selectively doped organic assisted advanced ZnO nanomaterial for solar driven photocatalysis

Hydrothermal fabrication of selectively doped（Ag＋＋ Pd3＋） advanced ZnO nanomaterial has been carried out under mild pressure temperature conditions（autogeneous; 150°C）.Gluconic acid has been used as a surface modifier to effectively control the particle size and morphology of these ZnO nanoparticles. The experimental parameters were tuned to achieve optimum conditions for the synthesis of selectively doped ZnO nanomaterials with an experimental duration of 4 hr. These selectively doped ZnO nanoparticles were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction（XRD）, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）, UV–Vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. The solar driven photocatalytic studies have been carried out for organic dyes, i.e., Procion MX-5B dye,Cibacron Brilliant Yellow dye, Indigo Carmine dye, separately and all three mixed, by using gluconic acid modified selectively doped advanced ZnO nanomaterial. The influence of catalyst, its concentration and initial dye concentration resulted in the photocatalytic efficiency of 89% under daylight.

Calixarenes enabling well-adjusted organic-inorganic interface for inverted organic solar cells with 18.25%efficiency and multifold improved photostability under max power point tracking

Compared with organic solar cells(OSCs) adopting conventional architecture,inverted OSCs have offered generally better stability,where Zn O is the most widely used electron transporting layer(ETL) material.For ZnO-based inverted OSCs,a welltuned interface of organic(active layer)-inorganic(Zn O film) with matched surface energy(γS) is critical for both high performance and high stability.In this work,two typical calixarenes,C4A and Bu C4A,were employed as the tuning agents to adjust this organic-inorganic interface for ZnO-based inverted OSCs.As a result,with PM6:L8-BO as the active layer,significantly promoted power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) from 17.14%(for ZnO) to 18.25%(for ZnO/C4A) and 17.80%(for ZnO/Bu C4A) were achieved.Photodynamic studies indicate that the enhanced performance is due to the faster charge extraction process,the suppressed recombination and more ideal internal electric field in ZnO/calixarene-based devices.In addition,wellmatched interface energy and more ordered molecular aggregation in active layer effectively improved photostability and thermal stability for ZnO/calixarene-based devices.These results indicate that calixarenes could act as effective modifying agents of ZnO to improve inverted OSCs’ performance and stability simultaneously,and likely also stimulate calixarenes’ and other macromolecules’ broader studies in other organic electronic devices.