Annealing-free Poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester-based organic solar cells

We report on the fabrication of efficient annealing-free organic solar cells using co-solvent solution considered as a promising method for low-cost and time-saving manufacturing. Higher device efficiency could be obtained compared to the pure solvent casted device, resulting from the improved crystallinity, optical absorption and transport properties. The power conversion efficiency of 2.8% was obtained, demonstrating the feasibility of achieving low-cost and high-efficiency organic solar cells without any additional treatment and processing additives.     

Electric field assisted oxygen removal from the basal plane of the graphitic material

We provide a novel strategy to eliminate the epoxy group from the basal plane of graphene platelets. Given that the current reduction methods are unsatisfactory to clean the epoxides or sometimes cause undesirable structure deformations, the proposed strategy restores the original hexagonal carbon network without creating other new defects. To the best of our knowledge, the electric field mediated graphene oxide (GO) reduction has not yet been systematically investigated. The capability would permit the improvement of existing GO reduction methods and assist in the fabrication of high‐quality graphitic materials. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Biomimetic design of amphiphilic polycations and surface grafting onto polycarbonate urethane film as effective antibacterial agents with controlled hemocompatibility

The synthetic polycations are ideal candidates as antimicrobial agents, because they resemble natural antimicrobial peptides, but to render hemocompatibility to these materials is a great challenge. Herein, we used 2‐(tert‐butyl‐aminoethyl) methacrylate (TBAEMA), to synthesize its homopolymer and pegylated random and diblock copolymers with polyethyleneglycol methacrylate (PEGMA, M_n = 360 Da) by single‐electron transfer–living radical polymerization (SET‐LRP). In the second step, the secondary amino groups in the precursor polymers were quaternized with iodomethane and bromohexane, to obtain three series of quaternized polymers. The antimicrobial properties of these quaternized polymers were evaluated against Escherichia coli (E. coli), by studying the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) which ranged between 32 and 200 mg L^?1 and showed higher values for the quaternized random than the diblock copolymers. In addition to, we have also demonstrated the grafting of these polycations onto polycarbonate urethane film surfaces, which showed good killing efficacy against E. coli. Furthermore, the hemolysis of these materials was investigated against human red blood cells, which indicated that except the quaternized homopolymers that showed highest hemolysis, all other amphiphilic polycations exhibited very low hemolytic activity. Therefore, our designed materials with controlled structures and functionality, synthesized from cheaply available resources could serve as useful agents in the field of biomedicines and implantable materials. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013, 51, 3166–3176     

Simulating gas–liquid multiphase flow using meshless Lagrangian method

A multiphase flow model has been established based on a moving particle semi‐implicit method. A surface tension model is introduced to the particle method to improve the numerical accuracy and stability. Several computational techniques are employed to simplify the numerical procedure and further improve the accuracy. A particle fraction multiphase flow model is developed and verified by a two‐phase Poiseuille flow. The multiphase surface tension model is discussed in detail, and an ethanol drop case is introduced to verify the surface tension model. A simple dam break is simulated to demonstrate the improvements with various modifications in particle method along with a new boundary condition. Finally, we simulate several bubble rising cases to show the capacity of this new model in simulating gas–liquid multiphase flow with large density ratio difference between phases. The comparisons among numerical results of mesh‐based model, experimental data, and the present model, indicate that the new multiphase particle method is acceptable in gas–liquid multiphase fluids simulation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN filmExtraordinary terahertz transmission through subwavelength spindle-like apertures in NbN film

We studied numerically the temperature dependent extraordinary terahertz transmission through niobium nitride （NbN） film perforated with subwavelength spindle-like apertures. Both the resonant frequency and intensity of extraor- dinary terahertz transmission peaks can be greatly modified by the transition of NbN film from the normal state to the superconducting state. An enhancement of the （~1,0） NbN/magnesium oxide （MgO） peak intensity as high as 200% is demonstrated due to the combined contribution of both the superconducting transition and the excitation of localized surface plasmons （LSPs） around the apertures. The extraordinary terahertz transmission through spindle-fike hole arrays patterned on the NbN film can pave the way for us to explore novel active tuning devices.     

Reaction of 2-Methylsulfonyl-4H-4-chromenones with Nucleophiles

For the synthesis of 2-substituted 4H-4-chromenones, 2-methylsulfonyl-4H-4-chromenones as common intermediate were reacted with nucleophiles such as amines and thiophenol to afford the corresponding 2-substituted adducts in very high yields.