A homopolymer based on double B←N bridged bipyridine as electron acceptor for all-polymer solar cells

A homopolymer based on double B ← N bridged bipyridine was reported as a novel polymer electron acceptor. The resulting all-polymer solar cells show power conversion efficiencies of 2.44%–3.04%.     

Reprogramming the chemical reactivity of iron in cancer stem cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been shown to be refractory to conventional therapeutic agents, can promote metastasis, and have been linked to cancer relapse. Salinomycin can selectively kill CSCs. We have shown that salinomycin derivatives accumulate in lysosomes and sequester iron in this organelle. As a result, accumulation of iron leads to the production of reactive oxygen species and lysosomal membrane permeabilization, which in turn promotes cell death by ferroptosis. These findings have revealed the prevalence of iron homeostasis in CSCs and paved the way toward the development of next-generation therapeutics.     

核壳结构碳化钨复合微球催化剂对甲醇电催化性能

以偏钨酸铵微球为前驱体,在不同反应时间和CO/CO₂气氛条件下,通过原位还原碳化反应制备了具有核壳结构碳化钨复合微球。采用X射线粉末衍射（XRD）、X射线光电子能谱（XPS）和扫描电镜（SEM）等对催化剂的形貌和结构进行了表征分析。硼氢化钠还原法将平均粒径为4.6 nm的Pt纳米粒子均匀分布在其表面,得到核壳结构碳化钨复合催化剂。采用循环伏安和计时电流法研究了在酸性溶液中催化剂对甲醇的电催化氧化性能。结果表明,与Pt/WC-15 h和JM Pt/C催化剂的电化学性能相比,Pt/WC-6 h催化剂对甲醇呈现出更高的电催化氧化活性和稳定性。碳化钨复合微球表面少量WO₂成分的存在有利于甲醇在其表面的电催化氧化过程的发生。     

Copper-facilitated Suzuki-Miyaura coupling for the preparation of 1,3-dioxolane-protected 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes

5-Formyl-2-thiopheneboronic acid is a widely used building block for the synthesis of diverse structures, however, due to a significant instability its transformation to 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes by CC couplings could be performed only in low yields. Herein, as a solution, a convenient technique is described for the preparation of 1,3-dioxolane-protected 5-arylthiophene-2-carboxaldehydes via a one-pot borylation–copper(I) chloride co-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction. The utilization of the in situ prepared 2-thiopheneboronic ester derivative is allowed by the method developed. Elimination of the crucial, acidic liberation step of boronic acid species resulted in improved yields and purities. In addition, comparison of various aryl bromides is shown to demonstrate the high tolerance of the transformation to functional groups.     

Lithium‐Ion Endohedral Fullerene (Li+@C60) Dopants in Stable Perovskite Solar Cells Induce Instant Doping and Anti‐Oxidation

Herein, we report use of [Li⁺@C₆₀]TFSI^? as a dopant for spiro‐MeOTAD in lead halide perovskite solar cells. This approach gave an air stability nearly 10‐fold that of conventional devices using Li⁺TFSI^?. Such high stability is attributed to the hydrophobic nature of [Li⁺@C₆₀]TFSI^? repelling moisture and absorbing intruding oxygen, thereby protecting the perovskite device from degradation. Furthermore, [Li⁺@C₆₀]TFSI^? could oxidize spiro‐MeOTAD without the need for oxygen. The encapsulated devices exhibited outstanding air stability for more than 1000 h while illuminated under ambient conditions.     

Plasma-based preparation of polyaniline/graphene and polypyrrole/graphene composites for dye-sensitized solar cells as counter electrodes

This study presents the preparation of graphene (GR) nanocomposites with polyaniline (PANI) and polypyrrole (PPy) through the fast, versatile and environmentally friendly process of radio frequency (RF)-plasma polymerization. Morphological characterization of the nanocomposites is performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and shows that the PANI and PPy conducting polymers coated the GR surface. The surface properties of the GR nanocomposites are determined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The prepared GR nanocomposites are then used as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The conversion cell efficiencies for iodine-doped DSSC samples are found to be 0.086%, 5.41%, and 5.60% for I₂-PANI, I₂-PANI-GR and I₂-PPy-GR, respectively, while the corresponding undoped samples reaches power conversion efficiencies of 3.82%, 1.30%, and 0.077% for PPy-GR, PANI-GR and PANI, respectively. The incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) of iodine-doped composite-based DSSCs is significantly enhanced.     

基于侧链不对称喹喔啉聚合物的高效非富勒烯太阳电池

喹喔啉衍生物由于合成简单,易功能化,成本较低等特点在众多领域都有广泛应用。其自身具有平面刚性结构,也是构建光电聚合物的重要单体。基于喹喔啉单元的有机分子化学结构和电子结构可修饰性强,通过骨架、侧链和取代基等修饰,易于调控分子的能级和吸光光谱,因此,当使用喹喔啉体系的共轭给体与球形富勒烯受体(如PCBM)及弱结晶性非富勒烯受体(如ITIC)均可表现出优异的光伏性能。在本工作中,基于结晶性较强的非富勒烯受体(o-IDTBR),我们首次制备出侧链不对称喹喔啉(简称：不对称喹喔啉)基聚合物(TPQ-1)与之匹配。相比于侧链对称性喹喔啉(简称：对称喹喔啉)(HFQx-T)与o-IDTBR组合,“弱结晶给体-强结晶受体”组合能表现出更佳均匀的相分离尺度,从而获得更高的短路电流及能量转换效率。TPQ-1与o-IDTBR共混后器件效率为8.6%,加入15%的TB7-Th后,器件效率达到9.6%。     

Controlling aggregate formation in conjugated polymers by spin‐coating below the critical temperature of the disorder–order transition

Aggregates – that is short‐ranged ordered moieties in the solid‐state of π‐conjugated polymers – play an important role in the photophysics and performance of various optoelectronic devices. We have previously shown that many polymers change from a disordered to a more ordered conformation when cooling a solution below a characteristic critical temperature . Using in situ time‐resolved absorption spectroscopy on the prototypical semiconducting polymers P3HT, PFO, PCPDTBT, and PCE11 (PffBT4T‐2OD), we show that spin‐coating at a temperature below can enhance the formation of aggregates with strong intra‐chain coupling. An analysis of their time‐resolved spectra indicates that the formation of nuclei in the initial stages of film formation for substrates held below seems responsible for this. We observe that the growth rate of the aggregates is thermally activated with an energy of 310 meV, which is much more than that of the solvent viscosity (100 meV). From this we conclude that the rate controlling step is the planarization of a chain that is associated with its attachment to a nucleation center. The success of our approach for the rather dynamic deposition method of spin‐coating holds promise for other solution‐based deposition methods. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018 , 56, 532–542