Life cycle assessment (LCA) of circular consumer electronics based on IC recycling and emerging PCB assembly materials.

As consumer microelectronics become ever more ubiquitous, there are growing concerns about their environmental impact. However, the diversity of designs and components used in modern devices makes a coherent mitigation strategy hard to formulate. In this work, we perform a quantitative life cycle assessment (LCA) of the environmental profiles of both high-value (a smartwatch) and low-value (a TV remote) devices and find that the optimal mitigation strategy varies substantially between these two extremes.

Exciton Diffusion to Low Energy Sites of the Acceptor Drives Charge Photogeneration in D18:Y6 Solar Cells.

We have investigated charge generation pathways in efficient organic photovoltaic blends of the polymer donor D18 and the small-molecule acceptor Y6 using transient absorption and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopies. We find that energy transfer from D18 to Y6 outcompetes electron transfer and is followed by exciton diffusion from regions of the disordered Y6 phase to Y6 aggregates before hole transfer to D18. Aggregation of Y6 molecules increases their ionization energy by ∼0.

Expanded Salinity Window of Middle-Phase Microemulsions and Reduced Surfactant Adsorption by Hydrotrope.

Using surfactant blends to mobilize residual oil offers a promising technique for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and surfactant-enhanced aquifer remediation (SEAR). A major financial setback for broader application of this method is the loss of surfactants, as they get absorbed onto reservoir mineral surfaces. This loss becomes even more costly in oil fields with high-salinity formation water.

Nanoimprint Lithography as a Route to Nanoscale Back-Contact Perovskite Solar Cells.

Back-contact perovskite solar cells are of great interest because they could achieve higher performance than conventional designs while also eliminating the need for transparent conductors. Current research in this field has focused on making electrode structures with reduced widths to collect charges more efficiently, but current lift-off-based fabrication techniques have struggled to achieve electrode widths smaller than 1000 nm and are difficult to implement on large areas. We demonstrate nanoimprint lithography in an etch-down procedure as a simple and easily scalable method to produce honeycomb-shaped, quasi-interdigitated electrode structures with widths as small as 230 nm.

High acceptability and viral suppression rate for first-Line patients on a dolutegravir-based regimen: An early adopter study in Nigeria.

Nigeria adopted dolutegravir (DTG) as part of first line (1L) antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2017. However, there is limited documented experience using DTG in sub-Saharan Africa. Our study assessed DTG acceptability from the patient's perspective as well as treatment outcomes at 3 high-volume facilities in Nigeria.