Enhanced Efficiency and Light Stability of Conventional Organic Solar Cells with a p-Type Polymeric Thin Layer on PEDOT:PSS.

Simultaneous improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE) and device stability is very important for organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, oligothiophene-based polymer W19 with excellent solvent resistance is exploited as a polymer thin layer to optimize the active layer morphology and then device efficiency and stability. Polymer W19 possesses a simple skeleton of trifluromethyl-substituted dithienoquinoxaline and quaterthiophene, whose thin layer shows suitable energy level, low surface energy, and strong interchain aggregation, leading to outstanding solvent resistance and excellent hole transport ability.

Polymer Donor with a Simple Skeleton and Minor Siloxane Decoration Enables 19% Efficiency of Organic Solar Cells.

Development of polymer donors with simple chemical structure and low cost is of great importance for commercial application of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, side-chain random copolymer PMQ-Si605 with a simply 6,7-difluoro-3-methylquinoxaline-thiophene backbone and 5% siloxane decoration of side chain is synthesized in comparison with its alternating copolymer PTQ11. Relative to molecular weight (M) of 28.

Photocatalytic Co-Reduction of N and CO with CeO Catalyst for Urea Synthesis.

The effective conversion of carbon dioxide (CO ) and nitrogen (N ) into urea by photocatalytic reaction under mild conditions is considered to be a more environmentally friendly and promising alternative strategies. However, the weak adsorption and activation ability of inert gas on photocatalysts has become the main challenge that hinder the advancement of this technique. Herein, we have successfully established mesoporous CeO nanorods with adjustable oxygen vacancy concentration by heat treatment in Ar/H (90 % : 10 %) atmosphere, enhancing the targeted adsorption and activation of N and CO by introducing oxygen vacancies.

Type II Heterojunction Formed between {010} or {012} Facets Dominated Bismuth Vanadium Oxide and Carbon Nitride to Enhance the Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline.

Both type II and Z schemes can explain the charge transfer behavior of the heterojunction structure well, but the type of heterojunction structure formed between bismuth vanadium oxide and carbon nitride still has not been clarified. Herein, we rationally prepared bismuth vanadium oxide with {010} and {012} facets predominantly and carbon nitride as a decoration to construct a core-shell structure with bismuth vanadium oxide wrapped in carbon nitride to ensure the same photocatalytic reaction interface. Through energy band establishment and radical species investigation, both {010} and {012} facets dominated bismuth vanadium oxide/carbon nitride composites exhibit the type II heterojunction structures rather than the Z-scheme heterojunctions.