Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells have shown great potential in tandem photovoltaic applications; however, insufficient interfacial charge transport remains a key bottleneck limiting further efficiency improvements. In this work, NiOx hole transport layers with different thicknesses were prepared by tuning the precursor concentration, and their effects on interfacial properties and device performance were systematically investigated. The results show that increasing NiOx thickness leads to a higher work function and improved surface wettability, which facilitates more uniform spreading and nucleation of the perovskite precursor, resulting in smoother perovskite films with larger grain sizes. Steady-state photoluminescence measurements indicate that the film prepared at an intermediate concentration exhibits the most efficient interfacial charge extraction. Consequently, the device performance shows a pronounced thickness dependence, with the 5 mg mL-1 device achieving the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.41%. These results demonstrate that simple thickness modulation enables synergistic optimization of NiOx interfacial properties, providing an effective strategy for interface engineering in wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells.

Wide‐bandgap perovskites (WBGPVSK), as key top‐cell materials for tandem solar cells, are often limited by poor film crystallinity and interfacial defects. Herein, an ultrathin MACl interfacial layer is introduced between the hole transport layer and the perovskite in an inverted architecture to regulate the buried interface. The MACl interlayer effectively improves substrate wettability, facilitating uniform precursor spreading and enabling controlled nucleation, which promotes ordered crystal growth. As a result, the perovskite films exhibit enlarged grain size, reduced surface roughness, and suppressed void formation, along with enhanced optical absorption and improved crystallinity. Photoluminescence results reveal reduced carrier recombination and enhanced charge extraction. Consequently, the optimized device with 0.5 mg mL −1 MACl achieves a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 22.79%, with the fill factor (FF) increased from 79.14% to 81.38%. This work demonstrates that buried interface engineering is an effective strategy to simultaneously regulate perovskite crystallization and interfacial charge transport for high‐performance WBGPVSK solar cells.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) markedly boost power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs), yet energy losses at buried interfaces impede further progress. Systematic optimization of the interconnection between substrate, SAM, and perovskite is crucial for constructing an ideal buried interface. Here, we design a substrate of aluminum oxide nanoparticles (Al2O3-NPs)/SAM/Al2O3-NPs (ASA) to achieve maximal optimization of the buried interface. The bottom layer of Al2O3-NPs effectively fills the microscopic grooves on the fluorine-doped tin oxide surface, enabling a more uniform SAM monolayer. The uniformly distributed Al2O3-NPs on the top surface not only improve the flatness but also enhance the wettability of the SAM substrate, suppressing void formation at the buried interface. In situ characterization reveals that ASA substrate promotes alpha-phase perovskite nucleation during spin-coating and enhances crystallinity in perovskite film. Consequently, PSCs fabricated on the ASA substrate achieve a PCE of 26.31 % (certified 26.01 %), along with outstanding humidity and thermal stability. The buried interface optimization strategy offers a versatile approach to mitigate interfacial defects, demonstrating significant potential for the advancement of highperformance PSCs.

Droplets are ubiquitous and necessary in natural phenomena, daily life, and industrial processes, which play a crucial role in many fields. So, the manipulation of droplets has been extensively investigated for meeting widespread applications, consequently, a great deal of progresses have been achieved across multiple disciplines ranging from chemistry to physics, material, biological, and energy science. For example, microdroplets have been utilized as reactors, colorimetric or electrochemical sensors, drug-delivery carriers, and energy harvesters. Moreover, droplet manipulation is the basis in both fundamental researches and practical applications, especially the combination of smart materials and external fields for achieving multifunctional applications of droplets. In view of this background, this review initiates discussion of the manipulation strategies of droplets including Laplace pressure, wettability gradients, electric field, magnetic force, light and temperature. Thereafter, based on their manipulation strategies, this review mainly summarizes the applications of droplets in the fields of robot, green energy, sensors, biomedical treatments, microreactors and chemical reactions. Application related basic concepts, theories, principles and progresses also have been introduced. Finally, this review addresses the challenges of manipulation and applications of droplets and provides the potential directions for their future development. By presenting these results, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of water droplets and establish a unified framework that guides the development of droplets in various fields.

Recently, amorphous nanomaterials with unique structural features that crystalline materials may lack such as long-range atomic disorder have attracted great attention due to their outstanding surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) properties. Herein, uniform hydrophobic gold nanoparticles (4.4 ± 0.95 nm) have been fabricated for realizing dodecylamine-assisted interfacial self-assembly at the air-water interface of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) instruments for producing disordered amorphous disc superstructures, with their diameter ranging from ∼200 to ∼700 nm and height within 10-15 nm. When the surface tension of the air-water interface is increased from 0 to 10 and 20 mN/m, they can be linked together to form disc chains and networks, respectively. Interestingly, in the absence of free dodecylamine, these dodecylamine-stabilized hydrophobic gold nanoparticles will form highly ordered hexagonal close-packed monolayer films. Significantly, these amorphous disk superstructures possess better SERS performance than the ordered monolayer films. Further studies suggest that amorphous disc superstructures prepared for SERS sensors have advantages of low limit of detection (0.032 nM), excellent long-term stability, and a wide linear range (0.01-1000.0 nM) for detecting acetamiprid. Furthermore, they display splendid SERS performance for rapid determination of acetamiprid residues on the surface of apples, showing their ability for reliable and accurate detection of pesticide residues in real samples. Our research provides an effective approach for preparing amorphous structures via interfacial self-assembly, which reveals promising application prospects for detecting pesticide residues in real food samples.

Organic phototransistors have garnered considerable attention for their potential in diverse optoelectronic applications. However, their inferior photoresponse or even out of operation at low temperatures severely limits their applications in extreme environments. In this work, high‐performance organic phototransistors that operate from room temperature down to cryogenic conditions are demonstrated, utilizing smectic E (SmE) phase liquid crystals on a Lewis‐acid monopolar polymer. These devices achieve a remarkable average responsivity of 417 ± 180 A W −1 and an outstanding photosensitivity above 10 4 even at 80 K. This superior photoelectrical performance stems from the efficient vertical exciton diffusion through the SmE liquid crystal, combined with effective exciton dissociation and stable electron trapping at the polymer interface across the operating temperature range. Furthermore, the devices exhibit reliable photoinduced memory behavior, featuring stable storage‐erase cycles and long retention time across a wide temperature range, highlighting their potential for optical memory applications. The results demonstrate that liquid crystals are promising candidates for room‐to‐low‐temperature high‐performance phototransistors, paving the way for advanced optoelectronic applications in harsh environments.

Monolithic all-perovskite tandem solar cells present a promising approach for exceeding the efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells. However, the substantial open-circuit voltage loss in the wide-bandgap perovskite subcell hinders further improvements in power-conversion efficiency. Here we develop wide-bandgap perovskite films with improved (100) crystal orientation that suppress non-radiative recombination. We show that using two-dimensional perovskite as an intermediate phase on the film surface promotes heterogeneous nucleation along the (100) three-dimensional perovskite facets during crystallization. Preferred (100) orientations can be realized by augmenting the quantity of two-dimensional phases through surface composition engineering, without the need for excessive two-dimensional ligands that otherwise impede carrier transport. We demonstrate an open-circuit voltage of 1.373 V for 1.78 eV wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells, along with a high fill factor of 84.7

Introducing a stoichiometric excess of lead iodide（PbI 2 ） in perovskite films has been demonstrated as an effective passivation strategy that can improve the power conversion efficiency（PCE） of perovskite solar cells（PSCs）,However,excess PbI 2 is also known to accelerate the degradation of the perovskite layer.In this study,we show that this degradation primarily stems from the decomposition of PbI 2 at the bottom of the perovskite film which is exposed to light We further show that when using a two-step spin coating deposition procedure,the excess PbI 2 results from the decomposition of the perovskite during the annealing process rather than the presence of non-reacted PbI 2 .Finally,we demonstrate that the spatial distribution of PbI 2 within the perovskite films can be controlled in a way that mitigates the PbI 2 induced perovskite decomposition.In this manner,we produced devices exhibiting initial power conversion efficiencies over 25%,maintaining 98.6% after 1000 h of maximum power point tracking under continuous illumination.These findings offer valuable insights into achieving high performance PSCs through judicious process control using a two-step spin-coating procedure.

With the rising concerns of electromagnetic pollution, the development of lightweight and broadband microwave absorbing materials has become crucial. In this study, the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogels were synthesized using graphene oxides as the precursor. The aerogel exhibited an ultralow density of 0.016 g/cm3, featuring a porous and wrinkled 3D structure that effectively prolonged the propagation path of electromagnetic waves and enhanced energy dissipation. Electromagnetic absorption tests showed that the aerogel achieved a minimum reflection loss (RL) of -30.51 dB with the absorption band ranging from 7.17 to 9.19 GHz at a thickness of 3.5 mm. When the thickness decreased to 2.5 mm, the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) reached 7.21 GHz. These results demonstrated that the as-prepared rGO aerogels offered twofold advantages of ultralightweight and broadband absorption, making them promising candidates for microwave absorption applications.

The substitution of conventional graphite with Li metal as an anode material has garnered significant interest due to its exceptionally high theoretical energy density. However, the direct application of Li metal as an anode in batteries faces formidable challenges, including dendrite growth and interphase instability. Herein, a high-performance composite anode (LZ-rGO) that integrates a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) scaffold with lithiophilic Li-Zn alloy nanoparticles is presented. The Li-Zn seeds embedded in the structure lower the initial nucleation barrier and facilitate uniform Li deposition. Furthermore, the rGO scaffold, possessing a large specific surface area, enables the LZ-rGO anode to significantly reduce voltage hysteresis and prevents the deactivation of metallic Li during the plating/stripping processes. As a result, the symmetric cell demonstrates stability over 1200 h at a current density of 1 mA cm-2, with negligible voltage fluctuation. When paired with a LiFePO4 cathode, the full cell achieves stable cycling for 1000 cycles with a high-capacity retention, demonstrating exceptional interface stability and cycling efficiency.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are an emerging class of hole-selective layers (HSLs) to replace the conventional poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) in organic solar cells (OSCs). Despite the wide use of SAMs, it is difficult to directly establish a feedback loop between material design and OSC performance as the SAM quality will also affect the OSC performance and was frequently neglected. In this work, we designed a series of carbazole-derived SAMs by engineering the halogen substituents and the alkyl linker lengths. A SAM stacking model was established to evaluate the SAM qualities in terms of surface morphology, molecular bonding, and packing quality. Consequently, the iodinated carbazole SAM with C2 spacer (Cz-I-2) showed the highest molecular regularity, the top OSC performance in the PM6:Y6 system, and good universal applicability with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.1% in the D18:Y6 system. It can be concluded that SAMs should benefit from OSC performance by achieving suitable energy level alignment, high packing regularity, and enhanced interactions with adjacent layers. Our work provides insight into designing SAMs for effective HSLs in efficient OSCs.

Amid rapid advancements in aerospace science and technology, studying the effects of space radiation on an infrared detector is crucial for enhancing their reliability in radiation environments, particularly against electrons-one of the most damaging charged particles. Barrier structures significantly reduce dark current without any substantial degradation in the optical performance of the devices. Consequently, they are being investigated for use in extreme environments. This paper presents a study on the performance degradation of InAs/GaSb type II superlattice (T2SLs) long-wave infrared (LWIR) detectors with a graded barrier structure under 1 MeV electron irradiation and analyzes potential damage mechanisms. The findings indicate that 1 MeV electron irradiation causes both ionization and displacement damage to the graded barrier InAs/GaSb T2SL LWIR detectors. After irradiation with a fluence of 2 x 1015 15 e/cm2, 2 , the device's dark current density has increased by approximately two orders of magnitude, while the quantum efficiency has decreased by approximately one order of magnitude. As the device mesa shrinks, the sensitivity of dark current to radiation exposure increases. Electron irradiation notably exacerbates surface leakage and bulk dark current, with a pronounced increase in surface leakage current. The study also reveals that electron irradiation primarily enhances the dark current by introducing defect states, thereby leading to device performance degradation. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group. All rights, including for text and data mining (TDM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) training, and similar tech

All-inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have received much attention due to their outstanding optical and electronic properties, but the underlying growth mechanism remains elusive due to their rapid formation process. Here, we report an in situ real-time study of the growth of Cs4PbBr6 NCs under practical synthesis conditions in a custom-made reactor. Through the synchrotron-based small-angle X-ray scattering technique, we find that the formation of Cs4PbBr6 NCs is accomplished in three steps: the fast nucleation process accompanied by self-focusing growth, the subsequent diffusion-limited Ostwald ripening, and the self-assembly of NCs into the face-centered cubic (fcc) superlattices at high temperature and the termination of growth. The simultaneously collected wide-angle X-ray scattering signals further corroborate the three-step growth model. The influence of superlattice formation is also elucidated, which improves the uniformity of the final NCs.

Inorganic cesium lead triiodide perovskite has shown great potential in photovoltaic applications. Currently, the preparation of high-quality b- or g-phase CsPbI3 films largely relies on the DMAPbI3 (dimethylammonium [DMA]) or "HPbI3"-assisted crystallization method, which unfortunately causes DMAPbI3 residue and deteriorates photovoltaic performance and stability. Herein, a universal hydrogen-bonding-facilitated DMA extraction method is developed to fabricate high-quality g-CsPbI3 films. Theoretical and experimental evidence manifests that the hydrogen bonds formed between polyacrylic acid (PAA) and DMAPbI3 decrease the DMA escape energy barrier, and this not only brings ahead the decomposition process of DMAPbI3 but also accelerates the crystallization kinetics of CsPbI3, resulting in pinhole-free CsPbI3 films without any trace of DMAPbI3 residue and an extended fabrication humidity (up to 80% relative humidity [RH]) and temperature window. Thanks to the environmentally benign crystallization, the CsPbI3 solar cells with dopant-free poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) yield a high efficiency of 20.25% and superior moisture and operational stability.

Lead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have shown unprecedented development in efficiency and progressed relentlessly in improving stability. All the achievements have been accompanied by diverse passivation strategies to circumvent the pervasive defects in perovskite materials, which play crucial roles in the process of charge recombination, ion migration, and component degradation. Among the tremendous efforts made to solve these issues and achieve high-performance PSCs, we classify and review both well-established and burgeoning passivation strategies to provide further guidance for the passivation protocols in PSCs, including chemical passivation to eliminate defects by the formation of chemical bonds, physical passivation to eliminate defects by strain relaxation or physical treatments, energetic passivation to improve the stability toward light and oxygen, and field-effect passivation to regulate the interfacial carrier behavior. The subtle but non-trivial consequences from various passivation strategies need advanced characterization techniques combining synchrotron-based X-ray analysis, capacitance-based measurements, spatially resolved imaging, fluorescent molecular probe, Kelvin probe force microscope, etc., to scrutinize the mechanisms. In the end, challenges and prospective research directions on advancing these passivation strategies are proposed. Judicious combinations among chemical, physical, energetic, and field-effect passivation deserve more attention for future high-efficiency and stable perovskite photovoltaics.

Lithium metal has been recognized as a promising anode candidate for next-generation rechargeable batteries due to its low chemical potential and high specific capacity, yet it is plagued by poor cycling stability due to the uncontrolled growth of Li dendrites. Herein, we fabricate SiO2 nanoparticle pillared MXene (Ti3C2Tx) composite films through a facile vacuum-assisted self-assembly method, which can serve as stable and dendrite-free Li metal anodes. The lithiophilic MXene can foster Li nucleation and growth, while the insulating SiO2 nanoparticles acting as lithiophilic seeds further induce uniform Li nucleation and deposition. The SiO2 nanoparticles also serve as supporting pillars between the MXene layers which facilitate Li ion transportation and minimize volume shrinkage during delithiation. Li is preferentially deposited into the interior of the MXene/SiO2 composite film and the flat, dendrite-free, granular Li layer is formed on its surface. Under the synergistic effects of MXene and SiO2, the MXene/SiO2/Li anodes demonstrate low Li deposition overpotential, small voltage hysteresis, high coulombic efficiency and low charge transfer resistance. When coupled with an LiFePO4 cathode, the full cell shows stable voltage polarization and good cyclability. Under fast charging, it retains high-rate capacity and remains stable for 320 cycles at 3C with negligible capacity decay, demonstrating its excellent rate performance.

Copper ions can promote amyloid diseases that are associated with amyloid peptides, such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains obscure. Here we present that Cu2+ is able to specifically bind to the backbone of T2D-related human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) by forming a ring structure, which causes the reduction of Cu2+ to Cu+ to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the modulation of hIAPP aggregation. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that Cu2+ bound to the backbone of a turn region, His18–Ser21, which is critical for hIAPP aggregation. Ab initio calculations and x-ray absorption fine structure analyses revealed that Cu2+ simultaneously bound with both the amide nitrogen and carbonyl oxygen on the peptide backbone, resulting in a ring structure, and causing the reduction of Cu2+ to Cu+ to form a hIAPP-Cu+ complex. 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescin diacetate fluorescence measurements further indicated that this complex led to enhanced ROS levels in rat insulinoma cells. Additionally, thioflavin T fluorescence and atomic force microscopy measurements denoted that the backbone-Cu ring structure largely modulated hIAPP aggregation, including the inhibition of hIAPP fibrillation and the promotion of peptide oligomerization. These findings shed new light on the molecular mechanism of Cu2+-induced amyloid toxicity involving both the enhancement of ROS and the modulation of hIAPP aggregation.

All-perovskite tandem solar cells hold the promise of surpassing the efficiency limits of single-junction solar cells1–3; however, until now, the best-performing all-perovskite tandem solar cells have exhibited lower certified efficiency than have single-junction perovskite solar cells4,5. A thick mixed Pb–Sn narrow-bandgap subcell is needed to achieve high photocurrent density in tandem solar cells6, yet this is challenging owing to the short carrier diffusion length within Pb–Sn perovskites. Here we develop ammonium-cation-passivated Pb–Sn perovskites with long diffusion lengths, enabling subcells that have an absorber thickness of approximately 1.2 μm. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that widely used phenethylammonium cations are only partially adsorbed on the surface defective sites at perovskite crystallization temperatures. The passivator adsorption is predicted to be enhanced using 4-trifluoromethyl-phenylammonium (CF3-PA), which exhibits a stronger perovskite surface-passivator interaction than does phenethylammonium. By adding a small amount of CF3-PA into the precursor solution, we increase the carrier diffusion length within Pb–Sn perovskites twofold, to over 5 μm, and increase the efficiency of Pb–Sn perovskite solar cells to over 22%. We report a certified efficiency of 26.4% in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, which exceeds that of the best-performing single-junction perovskite solar cells. Encapsulated tandem devices retain more than 90% of their initial performance after 600 h of operation at the maximum power point under 1 Sun illumination in ambient conditions. A certified efficiency of 26.4% in all-perovskite tandem solar cells, exceeding that of the best-performing single-junction perovskite solar cells, is achieved by control over surface defects in the Pb–Sn subcell.

Cotton fiber is a highly elongated and thickened single cell that produces large quantities of cellulose, which is synthesized and assembled into cell wall microfibrils by the cellulose synthase complex (CSC). In this study, we report that in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) fibers harvested during secondary cell wall (SCW) synthesis, GhCesA 4, 7, and 8 assembled into heteromers in a previously uncharacterized 36-mer-like cellulose synthase supercomplex (CSS). This super CSC was observed in samples prepared using cotton fiber cells harvested during the SCW synthesis period but not from cotton stem tissue or any samples obtained from Arabidopsis. Knock-out of any of GhCesA 4, 7, and 8 resulted in the disappearance of the CSS and the production of fiber cells with no SCW thickening. Cotton fiber CSS showed significantly higher enzyme activity than samples prepared from knock-out cotton lines. We found that the microfibrils from the SCW of wild-type cotton fibers may contain 72 glucan chains in a bundle, unlike other plant materials studied. GhCesA4, 7, and 8 restored both the dwarf and reduced vascular bundle phenotypes of their orthologous Arabidopsis mutants, potentially by reforming the CSC hexamers. Genetic complementation was not observed when non-orthologous CesA genes were used, indicating that each of the three subunits is indispensable for CSC formation and for full cellulose synthase function. Characterization of cotton CSS will increase our understanding of the regulation of SCW biosynthesis.