pH/Ion Dual-Responsive Emulsion Via a Cationic Surfactant and Positively Charged Magnesium Hydroxide Nanosheets.

Emulsions, formed by dispersing a liquid into another immiscible one by virtue of emulsifiers, have been widely applied in commercial applications like foods, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and personal care, which always confront environmental and/or toxic questions due to emulsifiers' high dosage. Recently, a study on Pickering emulsions points out a solution to stable emulsions based on the costabilizing effect of colloidal particles, which focused on surface-active particles cooperating with oppositely charged ionic surfactants. Costabilized emulsions adopting a charge-similar ionic surfactant and particles were less studied. In this article, a hexane-in-water emulsion was prepared in use of a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with positively charged magnesium hydroxide (MH) nanosheets at low concentrations (10-5 M and 10-2 wt %, respectively). The emulsion is stable due to the synergy by CTAB and MH nanosheets, which functions in virtue of the electric repulsion by similarly charged particles, the mechanical shielding by MH nanosheets, and restrained water drainage in lamellae between droplets due to the gelation of MH nanosheets. Moreover, the emulsion is doubly switchable within emulsification/demulsification via convenient pH or ion manipulation, a mechanism based on the breakdown and rebuilding of the costabilizing synergy. Such dual-responsive emulsions show high potential for the delicate control of drug delivery, release, and biphasic biocatalysis applications.

Rate Transient Analysis of Heterogeneous Unconventional Reservoirs Exhibiting Deteriorated Induced-Fractures with Exponential Permeability Profile.

Deterioration of induced fractures is common in hydraulically fractured tight or shale reservoirs due to the energy dissipation of the fracturing operation. New models that account for stimulated reservoir heterogeneity are needed for the rate transient analysis of unconventional formations. In this study, we present a practical and straightforward solution for heterogeneous fractured reservoirs by introducing the concept of dynamic average permeability (DAP). An explicit equation of average permeability for linear flow in heterogeneous formation is derived by integrating the solution of the linear flow diffusivity equation and exponential permeability profile function into the Darcy flow model. Methodologies for performance forecast and evaluation of the distance of investigation (DOI) for heterogeneous unconventional reservoirs are proposed based on the DAP concept. Early deviation from the straight line of reciprocal-of-production-rate versus square-root-of-time plot occurs in highly heterogeneous reservoirs, in contrast to the departure caused by the boundary-domination effect. Meanwhile, the study results show that the DOI is significantly reduced in severely permeability-deteriorated unconventional formations. The accuracy and applicability of the new solution have been validated through real examples and synthetic numerical simulations. The analytical solution for transient linear flow in heterogeneous formation with an exponential permeability profile in the Laplace domain is also provided for the verification of the DAP method. The method proposed in this work can be readily applied to rate transient analysis and production forecasting of heterogeneous unconventional reservoirs, avoiding the complex Laplace solution and numerical inversion process.

Neutron spectrometry of D2O-moderated 252Cf with Bonner sphere spectrometer.

For neutron spectrometry of the D2O-moderated 252Cf source with a Bonner sphere spectrometer (BSS), it is difficult to use the large and heavy shadow cone to correct the neutron scattering effect. To overcome this problem, Monte Carlo (MC) simulation method was applied to calculate the neutron scattering ratio and to establish the BSS response functions. The simulated response functions were verified by experimental measurements in reference mono-energetic neutron fields. MC simulation based scattering-correction was validated by measurement of 252Cf neutron field. The measured and simulated values of the neutron scattering ratio were very close with relative errors within ±6%. Finally, the neutron spectrum and the spectrum averaged conversion coefficients of the D2O-moderated 252Cf were measured using BSS after scattering-correction by MC simulation, and the results agreed with the values recommended by ISO 8529-1:2021. It shows that the MC simulation can be a useful substitute to shadow cones method for neutron scattering-correction.

Investigating the effects of polymer plugging mechanism of liquid production decrease and improvement by the cross-linked gel performance.

Polymer flooding, as the most successful and well-known chemical EOR method was broadly applied around the world. Mostly, contrasted with Waterflooding, the production rate decrease during polymer flooding is smaller based on field application. Nevertheless, the production liquid rate decreased critically in the middle phase to late phase due to plugging, which could lead the way to poor flooding performance and fewer cumulative oil. In this work, first, we approached the affecting polymer plugging mechanism model on liquid production decrease to investigate the parameters such as; solid-phase concentration (SOLIDMIN), reacting frequency factor (FREQFAC) and others affecting components are all investigated consecutively. Secondly the model approached by cross-linked gel for the improvement of production liquid rate. The physical work was designed by a physical model, and then the polymer adsorption that generating blockage emerging in permeability diminish assessed by a mathematical model. The outcomes specify that the existence of this debris, excessive assemblage of solid-phase and the excessive reactant frequency factor has major mechanical and physical parameters effects on the reservoir throughout polymer flooding. Polymer flood model base case liquid ratio loss is 11.15 m3/day between the years 2014-08-01 to 2020-03-04. Comparing with the polymer flood model case 1, liquid ratio loss ranging to 1.97 m3/day between the years 2014-08-02 to 2020-03-03. While the oil ratio loss of the polymer flood base case model between the years 2015-07-08 to 2020-03-04 attained 12.4 m3/day contrasting with the polymer flood model case 1 oil ratio increase to 0.37 m3/day between the years 2014-08-04 to 2019-04-02. The cross-linked gel model base case liquid ratio loss is 2.09 m3/day between the years 2015-01-02 to 2020-02-03, while the oil ratio lost reached 9.15 m3/day between the years 2015-09-01 to 2020-02-03. Contrasting with the cross-linked gel model case 2 liquid ratio recovered from the loss and attained 25.43 m3/day in the year 2020-12-01, while the oil ratio is reached 15.22 m3/day in the year 2020-12-01. Polymer flood model examined through cross-linked gel model performed reliable outcomes by taking out the plugging, which also occasioned the reservoir production rate to decrease. With the application of cross-linked gel the affected parameters and the production rate have achieved an improvement.

A RADIOLUMINESCENCE STUDY OF DOSE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIF:MG,TI.

A radioluminescence (RL) study of dose characteristics of tissue-equivalent LiF:Mg,Ti was carried out to determine the possible application as a real-time dosemeter. An RL measurements system based on LiF:Mg,Ti coupled with optical fiber was developed, and a blank fiber was set to remove the stem effect generated by the optical fiber due to direct radiation. A slight increase of RL sensitivity with accumulated dose and the afterglow effect due to shallow traps in LiF:Mg,Ti were observed, thus a set of algorithms was adopted to correct measured dose rate. A good linearity of dose-rate response using RL in LiF:Mg,Ti over more than four orders of magnitude (from 0.76 mGy/h to 8.02 Gy/h) was shown, and the deviation of calibrated dose rate is within 20%. Moreover, a satisfactory reproducibility (1.45%) of the measured dose rate after correction was represented. The results indicated that LiF:Mg,Ti might be promising for real-time dose monitoring.

Organic Solar Cells with 18% Efficiency Enabled by an Alloy Acceptor: A Two-in-One Strategy.

The trade-off between the open-circuit voltage (Voc ) and short-circuit current density (Jsc ) has become the core of current organic photovoltaic research, and realizing the minimum energy offsets that can guarantee effective charge generation is strongly desired for high-performance systems. Herein, a high-performance ternary solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of over 18% using a large-bandgap polymer donor, PM6, and a small-bandgap alloy acceptor containing two structurally similar nonfullerene acceptors (Y6 and AQx-3) is reported. This system can take full advantage of solar irradiation and forms a favorable morphology. By varying the ratio of the two acceptors, delicate regulation of the energy levels of the alloy acceptor is achieved, thereby affecting the charge dynamics in the devices. The optimal ternary device exhibits more efficient hole transfer and exciton separation than the PM6:AQx-3-based system and reduced energy loss compared with the PM6:Y6-based system, contributing to better performance. Such a "two-in-one" alloy strategy, which synergizes two highly compatible acceptors, provides a promising path for boosting the photovoltaic performance of devices.

Carbon-Bridged 1,2-Bis(2-thienyl)ethylene: An Extremely Electron Rich Dithiophene Building Block Enabling Electron Acceptors with Absorption above 1000 nm for Highly Sensitive NIR Photodetectors.

The emerging donor-acceptor-donor (A-D-A)-type nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) featuring near-infrared (NIR) photoresponsivity have greatly boosted the development of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and display great potential for sensitive NIR organic photodetectors (OPDs). However, NIR NFAs with absorption above 1000 nm, which is of great importance for application in NIR OPDs for bioimaging, remote communication, night surveillance, etc., are still rare due to the scarcity of strong electron-rich cores. We report herein a new dithiophene building block, namely PDT, which exhibits the strongest electron-donating ability among the widely used dithiophene building blocks. By applying PDT and PDTT as the electron-donating cores and DFIC as the electron-accepting terminals, we developed two new NIR electron acceptors, PDTIC-4F and PDTTIC-4F, with optical absorptions up to 1030 nm, surpassing that of the well-known O6T-4F acceptor. In comparison with the carbon-oxygen-bridged core COi8 in O6T-4F, the synthetic complexity of PDT and PDTT is significantly reduced. Conventional OPV devices based on PM6:PDTTIC-4F display power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 10.70% with a broad external quantum efficiency (EQE) response from the ultraviolet-visible to the infrared, leading to a high short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 25.90 mA cm-2. Encouraged by these results, we investigated inverted PM6:PDTTIC-4F-based OPD devices by suppressing the dark current via modulation of the film thickness. The optimal OPD device exhibits compelling performance metrics that can compete with those of commercial silicon photodiodes: a record responsivity of 0.55 A W-1 (900 nm) among photodiode-type OPDs and excellent shot-noise-limited specific detectivity (Dsh*) of over 1013 jones.

GINS2 promotes EMT in pancreatic cancer via specifically stimulating ERK/MAPK signaling.

Go-Ichi-Ni-San 2 (GINS2), as a newly discovered oncogene, is overexpressed in several cancers. However, the specific role of GINS2 in the development of pancreatic cancer (PC), to our knowledge, is poorly understood. We systematically explored the potential role of GINS2 in epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT)-stimulated PC in vitro and vivo. GINS2 was overexpressed in human PC specimens, which was positively associated with tumor size (P = 0.010), T stage (P = 0.006), vascular invasion (P = 0.037), and the poor prognosis (P = 0.004). Interestingly, a close correlation between GINS2, E-cadherin, and Vimentin (P = 0.014) was found in human PC specimens and cell lines that coordinately promoted the worse survival of PC patients (P = 0.009). GINS2 overexpression stimulated EMT in vitro, including promoting EMT-like cellular morphology, enhancing cell motility, and activating EMT and ERK/MAPK signal pathways. However, PD98059, a specific MEK1 inhibitor, reversed GINS2 overexpression-stimulated EMT in vitro. Conversely, GINS2 silencing inhibited EMT in PANC-1 cells, which was also rescued by GINS2-GFP. Moreover, GINS2 was colocalized and co-immunoprecipitated with ERK in GINS2 high-expression Miapaca-2 and PANC-1 cells, implying a tight interaction of GINS2 with ERK/MAPK signaling. Meanwhile, GINS2 overexpression inhibited distant liver metastases in vivo, following a tight association with EMT and ERK/MAPK signaling, which was reversed by MEK inhibitor. Overexpression of GINS2 contributes to advanced clinical stage of PC patient and promotes EMT in vitro and vivo via specifically activating ERK/MAPK signal pathway.

BZW2 promotes the malignant progression of colorectal cancer via activating the ERK/MAPK pathway.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignant solid cancers worldwide involving the dysregulation of multiple signaling molecules. However, the role and corresponding mechanism of basic leucine zipper and W2 domains 2 (BZW2) in CRC development, to our knowledge, has not been reported. We found BZW2 was overexpressed in human CRC tissues compared with that in paired adjacent colorectal samples. BZW2 overexpression was closely associated with tumor T stage (p = .030), metastatic lymph nodes (p = .037), TNM stage (p = .018) and the worse prognosis of CRC patients (p = .009). Moreover, BZW2 was an independent disadvantage prognostic factor (p = .031). BZW2 also showed an increased expression in different invasive CRC cell lines. Its silencing and overexpression diminished and increased cell proliferation, invasion, and migration in Colo205 and HCT116 cells via specifically activating of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK)/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. Moreover, ERK/MAPK inhibitor PD98059 reverse the enhancement of cell proliferation, invasion, and migration in BZW2 overexpressing HCT116 cells. BZW2 silencing also inhibited subcutaneous tumors growth and p-ERK expression in vivo. BZW2 promotes the malignant progression of CRC via activating ERK/MAPK signaling, which provided a promising gene target therapy for CRC.

Conjugation-Curtailing of Benzodithionopyran-Cored Molecular Acceptor Enables Efficient Air-Processed Small Molecule Solar Cells.

Small molecule solar cells (SMSCs) lag a long way behind polymer solar cells. A key limit is the less controllable morphology of small molecule materials, which can be aggravated when incorporating anisotropic nonfullerene acceptors. To fine-tune the blending morphology within SMSCs, a π-conjunction curtailing design is applied, which produces a efficient benzodithionopyran-cored molecular acceptor for nonfullerene SMSCs (NF-SMSCs). When blended with a molecular donor BDT3TR-SF to fabricate NF-SMSCs, the π-conjunction curtailed molecular acceptor NBDTP-M obtains an optimal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 10.23%, which is much higher than that of NBDTTP-M of longer π-conjunction. It retains 93% of the PCE of devices fabricated in a glove box when all spin-coating and post-treating procedures are conducted in ambient air with relative humidity of 25%, which suggests the good air-processing capability of π-conjunction curtailed molecules. Detailed X-ray scattering investigations indicate that the BDT3TR-SF:NBDTP-M blend exhibits a blend morphology featuring fine interpenetrating networks with smaller domains and higher phase purity, which results in more efficient charge generation, more balanced charge transport, and less recombination compared to the low-performance BDT3TR-SF:NBDTTP-M blend. This work provides a guideline for molecular acceptors' design toward efficient, low-cost, air-processed NF-SMSCs.

Angiopoietin-like protein 1 inhibits epithelial to mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer cells via suppress Slug expression.

The role of ANGPTL1 in cancer development is still little known, especially in colorectal cancer (CRC). We investigated the clinical significance of ANGPTL1 expression in CRC tissues and its potential role in the progression of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in CRC cells, which has not been reported to our knowledge. ANGPTL1 expression in CRC tissues was much lower that than in paired adjacent normal tissues by IHC, WB and qRT-PCR assays. ANGPTL1 positive expression was negatively associated with tumor size (P = 0.034), T stage (P = 0.015), lymph nodes metastasis (P = 0.045) and TNM stage (P = 0.009) and poor prognosis of CRC patients (P = 0.003). In vitro, ANGPTL1 showed decreasing expression in CRC cell lines from primary tumor to ascites metastasis. Meanwhile, ANGPTL1 silencing enhanced EMT in HCT116 cells followed with the increase of Slug, Fibronectin and Vimentin, the decrease of E-cad, and the enhancement of EMT-like cell morphology and cell invasion and migration. Low ANGPTL1 expression is closely associated with multiple clinical significance and prognosis of CRC patients. ANGPTL1 inhibits EMT of CRC cells via inhibiting E-cad suppressor Slug expression.

Isomery-Dependent Miscibility Enables High-Performance All-Small-Molecule Solar Cells.

Nonfullerene polymer solar cells develop quickly. However, nonfullerene small-molecule solar cells (NF-SMSCs) still show relatively inferior performance, attributing to the lack of comprehensive understanding of the structure-performance relationship. To address this issue, two isomeric small-molecule acceptors, NBDTP-Fout and NBDTP-Fin , with varied oxygen position in the benzodi(thienopyran) (BDTP) core are designed and synthesized. When blended with molecular donor BDT3TR-SF, devices based on the two isomeric acceptors show disparate photovoltaic performance. Fabricated with an eco-friendly processing solvent (tetrahydrofuran), the BDT3TR-SF:NBDTP-Fout blend delivers a high power conversion efficiency of 11.2%, ranked to the top values reported to date, while the BDT3TR-SF:NBDTP-Fin blend almost shows no photovoltaic response (0.02%). With detailed investigations on inherent optoelectronic processes as well as morphological evolution, this performance disparity is correlated to the interfacial tension of the two combinations and concludes that proper interfacial tension is a key factor for effective phase separation, optimal blend morphology, and superior performance, which can be achieved by the "isomerization" design on molecular acceptors. This work reveals the importance of modulating the materials miscibility by interfacial-tension-oriented molecular design, which provides a general guideline toward efficient NF-SMSCs.

High-Performance Inverted Polymer Solar Cells with Zirconium Acetylacetonate Buffer Layers.

Inverted polymer solar cells incorporating solution-processed zirconium acetylacetonate (ZrAcac) buffer layers were demonstrated. The optimal device delivered a power conversion efficiency up to 9.2%, displaying ∼20% improvement compared with the device of conventional configuration. The performance improvement by adopting ZrAcac as the cathode buffer layer is attributed to the enhanced light-harvesting, facilitated electron transport, and reduced bimolecular recombination loss. The morphology of ZrAcac buffer layer was found to be critical in achieving high performance, which was tunable through the selection of processing solvents. A flat and uniform ZrAcac film consisting of ∼20 nm nanoscale aggregates deposited from a chloroform solution was proved to be highly effective, which only requires a short light-soaking time.

A Thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-Based Non-fullerene Electron Acceptor for High-Performance Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells.

A thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-based electron acceptor, ATT-1, is designed and synthesized. ATT-1 exhibits a planar conjugated framework, broad absorption with a large absorption coefficient, and a slightly high LUMO energy level. Bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells based on PTB7-Th electron donor and ATT-1 electron acceptor delivered power conversion efficiencies of up to 10.07%, which is among the best performances reported for non-fullerene BHJ solar cells using PTB7-Th as the electron donor.

Dithienoindophenines: p-Type Semiconductors Designed by Quinoid Stabilization for Solar-Cell Applications.

Compared with the dominant aromatic conjugated materials, photovoltaic applications of their quinoidal counterparts featuring rigid and planar molecular structures have long been unexplored despite their narrow optical bandgaps, large absorption coefficients, and excellent charge-transport properties. The design and synthesis of dithienoindophenine derivatives (DTIPs) by stabilizing the quinoidal resonance of the parent indophenine framework is reported here. Compared with the ambipolar indophenine derivatives, DTIPs with the fixed molecular configuration are found to be p-type semiconductors exhibiting excellent unipolar hole mobilities up to 0.22 cm2 V-1 s-1 , which is one order of magnitude higher than that of the parent IP-O and is even comparable to that of QQT(CN)4-based single-crystal field-effect transistors (FET). DTIPs exhibit better photovoltaic performance than their aromatic bithieno[3,4-b]thiophene (BTT) counterparts with an optimal power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.07 %.

Low-Bandgap Small-Molecule Donor Material Containing Thieno[3,4-b]thiophene Moiety for High-Performance Solar Cells.

By replacing the central thiophene of STDR, a sepithiophene terminated with two 3-ethylrhodanine moieties, with 2-ethylhexyl 3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-2-carboxylate, an A-D-Q-D-A-type small molecule has been developed for high-performance organic solar cells with improved photocurrent. STDR-TbT exhibits a significant bathochromic shift with a low optical bandgap of approximately 1.60 eV in the thin film. Accordingly, STDR-TbT shows broad external quantum efficiency spectral response up to 800 nm. A high short circuit current (Jsc) of 10.90 mA cm(-2) was achieved for STDR-TbT:PC71BM-based devices; this is significantly higher than that of STDR:PC71BM-based devices, Jsc: 5.61 mA cm(-2), with a power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.05%. Compared with STDR-based devices, STDR-TbT-based devices show balanced charge carrier transport, better thin-film morphology, and favorable charge separation/collection.

Thiazole-based organic semiconductors for organic electronics.

Over the past two decades, organic semiconductors have been the subject of intensive academic and commercial interests. Thiazole is a common electron-accepting heterocycle due to electron-withdrawing nitrogen of imine (C=N), several moieties based on thiazole have been widely introduced into organic semiconductors, and yielded high performance in organic electronic devices. This article reviews recent developments in the area of thiazole-based organic semiconductors, particularly thiazole, bithiazole, thiazolothiazole and benzobisthiazole-based small molecules and polymers, for applications in organic field-effect transistors, solar cells and light-emitting diodes. The remaining problems and challenges, and the key research direction in near future are discussed.

Evolved phase separation toward balanced charge transport and high efficiency in polymer solar cells.

Understanding effect of morphology on charge carrier transport within polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction is necessary to develop high-performance polymer solar cells. In this work, we synthesized a new benzodithiophene-based polymer with good self-organization behavior as well as favorable morphology evolution of its blend films with PC(71)BM under improved processing conditions. Charge carrier transport behavior of blend films was characterized by space charge limited current method. Evolved blend film morphology by controlling blend composition and additive content gradually reaches an optimized state, featured with nanoscale fibrilla polymer phase in moderate size and balanced mobility ratio close to 1:1 for hole and electron. This optimized morphology toward more balanced charge carrier transport accounts for the best power conversion efficiency of 3.2%, measured under simulated AM 1.5 solar irradiation 100 mW/cm(2), through enhancing short circuit current and reducing geminate recombination loss.