Modulation of an intermediate layer between NiCoP and Ni foam substrate in a microwire array electrode for enhancing the hydrogen-evolution reaction.

A hierarchical electrode consisting of a Ni foam substrate, an intermediate layer of a Mo-doped basic cobalt carbonate microwire array, and a surface layer of NiCoP was fabricated for hydrogen evolution. The introduction of the intermediate layer accounted for the low overpotential (45 mV, 10 mA cm-2) and high solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency (14.9%) in a PEC water splitting application.

Efficient ternary organic solar cells based on a twin spiro-type non-fullerene acceptor.

A novel small-molecule (SM) acceptor DTF-IC is designed and synthesized in this work. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ternary OSCs increased up to 12.14% from 10.90% by incorporating 10 wt% of DTF-IC as second acceptors into the binary OSCs consisting of PBDB-T as donor and IT-M as acceptor. This was mainly due to the large increase in short-circuit current (Jsc) from 16.18 to 17.95 mA/cm2, without any drop in the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF). The addition of DTF-IC enabled the donor and acceptor to form a distinct complementary absorption profile in the visible-light region, which boosted the photon harvesting in the range of 730-800 nm and consequently increased the Jsc of the ternary system by 11%. Moreover, there was an energy transfer between the two SM acceptors, favorable for enhancing charge separation and transfer as well as reducing charge recombination at PBDB-T:IT-M and PBDB-T:DTF-IC interface. Simultaneously, HOMO and LUMO energy levels of DTF-IC were lower than those of PBDB-T, but still higher than those of IT-M. Thus, DTF-IC is able to provide a cascading energy level with the host donor and acceptor which are beneficial for efficient charge transfer between the acceptors and facilitating exciton dissociation and carrier transport. Meanwhile, the highly crystalline DTF-IC as a third component can improve the crystallization process of the active layer while maintaining proper phase separation. This work proposes a novel idea for non-fullerene acceptors achieved via twin spiro-type structure modifying by indanone and provides a new direction for the selection of ternary solar cell materials.

Effective electron collection in highly (110)-oriented ZnO porous nanosheet framework photoanode.

A highly (110)-oriented ZnO porous nanosheet framework is designed as the photoanode in photoelectrochemical systems, by virtue of its anisotropic electronic properties. It can be facilely prepared in large scale via a hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses show that the orientation index of the (110) diffraction plane is 3.54, indicating the films possess (110) preferred orientation. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images exhibit that most of the nanosheets stand nearly perpendicularly on the substrate. The {002} lattice planes work just like conducting wires and induce the electrons to transport to the substrate. Chronoamperometry measurement demonstrates an effective electron collection. When the nanostructured photoanode is introduced to dye-sensitized solar cells, a conversion efficiency of 3.7% is obtained. The photoanode also has potential application in the other photoelectrochemical systems, such as photocatalytical splitting of water.