Jasmonate signaling pathway confers salt tolerance through a NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y trimeric transcription factor complex in Arabidopsis.

Jasmonate (JA) is a well-known phytohormone essential for plant response to biotic stress. Recently, a crucial role of JA signaling in salt resistance has been highlighted; however, the specific regulatory mechanism remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that the NUCLEAR FACTOR-Y (NF-Y) subunits NF-YA1, NF-YB2, and NF-YC9 form a trimeric complex that positively regulates the expression of salinity-responsive genes, whereas JASMONATE-ZIM DOMAIN protein 8 (JAZ8) directly interacts with three subunits and acts as the key repressor to suppress both the assembly of the NF-YA1-YB2-YC9 trimeric complex and the transcriptional activation activity of the complex. When plants encounter high salinity, JA levels are elevated and perceived by the CORONATINE INSENSITIVE (COI) 1 receptor, leading to the degradation of JAZ8 via the 26S proteasome pathway, thereby releasing the activity of the NF-YA1-YB2-YC9 complex, initiating the activation of salinity-responsive genes, such as MYB75, and thus enhancing the salinity tolerance of plants.

Ion-Migration Inhibition by the Cation-π Interaction in Perovskite Materials for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells.

Migration of ions can lead to photoinduced phase separation, degradation, and current-voltage hysteresis in perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and has become a serious drawback for the organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials (OIPs). Here, the inhibition of ion migration is realized by the supramolecular cation-π interaction between aromatic rubrene and organic cations in OIPs. The energy of the cation-π interaction between rubrene and perovskite is found to be as strong as 1.5 eV, which is enough to immobilize the organic cations in OIPs; this will thus will lead to the obvious reduction of defects in perovskite films and outstanding stability in devices. By employing the cation-immobilized OIPs to fabricate perovskite solar cells (PSCs), a champion efficiency of 20.86% and certified efficiency of 20.80% with negligible hysteresis are acquired. In addition, the long-term stability of cation-immobilized PSCs is improved definitely (98% of the initial efficiency after 720 h operation), which is assigned to the inhibition of ionic diffusions in cation-immobilized OIPs. This cation-π interaction between cations and the supramolecular π system enhances the stability and the performance of PSCs efficiently and would be a potential universal approach to get the more stable perovskite devices.

Optimization of the Surface Structure on Black Silicon for Surface Passivation.

Black silicon shows excellent anti-reflection and thus is extremely useful for photovoltaic applications. However, its high surface recombination velocity limits the efficiency of solar cells. In this paper, the effective minority carrier lifetime of black silicon is improved by optimizing metal-catalyzed chemical etching (MCCE) method, using an Al2O3 thin film deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a passivation layer. Using the spray method to eliminate the impact on the rear side, single-side black silicon was obtained on n-type solar grade silicon wafers. Post-etch treatment with NH4OH/H2O2/H2O mixed solution not only smoothes the surface but also increases the effective minority lifetime from 161 µs of as-prepared wafer to 333 µs after cleaning. Moreover, adding illumination during the etching process results in an improvement in both the numerical value and the uniformity of the effective minority carrier lifetime.