Fullerene-Based Heterojunctions for Non-Selective Absorption Transparent Solar Cells.

Transparent photovoltaic (TPV) devices have great potential to be applied as smart windows in construction and agriculture fields. TPVs with an average visible transmission (AVT) exceeding 50% are among the strong candidates to build lighting windows since the champion efficiency has already exceeded 10%. However, it is still a challenge in TPVs that semiconductors are generally expensive and transparency is difficult to further enhance, particularly for device AVT exceeding 70%. In this work, we develop a set of fullerene-based heterojunctions to harvest the light. By utilizing the low-cost fullerene as the light-absorbing material and combining it with the transparent electrode, the fabricated TPV device can achieve an AVT of 72.1% with a PCE exceeding 1%. Notably, the device with an AVT of 82% is also successfully demonstrated. This study provides an effective approach for building low-cost and efficient TPV devices.

Perfection of Perovskite Grain Boundary Passivation by Eu-Porphyrin Complex for Overall-Stable Perovskite Solar Cells.

The formation of defects at surfaces and grain boundaries (GBs) during the fabrication of solution-processed perovskite film are thought to be responsible for its instability. Herein, Eu-porphyrin complex (Eu-pyP) is directly doped into methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI3) precursor, perfectly fabricating 2D (Eu-pyP)0.5MA n -1Pb n I3 n +1 platelets inlaying the GBs of 3D polycrystalline interstices in this protocol. The device based on Eu-pyP doped perovskite film possesses a champion efficiency of 18.2%. More importantly, the doped perovskite solar cells device shows beyond 85% retention of its pristine efficiency value, whereas the pure MAPbI3 device has a rapid drop in efficiency down to 10% within 100 h under 45% humidity at 85 °C in AM 1.5 G. The above acquired perovskite films reveal an unpredictable thermodynamic self-healing ability. Consequently, the findings provide an avenue for defect passivation to synchronously improve resistibility to moisture, heat, and solar light including UV.

Cerium-Oxide-Modified Anodes for Efficient and UV-Stable ZnO-Based Perovskite Solar Cells.

CeO x has been widely used in optoelectronic devices due to its special electronic and optical structure. Herein, CeO x was directly doped into ZnO to successfully construct a ZnO/CeO x electron transport material (ETM) used in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The incorporation of CeO x can regulate the chemical compatibility between ZnO and perovskite, unmatched energy levels, and poor UV stability, further enhancing the cell performance and stability of PSCs. As expected, the best efficiency of fabricated CH3NH3PbI3-PSCs based on ZnO/CeO x as the ETM was up to 19.5%. In contrast, the efficiency of PSCs with pure ZnO was 16.0%. Moreover, compared with PSCs based on ZnO, ZnO/CeO x-based PSCs exhibited significantly enhanced moisture, and thermal and UV stability. These results point to the introduction of rare-earth oxides, which could accelerate the industrialization of PSCs.

Efficient Grain Boundary Suture by Low-Cost Tetra-ammonium Zinc Phthalocyanine for Stable Perovskite Solar Cells with Expanded Photoresponse.

Defects within the grain boundaries (GBs) of halide perovskite films make fabrication of efficient and stable perovskite solar cells (PSCs) highly challenging. Here, a low-cost tetra-ammonium zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) was used to post-treat the MAPbI3 (MA = CH3NH3) film. Two-dimensional (ZnPc)0.5MA n-1Pb nI3 n+1 was successfully constructed within the GBs of MAPbI3 film achieving a GBs suture for passivating the defects in GBs. Time-resolved photoluminescence showed that the modification increased the decay time from 44 to 57 ns indicating the passivation of GBs reduces trap-assisted recombination. The PSCs with modified perovskite exhibited increased photovoltage, and the best efficiency was improved up to 20.3%. More importantly, the long-term stability of the responding PSCs against humidity and heating was further improved unprecedentedly. Moreover, the modified MAPbI3 films revealed a self-repairing capability under mild heating. This work provided a novel insight into ongoing fabrication of efficient and stable PSCs by the efficient GBs suture with low-cost phthalocyanine.

Terbium Functionalized Micelle Nanoprobe for Ratiometric Fluorescence Detection of Anthrax Spore Biomarker.

Rapid, sensitive, and selective quantitative detection of pyridine dicarboxylic acid (DPA) as biomarker of anthrax spores is in great demand since anthrax spores are highly lethal to human beings and animals and also potential biological warfare agents. Herein, we prepared a ratiometric fluorescence lanthanide functionalized micelle nanoprobe by "one-pot" self-assembly, with an amphiphilic ligand containing ß-diketone derivative which can "immobilize" terbium ions through the coordination interaction and a fluorophore as fluorescence reference (FR). The detection strategy was ascribed to Tb3+ ions in lanthanide functionalized micelle, which can be sensitized to emit the intrinsic luminescence upon addition of DPA due to the presence of energy transfer when DPA chromophore coordinated with Tb3+ ion. The fluorescence intensity of FR remained essentially constant, leading to ratiometric fluorescence response toward DPA. The results demonstrate that the terbium functionalized micelle was able to sensitively detect DPA with a linear relation in the range of 0 µM to 7.0 µM in aqueous solution, which also showed remarkable selectivity to DPA over other aromatic ligands. Our work paves a new way in the design of ratiometric fluorescence lanthanide functionalized micelle nanoprobes which can be promising for selective and sensitive detection of bacterial spores or biomolecules.