Co-Self-Assembled Monolayers Modified NiOx for Stable Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells.

[4-(3,6-dimethyl-9H-carbazol-9yl)butyl]phosphonic acid (Me-4PACz) self-assembled molecules (SAM) are an effective method to solve the problem of the buried interface of NiOx in inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the Me-4PACz end group (carbazole core) cannot forcefully passivate defects at the bottom of the perovskite film. Here, a Co-SAM strategy is employed to modify the buried interface of PSCs. Me-4PACz is doped with phosphorylcholine chloride (PC) to form a Co-SAM to improve the monolayer coverage and reduce leakage current. The phosphate group and chloride ions (Cl-) in PC can inhibit NiOx surface defects. Meantime, the quaternary ammonium ions and Cl- in PC can fill organic cations and halogen vacancies in the perovskite film to enable defects passivation. Moreover, Co-SAM can promote the growth of perovskite crystals, collaboratively solve the problem of buried defects, suppress nonradiative recombination, accelerate carrier transmission, and relieve the residual stress of the perovskite film. Consequently, the Co-SAM modified devices show power conversion efficiencies as high as 25.09% as well as excellent device stability with 93% initial efficiency after 1000 h of operation under one-sun illumination. This work demonstrates the novel approach for enhancing the performance and stability of PSCs by modifying Co-SAM on NiOx.

Rapid Surface Reconstruction in Air-Processed Perovskite Solar Cells by Blade Coating.

Blade coating has been developed to be an essential technique for large-area fabrication of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, effective surface treatment of the perovskite layer, which is a critical step for improving PSC performance, remains challenges during blade coating due to the short interaction time between the modification solution and the perovskite layer, as well as the limited selection of available organic solvents. In this study, a novel modifier N,N-diphenylguanidine monohydrobromide (DPGABr) dissolved in acetonitrile (ACN) is blade coated on the MA0.7 FA0.3 PbI3 surface in air to reconstruct the perovskite surface in hundreds of milliseconds. This work finds that the solvent ACN rapidly dissolves organic iodide of the perovskite layer and leads to a PbI2 -rich surface, providing reactive sites for DPGABr to form a thin DPGABr/PbI2 complex layer. This surface reconstruction can effectively passivate defects and induce n-type doping on the perovskite surface to facilitate electron transfer. The resultant devices show a 15% improvement in average power conversion efficiency. More importantly, the devices with the surface reconstruction show outstanding long-term stability, with negligible performance degradation even after 1-year storage in air. This study presents a convenient and effective approach for improving the performance of blade-coated PSCs prepared in air.

Recent Advances of Degradation Technologies Based on PROTAC Mechanism.

PROTAC (proteolysis-targeting chimeras), which selectively degrades target proteins, has become the most popular technology for drug development in recent years. Here, we introduce the history of PROTAC, and summarize the recent advances in novel types of degradation technologies based on the PROTAC mechanism, including TF-PROTAC, Light-controllable PROTAC, PhosphoTAC, LYTAC, AUTAC, ATTEC, CMA, RNA-PROTAC and RIBOTACs. In addition, the clinical progress, current challenges and future prospects of degradation technologies based on PROTAC mechanism are discussed.

Sub-5 nm single crystalline organic p-n heterojunctions.

The cornerstones of emerging high-performance organic photovoltaic devices are bulk heterojunctions, which usually contain both structure disorders and bicontinuous interpenetrating grain boundaries with interfacial defects. This feature complicates fundamental understanding of their working mechanism. Highly-ordered crystalline organic p-n heterojunctions with well-defined interface and tailored layer thickness, are highly desirable to understand the nature of organic heterojunctions. However, direct growth of such a crystalline organic p-n heterojunction remains a huge challenge. In this work, we report a design rationale to fabricate monolayer molecular crystals based p-n heterojunctions. In an organic field-effect transistor configuration, we achieved a well-balanced ambipolar charge transport, comparable to single component monolayer molecular crystals devices, demonstrating the high-quality interface in the heterojunctions. In an organic solar cell device based on the p-n junction, we show the device exhibits gate-tunable open-circuit voltage up to 1.04 V, a record-high value in organic single crystalline photovoltaics.

Photo-/Thermal-Responsive Field-Effect Transistor upon Blending Polymeric Semiconductor with Hexaarylbiimidazole toward Photonically Programmable and Thermally Erasable Memory Device.

It is shown that the semiconducting performance of field-effect transistors (FETs) with PDPP4T (poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole-quaterthiophene)) can be reversibly tuned by UV light irradiation and thermal heating after blending with the photochromic hexaarylbiimidazole compound (p-NO2 -HABI). A photo-/thermal-responsive FET with a blend thin film of PDPP4T and p-NO2 -HABI is successfully fabricated. The transfer characteristics are altered significantly with current enhanced up to 106 -fold at VG = 0 V after UV light irradiation. However, further heating results in the recovery of the transfer curve. This approach can be extended to other semiconducting polymers such as P3HT (poly(3-hexyl thiophene)), PBTTT (poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b] thiophene)) and PDPPDTT (poly(diketopyrrolopyrrole-dithienothiophene)). It is hypothesized that TPIRs (2,4,5-triphenylimidazolyl radicals) formed from p-NO2 -HABI after UV light irradiation can interact with charge defects at the gate dielectric-semiconductor interface and those in the semiconducting layer to induce more hole carriers in the semiconducting channel. The application of the blend thin film of PDPP4T and p-NO2 -HABI is further demonstrated to fabricate the photonically programmable and thermally erasable FET-based nonvolatile memory devices that are advantageous in terms of i) high ON/OFF current ratio, ii) nondestructive reading at low electrical bias, and iii) reasonably highly stable ON-state and OFF-state.

Screening and identification of a human domain antibody against Brucella abortus VirB5.

Brucellosis is caused by the genus Brucella. Brucella is widely distributed in cattle, swine, sheep, goat and other mammals including human. Animal brucellosis causes severe economic losses and affects related international transportation and trade. Human brucellosis causes both acute and chronic symptoms of multi-organ dysfunction. Brucella type IV secretion system (T4SS) VirB5 was required for macrophages infection and essential for virulence in mice. VirB5 is located on the cell surface and serves as a specific adhesin targeting host cell receptors. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize a specific human domain antibody against Brucella abortus (B. abortus) VirB5 from human single domain antibody (sdAb or VHH) phage display library. Following five rounds of screening, an sdAb named as BaV5VH4 showed the highest affinity by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Its interaction with B. abortus VirB5 was verified by binding assay, dot blot and molecular docking. These findings in this paper could greatly help elucidate the molecular mechanisms of Brucella infection, and accelerate the development of sdAbs-based vaccines and neutralizing therapeutics of brucellosis.

One-step solution synthesis of a two-dimensional semiconducting covalent organometallic nanosheet via the condensation of boronic acid.

In this work, a 2D covalent organometallic nanosheet (COMS) was designed and successfully synthesized through the one-step conjunction of a terpyridine-metal-terpyridine (TMT) sandwich coordinate motif with borate ester covalent heterocyclic (B3O3) linkage via the condensation of boronic acid. The obtained 2D COMS with a cobalt coordination center (2D COMS-Co) showed promising p-type semiconducting properties.

π-Extended Isoindigo-Based Derivative: A Promising Electron-Deficient Building Block for Polymer Semiconductors.

The exploration of novel electron-deficient building blocks is a key task for developing high-performance polymer semiconductors in organic thin-film transistors. In view of the situation of the lack of strong electron-deficient building blocks, we designed two novel π-extended isoindigo-based electron-deficient building blocks, IVI and F4IVI. Owing to the strong electron-deficient nature and the extended π-conjugated system of the two acceptor units, their copolymers, PIVI2T and PF4IVI2T, containing 2,2'-bithiophene donor units, are endowed with deep-lying highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels and strong intermolecular interactions. In comparison to PIVI2T, the fluorinated PF4IVI2T exhibits stronger intra- and intermolecular interactions, lower HOMO/LUMO energy levels up to -5.74/-4.17 eV, and more ordered molecular packing with a smaller π-π stacking distance of up to 3.53 Å, resulting in an excellent ambipolar transporting behavior and a promising application in logic circuits for PF4IVI2T in ambient with hole and electron mobilities of up to 1.03 and 1.82 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. The results reveal that F4IVI is a promising and strong electron-deficient building unit to construct high-performance semiconducting polymers, which provides an insight into the structure-property relationships for the exploration and molecular engineering of excellent electron-deficient building blocks in the field of organic electronics.

WITHDRAWN: Survivin knock down by short hairpin RNA inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in EJ bladder cancer cells.

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