Macrocyclic Encapsulation in a Non-fused Tetrathiophene Acceptor for Efficient Organic Solar Cells with High Short-Circuit Current Density.

Non-fullerene acceptors have shown great promise for organic solar cells (OSCs). However, challenges in achieving high efficiency molecular system with conformational unicity and effective molecular stacking remain. In this study, we present a new design of non-fused tetrathiophene acceptor R4T-1 via employing the encapsulation of tetrathiophene with macrocyclic ring. The single crystal structure analysis reveals that cyclic alkyl side chains can perfectly encapsulate the central part of molecule and generate a conformational stable and planar molecular backbone. Whereas, the control 4T-5 without the encapsulation restriction displays cis- and twisted conformation. As a result, R4T-1 based OSCs achieved an outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) exceeding 15.10 % with a high short-circuit current density (Jsc ) of 25.48 mA/cm2 , which is significantly improved by ≈30 % in relative to that of the control. Our findings demonstrate that the macrocyclic encapsulation strategy could assist fully non-fused electron acceptors (FNEAs) to achieve a high photovoltaic performance and pave a new way for FNEAs design.

Physiological and Transcriptional Analysis Reveals the Response Mechanism of Camellia vietnamensis Huang to Drought Stress.

Drought stress is considered the main obstacle restricting Camellia vietnamensis Huang (C. vietnamensis) yield. Hainan is the southernmost distribution region of C. vietnamensis in China and experiences a drought period annually. To study the drought-stress-response mechanism of C. vietnamensis, we treated seedlings of drought-tolerant (HD1) and drought-sensitive (WH1) cultivars with PEG-6000 (PEG) to simulate drought stress and compared the physiology and transcriptome of their leaves at 0 d, 3 d and 6 d posttreatment. Under drought stress, the growth of C. vietnamensis was inhibited, the relative water content (RWC) of leaves decreased and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), antioxidant enzyme activities, osmotic regulatory substances and secondary metabolites increased. Compared with those of WH1, the leaf RWC, osmotic-regulation substance content (proline, soluble protein and soluble sugar) and antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase) of HD1 were significantly increased, while the relative electrical conductivity and MDA content were significantly decreased. Compared with WH1, 2812, 2070 and 919, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in HD1 0 d, 3 d and 6 d posttreatment, respectively, and the number of DEGs increased with increasing treatment time. The detected DEGs are involved in the drought stress response of C. vietnamensis mainly through plant-hormone signal transduction and lignin and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Drought stress significantly activated the expression of several lignin and flavonoid biosynthesis genes in HD1. Moreover, total flavonoid and total polyphenol contents in HD1 were significantly increased, suggesting that the accumulation of flavonoids may be a key factor in the drought stress response of C. vietnamensis. Additionally, 191 DEGs were associated with coding transcription factors (TFs). This study provides insight into the molecular mechanism of the drought stress response of C. vietnamensis and provides a theoretical basis for the development and cultivation of new drought-resistant cultivars.

Simple Tricyclic-Based A-π-D-π-A-Type Nonfullerene Acceptors for High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells.

Nonfused-ring electron acceptors have attracted much attention in recent years due to their advantages of simple synthetic routes, high yields, low costs, reasonable power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), and so on. Herein, three simple A-π-D-π-A-type acceptors (DTC-BO-4F, DTS-BO-4F, and DTP-BO-4F) comprising a tricyclic fused-ring core, two 2,5-bis(alkyloxy)phenylene spacers, and two difluorinated terminal groups (DF-IC) were developed. Compared with DTS-BO-4F, DTC-BO-4F and DTP-BO-4F exhibit higher molar extinction coefficients, stronger crystallinity, and more orderly stacking. The PBDB-T:DTC-BO-4F-based blend film shows suitable phase separation and higher and more balanced charge mobilities. Finally, the photovoltaic devices based on DTC-BO-4F give an outstanding PCE of 13.26% with a small nonradiative voltage loss of 0.23 eV.

Hybrid Nonfused-Ring Electron Acceptors with Fullerene Pendant for High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells.

The rapid advance of fused-ring electron acceptors (FREAs) has made them a potential substitute to fullerene-based acceptors and offered new avenues for the construction of organic solar cells (OSCs). Nonfused-ring acceptors (NFRAs) could significantly reduce the synthetic cost while achieving reasonable power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Widely used fullerene acceptors have been applied as a second acceptor to regulate the morphology, absorption, and electron transport. To take full advantage of both nonfullerene and fullerene acceptors at the same time, we rationally designed and synthesized two novel NFRAs with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the lateral pendent. With the incorporation of fullerene pendent in PCBM-C6 and PCBM-C10, varied UV-vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) quenching behaviors were observed, and isotropic diffraction patterns were obtained via grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) measurements. The bulky, spherical, and electronic isotropic fullerene pendent could effectively suppress severe molecular aggregation and form the preferred blend morphology. This strategy significantly improved the efficiencies for exciton separation and charge collection relative to the control acceptor CH3COO-C6. Finally, the Voc, Jsc, and fill factor (FF) of PCBM-C10-based devices were simultaneously improved and an enhanced PCE of 13.55% was accomplished.

Photovoltaic Performances of Fused Ring Acceptors with Isomerized Ladder-Type Dipyran Cores.

We precisely design and synthesize two A-π-D-π-A type dipyran-cored nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) Ph-DTDPo-OT and Ph-DTDPi-OT with oxygen atoms at the outer and inner positions, respectively. 3-Hexyloxythiophene is used as the π-spacer to expand the effective conjugation length of the acceptors. These two NFAs possess similar optical band gaps and energy levels. However, the position of the oxygen atom at the dipyran core can markedly influence the molecular packing and aggregation behavior of the resulted acceptors. Ph-DTDPo-OT with a strong intermolecular affinity tends to form larger aggregates blending with PBDB-T, leading to a lower photovoltaic performance; Ph-DTDPi-OT presents good miscibility with PBDB-T and the blend films preferentially adopt a face-on orientation. Ph-DTDPi-OT-based devices display high and balanced hole and electron mobilities, leading to an optimal power conversion efficiency of 11.38%, which is much higher than those of Ph-DTDPo-OT-based ones (7.60%). Moreover, Ph-DTDPi-OT-based devices also exhibit a lower nonradiative recombination voltage loss of 0.268 eV. Our work demonstrates that the π-spacer and chemical structure of the core unit can greatly influence the molecular packing and the morphology of blend films, which are critical to the photovoltaic performance of devices.

Comparison of the in vitro activities of newer triazoles and established antifungal agents against Trichophyton rubrum.

One hundred eleven clinical Trichophyton rubrum isolates were tested against 7 antifungal agents. The geometric mean MICs of all isolates were, in increasing order: terbinafine, 0.03 mg/liter; voriconazole, 0.05 mg/liter; posaconazole, 0.11 mg/liter; isavuconazole, 0.13 mg/liter; itraconazole, 0.26 mg/liter; griseofulvin, 1.65 mg/liter; and fluconazole, 2.12 mg/liter.