Dielectric Screening in Perovskite Photovoltaics

The performance of perovskite photovoltaics is fundamentally impeded by the presence of undesirable defects that contribute to non-radiative losses within the devices. Although mitigating these losses has been extensively reported by numerous passivation strategies, a detailed understanding of loss origins within the devices remains elusive. Here, we demonstrate that the defect capturing probability estimated by the capture cross-section is decreased by varying the dielectric response, producing the dielectric screening effect in the perovskite. The resulting perovskites also show reduced surface recombination and a weaker electron-phonon coupling. All of these boost the power conversion efficiency to 22.3% for an inverted perovskite photovoltaic device with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.25 V and a low voltage deficit of 0.37 V (a bandgap similar to 1.62 eV). Our results provide not only an in-depth understanding of the carrier capture processes in perovskites, but also a promising pathway for realizing highly efficient devices via dielectric regulation

The abundance of homoeologue transcripts is disrupted by hybridization and is partially restored by genome doubling in synthetic hexaploid wheat

Dataset S7. List of nonadditively expressed genes in F1 hybrids derived from AS2255 × AS60. (XLSX 72 kb

Charge-carrier balance for highly efficient inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells

The charge-carrier balance strategy by interface engineering is employed to optimize the charge-carrier transport in inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells. N,N-Dimethylformamide-treated poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) and poly(methyl methacrylate)-modified PCBM are utilized as the hole and electron selective contacts, respectively, leading to a high power conversion efficiency of 18.72%

Multifunctional ytterbium oxide buffer for perovskite solar cells

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) comprise a solid perovskite absorber sandwiched between several layers of different charge-selective materials, ensuring unidirectional current flow and high voltage output of the devices. A ‘buffer material’ between the electron-selective layer and the metal electrode in p-type/intrinsic/n-type (p-i-n) PSCs (also known as inverted PSCs) enables electrons to flow from the electron-selective layer to the electrode. Furthermore, it acts as a barrier inhibiting the inter-diffusion of harmful species into or degradation products out of the perovskite absorber. Thus far, evaporable organic molecules and atomic-layer-deposited metal oxides have been successful, but each has specific imperfections. Here we report a chemically stable and multifunctional buffer material, ytterbium oxide (YbOx), for p-i-n PSCs by scalable thermal evaporation deposition. We used this YbOx buffer in the p-i-n PSCs with a narrow-bandgap perovskite absorber, yielding a certified power conversion efficiency of more than 25%. We also demonstrate the broad applicability of YbOx in enabling highly efficient PSCs from various types of perovskite absorber layer, delivering state-of-the-art efficiencies of 20.1% for the wide-bandgap perovskite absorber and 22.1% for the mid-bandgap perovskite absorber, respectively. Moreover, when subjected to ISOS-L-3 accelerated ageing, encapsulated devices with YbOx exhibit markedly enhanced device stability

3, 3′-Diindolylmethane Exhibits Antileukemic Activity In Vitro and In Vivo through a Akt-Dependent Process

3,3′-diindolylmethane (DIM), one of the active products derived from Brassica plants, is a promising antitumor agent. The present study indicated that DIM significantly induced apoptosis in U937 human leukemia cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. These events were also noted in other human leukemia cells (Jurkat and HL-60) and primary human leukemia cells (AML) but not in normal bone marrow mononuclear cells. We also found that DIM-induced lethality is associated with caspases activation, myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) down-regulation, p21cip1/waf1 up-regulation, and Akt inactivation accompanied by c-jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation. Enforced activation of Akt by a constitutively active Akt construct prevented DIM-mediated caspase activation, Mcl-1 down-regulation, JNK activation, and apoptosis. Conversely, DIM lethality was potentiated by the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. Interruption of the JNK pathway by pharmacologic or genetic approaches attenuated DIM-induced caspases activation, Mcl-1 down-regulation, and apoptosis. Lastly, DIM inhibits tumor growth of mouse U937 xenograft, which was related to induction of apoptosis and inactivation of Akt, as well as activation of JNK. Collectively, these findings suggest that DIM induces apoptosis in human leukemia cell lines and primary human leukemia cells, and exhibits antileukemic activity in vivo through Akt inactivation and JNK activation

Minimizing non-radiative recombination losses in perovskite solar cells

Photovoltaic solar cells based on metal halide perovskites have gained considerable attention over the past decade because of their potentially low production cost, earth-abundant raw materials, ease of fabrication and ever-increasing power conversion efficiencies of up to 25.2%. This type of solar cells offers the promise of generating electricity at a more competitive unit price than traditional fossil fuels by 2035. Nevertheless, the best research cell efficiencies are still below the theoretical limit defined by the Shockley-Queissier theory owing to the presence of non-radiative recombination losses. In this Review, we analyse the predominant pathways that contribute to non-radiative recombination losses in perovskite solar cells, and evaluate their impact on device performance. We then discuss how non-radiative recombination losses can be estimated through reliable characterization techniques, and highlight some notable advances in mitigating these losses, which hint at pathways towards defect-free perovskite solar cells. Finally, we outline directions for future work that will push the efficiency of perovskite solar cells towards the radiative limit

A novel centralized algorithm for constructing virtual backbones in wireless sensor networks

Abstract Finding the minimum connected dominating set (MCDS) is a key problem in wireless sensor networks, which is crucial for efficient routing and broadcasting. However, the MCDS problem is NP-hard. In this paper, a new approximation algorithm with approximation ratio H(Δ)+3 in time O(n 2) is proposed to approach the MCDS problem. The key idea is to divide the sensors in CDS into core sensors and supporting sensors. The core sensors dominate the supporting sensors in CDS, while the supporting sensors dominate other sensors that are not in CDS. To minimize the number of both the cores and the supporters, a three-phased algorithm is proposed. (1) Finding the base-core sensors by constructing independent set (denoted as S 1), in which the sensors who have the largest |N2(v)||N(v)| $\frac {|N^{2}(v)|}{|N(v)|}$ (number of two-hop neighbors over the number of one-hop neighbors) will be selected greedily into S 1; (2) Connecting all base-core sensors in S 1 to form a connected subgraph, the sensors in the subgraph are called cores; (3) Adding the one-hop neighbors of the core sensors to the supporter set S 2. This guarantees a small number of sensors can be added into CDS, which is a novel scheme for MCDS construction. Extensive simulation results are shown to validate the performance of our algorithm

Hydrocarbon accumulation of composite-buried hill reservoirs in the western subsag of Bozhong sag, Bohai Bay Basin

There are abundant hydrocarbon resources in the western subsag of Bozhong sag in the Bohai Bay Basin, where oil–gas discoveries have been made in those shallow Neogene and Paleogene reservoirs and deep Mesozoic buried hill reservoirs, but no better understandings have yet been achieved in terms of the process of hydrocarbon accumulation and the relationship between deep buried hill reservoirs and the allocation of shallow reservoirs. Based on the organic geochemical analysis of source rocks and basin modeling of hydrocarbon generation evolution, distribution characteristics of fluid inclusion and homogeneous temperature measurement, combined with the characteristics of oil-source biomarkers, the process of hydrocarbon accumulation in this study area was resumed based upon the regional tectonic background. The following findings were obtained. (1) There are 3 sets of source rocks in the third and first members of Paleogene Shahejie Fm, and the second lower member of Paleogene Dongying Fm; the reservoirs in the peripheral uplift zones include Mesozoic volcanic rocks, Archean metamorphic rocks, and Paleogene–Neogene delta–fluvial porous sandstones. Hydrocarbon generated in this sag migrated along the fault and the unconformity surface to the slope before accumulated in the peripheral tectonic zones, resulting in 3 sets of source–reservoir–caprock assemblages formed with the characteristics of reservoir formation in compound oil and gas accumulation zones. (2) The stratum in the third member of Shahejie Fm is the main source rock. (3) The above three assemblages went through four periods of generating process during the geological time of 11–1 Ma. Vertically hydrocarbon sources first filled in the deep Mesozoic and Archean reservoirs, then migrated and accumulated in the shallow Neogene and Paleogene reservoirs, where multiple shore-term rapid filling of high-temperature fluids led to this typical oil and gas pooling mode. Keywords: Bohai Bay Basin, Western subsag of Bozhong sag, Mesozoic, Buried-hill, Composite hydrocarbon reservoir, Oil source correlation, Shallow oil and gas reservoir, Allocation relationshi