Development of a High-Performance Donor–Acceptor Conjugated Polymer: Synergy in Materials and Device Optimization

The development of a high-performance polymer <b>PBDT-BT</b> for bulk heterojunction solar cell devices is summarized. The polymer was first synthesized by Stille polycondensation, and solar cell devices in conventional geometry were optimized through the use of a lithium salt cathode interlayer reaching 6% power conversion efficiency. Improvements were made to the synthesis of the polymer using Suzuki polycondensation giving high-molecular-weight material in the <i>M</i>_n = 100 kg/mol range. Further device optimization in inverted geometry gave power conversion efficiency of over 9%. The synthesis scalability as well as the batch-to-batch reproducibility of the polymer were extensively investigated

An inter-laboratory stability study of roll-to-roll coated flexible polymer solar modules

19 páginas, 16 figuras, 16 tablas.-- El pdf del artículo es la versión pre-print.-- Trabajo presentado al "3rd International Summit on OPV Stability".-- et al.A large number of flexible polymer solar modules comprising 16 serially connected individual cells was prepared at the experimental workshop at Risø DTU. The photoactive layer was prepared from several varieties of P3HT (Merck, Plextronics, BASF and Risø DTU) and two varieties of ZnO (nanoparticulate, thin film) were employed as electron transport layers. The devices were all tested at Risø DTU and the functional devices were subjected to an inter-laboratory study involving the performance and the stability of modules over time in the dark, under light soaking and outdoor conditions. 24 laboratories from 10 countries and across four different continents were involved in the studies. The reported results allowed for analysis of the variability between different groups in performing lifetime studies as well as performing a comparison of different testing procedures. These studies constitute the first steps toward establishing standard procedures for an OPV lifetime characterization.This work was supported by: the Danish Strategic Research Council (DSF2104-07-0022), EUDP(j.nr.64009-0050), PV-ERA-NET (project acronym POLYSTAR),the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICINN for the project ENE2008-04373 and CSIC for the PIE-200860I134. Financial support by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ) and the ISOVOLTAIC Gmb His gratefully acknowledged. Part of this work was supported by the PCCL(ProjectIV-1.02) with in the frame-work of the COMET-program of the Austrian Government. MH, TM, KL and MR would like to thank the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung in the frame works of the InnoProfile project (03IP602), the OPEG project(13N9720) and the OPA project (13N9872). HH gratefully acknowledges funding with in the frame of BMBFOPV program. This work was partially supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Department of Energy, by KIST internal research fund under the Contract no. of 2E21831; by the European Commission as part of the Framework 7ICT2009 collaborative project HIFLEX(Grant Agreement no. 248678). RR, MS&HH acknowledge financial support from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)within‘‘Polymer Photovoltaics Processing’’(PPP) project (support code 13N9843).Part of this work was supported by the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium.Peer reviewe

Recent advances on smart glycoconjugate vaccines in infections and cancer

Vaccination is one of the greatest achievements in biomedical research preventing death and morbidity in many infectious diseases through the induction of pathogen-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. Currently, no effective vaccines are available for pathogens with a highly variable antigenic load, such as the human immunodeficiency virus or to induce cellular T-cell immunity in the fight against cancer. The recent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has reinforced the relevance of designing smart therapeutic vaccine modalities to ensure public health. Indeed, academic and private companies have ongoing joint efforts to develop novel vaccine prototypes for this virus. Many pathogens are covered by a dense glycan-coat, which form an attractive target for vaccine development. Moreover, many tumor types are characterized by altered glycosylation profiles that are known as “tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens”. Unfortunately, glycans do not provoke a vigorous immune response and generally serve as T-cell-independent antigens, not eliciting protective immunoglobulin G responses nor inducing immunological memory. A close and continuous crosstalk between glycochemists and glycoimmunologists is essential for the successful development of efficient immune modulators. It is clear that this is a key point for the discovery of novel approaches, which could significantly improve our understanding of the immune system. In this review, we discuss the latest advancements in development of vaccines against glycan epitopes to gain selective immune responses and to provide an overview on the role of different immunogenic constructs in improving glycovaccine efficacy