pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
High-performance inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells based on lead acetate precursor with efficiency exceeding 18%

Organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites are emerging materials for the next-generation photovoltaics. Lead halides are the most commonly used lead precursors for perovskite active layers. Recently, lead acetate (Pb(Ac)2) has shown its superiority as the potential replacement for traditional lead halides. Here, we demonstrate a strategy to improve the efficiency for the perovskite solar cell based on lead acetate precursor. We utilized methylammonium bromide as an additive in the Pb(Ac)2 and methylammonium iodide precursor solution, resulting in uniform, compact and pinhole-free perovskite films. We observed enhanced charge carrier extraction between the perovskite layer and charge collection layers and delivered a champion power conversion efficiency of 18.3% with a stabilized output efficiency of 17.6% at the maximum power point. The optimized devices also exhibited negligible current density-voltage (J-V) hysteresis under the scanning conditions
Engineering the Mechanics of Heterogeneous Soft Crystals

This work demonstrates how the geometric and topological characteristics of substructures within heterogeneous materials can be employed to tailor the mechanical responses of soft crystals under large strains. The large deformation mechanical behaviors of elastomeric composites possessing long-range crystalline order are examined using both experiments on 3D-printed prototype materials and precisely matched numerical simulations. The deformation mechanisms at small and large strains are elucidated for six sets of morphologies: dispersed particles on each of the simple cubic, body-centered cubic or face-centered cubic lattices, and their bi-continuous counterparts. Comparison of results for the six types of morphologies reveals that the topological connectivity of dissimilar domains is of critical importance for tailoring the macroscopic mechanical properties and the mechanical anisotropy
Infrared-Emitting QDs for Thermal Therapy with Real-Time Subcutaneous Temperature Feedback

Nowadays, one of the most exciting applications of nanotechnology in biomedicine is the development of localized, noninvasive therapies for diverse diseases, such as cancer. Among them, nanoparticle-based photothermal therapy (PTT), which destroys malignant cells by delivering heat upon optical excitation of nanoprobes injected into a living specimen, is emerging with great potential. Two main milestones that must be reached for PTT to become a viable clinical treatment are deep penetration of the triggering optical excitation and real-time accurate temperature monitoring of the ongoing therapy, which constitutes a critical factor to minimize collateral damage. In this work, a yet unexplored capability of near-infrared emitting semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots, QDs) is demonstrated. Temperature self-monitored ­QD-based PTT is presented for the first time using PbS/CdS/ZnS QDs emitting in the second biological window. These QDs are capable of acting, simultaneously, as photothermal agents (heaters) and high-resolution fluorescent thermal sensors, making it possible to achieve full control over the intratumoral temperature increment during PTT. The differences observed between intratumoral and surface temperatures in this comprehensive investigation, through different irradiation conditions, highlight the need for real-time control of the intratumoral temperature that allows for a dynamic adjustment of the treatment conditions in order to maximize the efficacy of the therapyThis project has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under project and MAT2013-47395-C4-1-R. B. del Rosal thanks Universidad Autónoma de Madrid for an FPI grant. F. Ren acknowledges scholarship support from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT) under the Programme de Bourses d’Excellence (Merit Scholarship Program for Foreign Students
Optical Properties of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Materials and their Applications

Research on hybrid inorganic-organic materials has experienced an explosive growth since the 1980s, with the expansion of soft inorganic chemistry based processes. Indeed, mild synthetic conditions, low processing temperatures provided by “chimie douce” and the versatility of the colloidal state allow for the mixing of the organic and inorganic components at the nanometer scale in virtually any ratio to produce the so called hybrid materials. Today a high degree of control over both composition and nanostructure of these hybrids can be achieved allowing tunable structure-property relationships. This, in turn, makes it possible to tailor and fine-tune many properties (mechanical, optical, electronic, thermal, chemical…) in very broad ranges, and to design specific multifunctional systems for applications. In particular, the field of “Hybrid-Optics” has been very productive not only scientifically but also in terms of applications. Indeed, numerous optical devices based on hybrids are already in, or very close, to the market. This review describes most of the recent advances performed in this field. Emphasis will be given to luminescent, photochromic, NLO and plasmonic properties. As an outlook we show that the controlled coupling between plasmonics and luminescence is opening a land of opportunities in the field of “Hybrid-Optics”.C.S acknowledges the “Fondation du Collège de France”. S.P. is grateful to the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, the University Lyon 1 and the CNRS for support. L.D.C. acknowledges the project CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013), financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when applicable co-financed by FEDER and COMPETE under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. B.J.L. is grateful to the PPI project from Universitat Jaume I for financial support
Nanoparticle assisted mechanical delamination for freestanding high performance organic devices

Organic electronics has the potential to be incorporated in any kind of surface morphology for wearable or fully portable applications. Unfortunately when organic devices, such as solar cells, are fabricated on flexible substrates, the device performance is severely limited unless the physical properties of such substrates are carefully chosen. Here, it is demonstrated that layers of nanoparticles with a size gradient distribution can be used to obtain high performance solar cell devices that can be effectively delaminated from an original flat and rigid glass substrate. Such sacrificial nanoparticles layers are incorporated in between the glass substrate and the semitransparent electrode of a polymer:fullerene (PTB7:PC71BM) cell. After the cell delamination, freestanding flexible devices with power conversion efficiencies as high as 7.12% are obtained, which corresponds to 90% of the performance of the same cell fabricated on a standard glass smooth surface.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
New apatite-type oxide ion conductor, Bi2La8[(GeO4)6]O3 : structure, properties, and direct imaging of low-level interstitial oxygen atoms using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy.

The new solid electrolyte Bi2La8[(GeO4)6]O3 is prepared and characterized by variable-temperature synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction, aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, and physical property measurements (impedance spectroscopy and second harmonic generation). The material is a triclinic variant of the apatite structure type and owes its ionic conductivity to the presence of oxide ion interstitials. A combination of annular bright-field scanning transmission electron microscopy experiments and frozen-phonon multislice simulations enables direct imaging of the crucial interstitial oxygen atoms present at a level of 8 out of 1030 electrons per formula unit of the material, and crystallographically disordered, in the unit cell. Scanning transmission electron microscopy also leads to a direct observation of the local departures from the centrosymmetric average structure determined by diffraction. As no second harmonic generation signal is observed, these displacements are non-cooperative on the longer length scales probed by optical methods
Advent of 2D rhenium disulfide (ReS(2)): fundamentals to applications

Published online: 30 January 2017Rhenium disulfide (ReS2) is a two-dimensional (2D) group VII transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD). It is attributed with structural and vibrational anisotropy, layer-independent electrical and optical properties, and metal-free magnetism properties. These properties are unusual compared with more widely used group VI-TMDs, e.g., MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2. Consequently, it has attracted significant interest in recent years and is now being used for a variety of applications including solid state electronics, catalysis, and, energy harvesting and energy storage. It is anticipated that ReS2 has the potential to be equally used in parallel with isotropic TMDs from group VI for all known applications and beyond. Therefore, a review on ReS2 is very timely. In this first review on ReS2, we critically analyze the available synthesis procedures and their pros/cons, atomic structure and lattice symmetry, crystal structure, and growth mechanisms with an insight into the orientation and architecture of domain and grain boundaries, decoupling of structural and vibrational properties, anisotropic electrical, optical, and magnetic properties impacted by crystal imperfections, doping and adatoms adsorptions, and contemporary applications in different areas.Mohammad Rahman, Kenneth Davey, and Shi-Zhang Qia
Self-assembled hydrogel fiber bundles from oppositely charged polyelectrolytes mimic micro-/nanoscale hierarchy of collagen

Fiber bundles are present in many tissues throughout the body. In most cases,
collagen subunits spontaneously self-assemble into a fibrilar structure that
provides ductility to bone and constitutes the basis of muscle contraction.
Translating these natural architectural features into a biomimetic scaffold still
remains a great challenge. Here, a simple strategy is proposed to engineer
biomimetic fiber bundles that replicate the self-assembly and hierarchy of
natural collagen fibers. The electrostatic interaction of methacrylated gellan
gum with a countercharged chitosan polymer leads to the complexation of the
polyelectrolytes. When directed through a polydimethylsiloxane channel, the
polyelectrolytes form a hierarchical fibrous hydrogel demonstrating nanoscale
periodic light/dark bands similar to D-periodic bands in native collagen and
align parallel fibrils at microscale. Importantly, collagen-mimicking hydrogel
fibers exhibit robust mechanical properties (MPa scale) at a single fiber bundle
level and enable encapsulation of cells inside the fibers under cell-friendly mild
conditions. Presence of carboxyl- (in gellan gum) or amino- (in chitosan) functionalities
further enables controlled peptide functionalization such as Arginylglycylaspartic
acid (RGD) for biochemical mimicry (cell adhesion sites) of native
collagen. This biomimetic-aligned fibrous hydrogel system can potentially be
used as a scaffold for tissue engineering as well as a drug/gene delivery vehicle.S.S. and D.F.C. contributed equally to the work. This research was
funded by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, the
Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, the NIH (HL092836, EB007249),
and the National Science Foundation CAREER award (A.K.). This work
was in part supported by FCT through funds from the POCTI and/or
FEDER programs and from the European Union under the project
NoE EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283). D.F.C. acknowledges
the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal and the
MIT-Portugal Program for personal grant SFRH/BD/37156/2007.
S.S. acknowledges the postdoctoral fellowship awarded by Le Fonds
Quebecois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT),
Quebec, Canada and interdisciplinary training fellowship (NIH NRSA
T32) awarded by System-based Consortium for Organ Design and
Engineering (SysCODE). The authors would like to thank Dr. Iva
Pashkuleva and Dr. Maria Ericsson for scientific discussions and
technical assistance with TEM, respectivelyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Composite Salt in Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks for Adsorption Heat Transformation

Adsorptive heat transformation systems such as adsorption thermal batteries and chillers can provide space heating and cooling in a more environmental friendly way. However, their use is still hindered by their relatively poor performances and large sizes due to the limited properties of solid adsorbents. Here, the spray-drying continuous-flow synthesis of a new type of solid adsorbents that results from combining metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), such as UiO-66, and hygroscopic salts, such as CaCl2 has been reported. These adsorbents, commonly named as composite salt in porous matrix (CSPM) materials, allow improving the water uptake capabilities of MOFs while preventing their dissolution in the water adsorbed; a common characteristic of these salts due to the deliquescence effect. It is anticipated that MOF-based CSPMs, in which the percentage of salt can be tuned, are promising candidates for thermal batteries and chillers. In these applications, it is showed that a CSPM made of UiO-66 and CaCl2 (38% w/w) exhibits a heat storage capacity of 367 kJ kg−1, whereas a second CSPM made of UiO-66 and CaCl2 (53% w/w) shows a specific cooling power of 631 W kg−1 and a coefficient of performance of 0.83, comparable to the best solid adsorbents reported so far
Sputtered titanium carbide thick film for high areal energy on chip carbon-based micro-supercapacitors

The areal energy density of on-chip micro-supercapacitors should be improved in order to obtain autonomous smart miniaturized sensors. To reach this goal, high surface capacitance electrode (>100 mF cm−2) has to be produced while keeping low the footprint area. For carbide-derived carbon (CDC) micro-supercapacitors, the properties of the metal carbide precursor have to be fine-tuned to fabricate thick electrodes. The ad-atoms diffusion process and atomic peening effect occurring during the titanium carbide sputtering process are shown to be the key parameters to produce low stress, highly conductive, and thick TiC films. The sputtered TiC at 10−3 mbar exhibits a high stress level, limiting the thickness of the TiC-CDC electrode to 1.5 μm with an areal capacitance that is less than 55 mF cm−2 in aqueous electrolyte. The pressure increase up to 10−2 mbar induces a clear reduction of the stress level while the layer thickness increases without any degradation of the TiC electronic conductivity. The volumetric capacitance of the TiC-CDC electrodes is equal to 350 F cm−3 regardless of the level of pressure. High values of areal capacitance (>100 mF cm−2) are achieved, whereas the TiC layer is relatively thick, which paves the way toward high-performance micro-supercapacitors
Voltage-induced coercivity reduction in nanoporous alloy films : a boost towards energy-efficient magnetic actuation

Magnetic data storage and magnetically actuated devices are conventionally controlled by magnetic fields generated using electric currents. This involves significant power dissipation by Joule heating effect. To optimize energy efficiency, manipulation of magnetic information with lower magnetic fields (i.e., lower electric currents) is desirable. This can be accomplished by reducing the coercivity of the actuated material. Here, a drastic reduction of coercivity is observed at room temperature in thick (≈600 nm), nanoporous, electrodeposited Cu–Ni films by simply subjecting them to the action of an electric field. The effect is due to voltage‐induced changes in the magnetic anisotropy. The large surface‐area‐to‐volume ratio and the ultranarrow pore walls of the system allow the whole film, and not only the topmost surface, to effectively contribute to the observed magnetoelectric effect. This waives the stringent “ultrathin‐film requirement” from previous studies, where small voltage‐driven coercivity variations were reported. This observation expands the already wide range of applications of nanoporous materials (hitherto in areas like energy storage or catalysis) and it opens new paradigms in the fields of spintronics, computation, and magnetic actuation in general
Colorimetric nanofibers as optical sensors

Sensors play a major role in many applications today, ranging from biomedicine to safety equipment, where they detect and warn us about changes in the environment. Nanofibers, characterized by high porosity, flexibility, and a large specific surface area, are the ideal material for ultrasensitive, fastresponding, and user-friendly sensor design. Indeed, a large specific surface area increases the sensitivity and response time of the sensor as the contact area with the analyte is enlarged. Thanks to the flexibility of membranes, nanofibrous sensors cannot only be applied in high-end analyte detection, but also in personal, daily use. Many different nanofibrous sensors have already been designed; albeit, the most straightforward and easiest-to-interpret sensor response is a visual change in color, which is of particular interest in the case of warning signals. Recently, many researchers have focused on the design of so-called colorimetric nanofibers, which typically involve the incorporation of a colorimetric functionality into the nanofibrous matrix. Many different strategies have been used and explored for colorimetric nanofibrous sensor design, which are outlined in this feature article. The many examples and applications demonstrate the value of colorimetric nanofibers for advanced optical sensor design, and could provide directions for future research in this area
Straightforward Immunosensing Platform Based on Graphene Oxide-Decorated Nanopaper : A Highly Sensitive and Fast Biosensing Approach

Immunoassays are nowadays a crucial tool for diagnostics and drug development. However, they often involve time-consuming procedures and need at least two antibodies in charge of the capture and detection processes, respectively. This study reports a nanocomposite based on graphene oxide-coated nanopaper (GONAP) facilitating an advantageous immunosensing platform using a single antibody and without the need for washing steps. The hydrophilic, porous, and photoluminescence-quenching character of GONAP allows for the adsorption and quenching of photoluminescent quantum dots nanocrystals complexed with antibodies (Ab-QDs), enabling a ready-to-use immunosensing platform. The photoluminescence is recovered upon immunocomplex (antibody-antigen) formation which embraces a series of interactions (hydrogen bonding, electrostatic, hydrophobic, and Van der Waals interactions) that trigger desorption of the antigen-Ab-QD complex from GONAP surface. However, the antigen is then attached onto the GONAP surface by electrostatic interactions leading to a spacer (greater than ≈20 nm) between Ab-QDs and GONAP and thus hindering nonradiative energy transfer. It is demonstrated that this simple—yet highly sensitive—platform represents a virtually universal immunosensing approach by using small-sized and big-sized targets as model analytes, those are, human-IgG protein and Escherichia coli bacteria. In addition, the assay is proved effective in real matrices analysis, including human serum, poultry meat, and river water. GONAP opens the way to conceptually new paper-based devices for immunosensing, which are amenable to point of care applications and automated diagnostics
Perovskite and organic solar cells fabricated by inkjet printing: progress and prospects

Inkjet printing (IJP) technology, adapted from home and office printing, has proven to be an essential research tool and industrial manufacturing technique in a wide range of printed electronic technologies, including optoelectronics. Its primary advantage over other deposition methods is the low-cost and maskless on-demand patterning, which offers unmatched freedom-of-design. Additional benefits include the efficient use of materials, contactless high-resolution deposition, and scalability, enabling rapid translation of learning from small-scale, laboratory-based research into large-scale industrial roll-to-roll manufacturing. In the development of organic solar cells (OSCs), IJP has enabled the printing of many of the multiple functional layers which comprise the complete cell as part of an additive printing scheme. Although IJP is only recently employed in perovskite solar cell (PeSC) fabrication, it is already showing great promise and is anticipated to find broader application with this class of materials. As OSCs and PeSCs share many common functional materials and device architectures, this review presents a progress report on the IJP of OSCs and PeSCs in order to facilitate knowledge transfer between the two technologies, with critical analyses of the challenges and opportunities also presented
Optomagnetic Nanoplatforms for In Situ Controlled Hyperthermia

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Ortgies, Dirk H., Teran, Francisco J. Rocha, Uéslen, Cueva, Leonar de la, Salas, Gorka, cabrera, David, Vanetsev, Alexander S., Rähn, Mikhel, Väino,Sammelselg, Orlosvkii, Yurii V. and Jaque, Daneil "Optomagnetic nanoplatforms for in situ controlled hyperthermia" Advances Funtcional Materials 28.11 (2018)  which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201704434. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."Magnetic nanoparticles (M:NPs) are unique agents for in vivo thermal therapies due to their multimodal capacity for efficient heat generation under optical and/or magnetic excitation. Nevertheless, their transfer from laboratory to the clinic is hampered by the absence of thermal feedback and by the influence that external conditions (e.g., agglomeration and biological matrix interactions) have on their heating efficiency. Overcoming these limitations requires, first, the implementation of strategies providing thermal sensing to M:NPs in order to obtain in situ thermal feedback during thermal therapies. At the same time, M:NPs should be modified so that their heating efficiency will be maintained independently of the environment and the added capability for thermometry. In this work, optomagnetic hybrid nanostructures (OMHSs) that simultaneously satisfy these two conditions are presented. Polymeric encapsulation of M:NPs with neodymium-doped nanoparticles results in a hybrid structure capable of subtissue thermal feedback while making the heating efficiency of M:NPs independent of the medium. The potential application of the OMHSs herein developed for fully controlled thermal therapies is demonstrated by an ex vivo endoscope-assisted controlled intracoronary heating experimentThis work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Projects # MAT2016-75362-C3-1-R, # MAT2015-71806-R and # MAT2013-47395-C4-3-R, the Comunidad de Madrid (NANOFRONTMAG-CM, S2013/MIT-2850), and through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III under Project # PI16/00812. This work has also received funding from European Union’s H2020 and FP7 programme (NOCANTHER, GA 685795). D.H.O. is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for a Juan de la Cierva scholarship (FJCI-2014-21101) and F.J.T. for a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2011-09617). COST Actions CM1403 and TD1402 (RADIOMAG) are also acknowledged. The synthesis and preliminary testing of the ﬂuorescence properties of the LaF3:Nd(3%) NPs was supported by Project # 16-12-10077 of the Russian Science Foundation. Nonﬂuorescent characterization of the OMHSs was supported by projects IUT2-24 and IUT20-54 of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Researc