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HighlightsAn ultralight and flexible supercapacitor is developed by an effective 3D fabrication method that uses MXene to fabricate waste denim felt through needling and carbonization.The electrodes have a maximum specific capacitance of 1748.5 mF cm−2 and demonstrate remarkable cycling stability with more than 94% after 15,000 galvanostatic charge/discharge cyclesThe loaded more MXene onto Z-directional fiber bundles results in enhanced specific capacitance, energy density and power density of supercapacitors.MXene, a transition metal carbide/nitride, has been prominent as an ideal electrochemical active material for supercapacitors. However, the low MXene load limits its practical applications. As environmental concerns and sustainable development become more widely recognized, it is necessary to explore a greener and cleaner technology to recycle textile by-products such as cotton. The present study proposes an effective 3D fabrication method that uses MXene to fabricate waste denim felt into ultralight and flexible supercapacitors through needling and carbonization. The 3D structure provided more sites for loading MXene onto Z-directional fiber bundles, resulting in more efficient ion exchange between the electrolyte and electrodes. Furthermore, the carbonization process removed the specific adverse groups in MXenes, further improving the specific capacitance, energy density, power density and electrical conductivity of supercapacitors. The electrodes achieve a maximum specific capacitance of 1748.5 mF cm−2 and demonstrate remarkable cycling stability maintaining more than 94% after 15,000 galvanostatic charge/discharge cycles. Besides, the obtained supercapacitors present a maximum specific capacitance of 577.5 mF cm−2, energy density of 80.2 μWh cm−2 and power density of 3 mW cm−2, respectively. The resulting supercapacitors can be used to develop smart wearable power devices such as smartwatches, laying the foundation for a novel strategy of utilizing waste cotton in a high-quality manner.

Cobalt phosphide (CoP) has been emerging as alternative lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) anode in view of the outstanding thermodynamic stability and high theoretical capacity. However, the lithium storage behaviors were impeded by poor cycling and rate performance induced by huge volumetric changes of CoP anodes during Li+ intercalation/deintercalation and the poor reaction kinetics caused by low electronic conductivity. Herein, the uniquely designed hemoglobin-like composites consisting of CoP nanoparticles coated by N, P-doped carbon shell (CoP@PNC) were prepared via a supramolecular self-assembly method, followed by the facile heat treatment process, which presented the amorphous phase. Based on the synergistic effects of rational nano/microstructure, double heterogeneous elements doped carbon substrate and amorphous phase, the transport paths of Li+ and e− were shortened, the electronic conductivity was enhanced, the volumetric changes were effectively alleviated, resulting in outstanding electrochemical performance when applied as anode electrodes. The CoP@PNC electrodes deliver a capacity of 806.8 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g−1 and 523.9 mAh g−1 after 3000 cycles at 2.0 A g−1. Furthermore, pseudo-capacitance behavior dominates the storage mechanism of CoP@PNC electrodes based on the quantitative kinetic analysis result that a high ratio of 66% in total capacity at 0.5 mV−1. This work illuminates the route to effectively relieve the huge volumetric changes to improve the electrochemical performance of transition metal phosphide and promote their practical application steps as electrodes for high energy density batteries.

A self-powered ITO/ZnO/InP heterojunction photodetector has been demonstrated with a 10-nm ZnO interfacial layer deposited by atomic layer deposition as a hole-blocking layer. The presence of a valence band offset between InP and ZnO enhances the photocurrent. The valence band offset between InP and ZnO creates a sufficient barrier for hole movement. Low surface recombination under 520-nm laser irradiation produced maximum photoresponsivity of 44.2 mAW −1 with an illumination power of 1 µW at zero bias. The ZnO-passivated self-powered photodetector shows fast response and improved photo-detecting properties. Furthermore, the highly sensitive photodetectors are demonstrated to record the heart pulse wave by measuring relative changes in blood volume of the finger vessels.

Solar cells based on lead-free perovskite have demonstrated great potential for next-generation renewable energy. The SCAPS-1D simulation software was used in this study to perform novel device modelling of a lead-free perovskite solar cell of the architecture ITO/WS2/CH3NH3SnI3/P3HT/Au. For the performance evaluation, an optimization process of the different parameters such as thickness, bandgap, doping concentration, etc., was conducted. Extensive optimization of the thickness and doping density of the absorber and electron transport layer resulted in a maximum power-conversion efficiency of 33.46% for our designed solar cell. Because of the short diffusion length and higher defect density in thicker perovskite, an absorber thickness of 1.2 µm is recommended for optimal solar cell performance. Therefore, we expect that our findings will pave the way for the development of lead-free and highly effective perovskite solar cells.

High‐performance flexible strain sensors are gaining more and more attention with their bespoken detection range, excellent sensing performance, and good stability, which are highly desired in wearable electronics. Herein, a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) fibrous membrane is prepared as a flexible substrate by electrostatic spinning technology, then a coating of polydopamine is formed through fast synthesizing the dopamine on TPU fibrous membrane surface and loaded with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to develop an extremely sensitive flexible strain sensor. The flexible sensor prepared by TPU fibrous membrane coated with polydopamine layer has an outstanding sensibility under the pulling force (Gauge Factor of 10 528.53 with 200% strain), rapid reaction time (188–221 ms), wide sensing range (up to 200%), good stability, and durability. The theoretical studies reveal the underlying cause for the high sensitivity and the inherent relationship between the amount of conducting routes and the length between adjacent conducting fillers in the sensor. The demonstration of the device shows a promising application to sense human motion at various locations of the body, with the accurate and stable electrical signal output generated at corresponding motion. A thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) fibrous membrane is prepared as a flexible substrate by electrostatic spinning technology, and a coating of polydopamine is formed through fast polymerizing the dopamine on the TPU fiber membrane surface and loaded with CNTs to develop a flexible strain sensor with extremely high sensitivity (Gauge Factor of 10528.53 with 200% strain).

Machine learning (ML) offers the opportunities to discover certain unique properties for typical material. Taking perovskite materials as an example, this review summarizes the applications of ML in predicting their bandgap, stability, electronic transport, catalytic, ferroelectric, photovoltaic, light emitting, and sensing properties. This proves that ML can accelerate the screening and discovery of novel materials with potential properties for certain applications.

This paper describes the simulation by Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator-1D (SCAPS-1D) software of ZnO/CdS/SnS/NiO/Au solar cells, in which zinc oxide (ZnO) is used as transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and nickel oxide (NiO) is used as a hole transport layer (HTL). The effects of absorber layer (SnS) thickness, carrier concentration, SnS defect density, NiO HTL, ZnO TCO, electron affinity and work function on cell performance have been evaluated. The effect of interface defect density of SnS/CdS on the performance of the heterojunction solar cell is also analysed. As the results indicate, a maximum power conversion efficiency of 26.92% was obtained.

In the present paper, the theoretical investigation of the device structure ITO/CeO2/SnS/Spiro-OMeTAD/Mo of SnS-based solar cell has been performed. The aim of this work is to examine how the Spiro-OMeTAD HTL affects the performance of SnS-based heterostructure solar cell. Using SCAPS-1D simulation software, various parameters of SnS-based solar cell such as work function, series and shunt resistance and working temperature have been investigated. With the help of Spiro-OMeTAD, the suggested cell’s open-circuit voltage was increased to 344 mV. The use of Spiro-OMeTAD HTL in the SnS-based solar cell resulted in 14% efficiency increase, and the proposed heterojunction solar cell has 25.65% efficiency. The cell’s performance is determined by the carrier density and width of the CeO2 ETL (electron transport layer), SnS absorber layer and Spiro-OMeTAD HTL (hole transport layer). These data reveal that the Spiro-OMeTAD solar cells could have been a good HTL (hole transport layer) in regards to producing SnS-based heterojunction solar cell with high efficiency and reduced cost.

In the traditional surface plasmon resonance sensor, the sensitivity is calculated by the usage of angular interrogation. The proposed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor uses a diamagnetic material (Al2O3), nickel (Ni), and two-dimensional (2D) BlueP/WS2 (blue phosphorous-tungsten di-sulfide). The Al2O3 sheet is sandwiched between silver (Ag) and nickel (Ni) films in the Kretschmann configuration. A mathematical simulation is performed to improve the sensitivity of an SPR sensor in the visible region at a frequency of 633 nm. The simulation results show that an upgraded sensitivity of 332°/RIU is achieved for the metallic arrangement consisting of 17 nm of Al2O3 and 4 nm of Ni in thickness for analyte refractive indices ranging from 1.330 to 1.335. The thickness variation of the layers plays a curial role in enhancing the performance of the SPR sensor. The thickness variation of the proposed configuration containing 20 nm of Al2O3 and 1 nm of Ni with a monolayer of 2D material BlueP/WS2 enhances the sensitivity to as high as 374°/RIU. Furthermore, it is found that the sensitivity can be altered and managed by means of altering the film portions of Ni and Al2O3

A low-cost and simple drop-casting method was used to fabricate a carbon nanodot (C-dot)/all-inorganic perovskite (CsPbBr3) nanosheet bilayer heterojunction photodetector on a SiO2/Si substrate. The C-dot/perovskite bilayer heterojunction photodetector shows a high performance with a responsivity (R) of 1.09 A/W, almost five times higher than that of a CsPbBr3-based photodetector (0.21 A/W). In addition, the hybrid photodetector exhibits a fast response speed of 1.318/1.342 µs and a highly stable photocurrent of 6.97 µA at 10 V bias voltage. These figures of merits are comparable with, or much better than, most reported perovskite heterojunction photodetectors. UV–Vis absorption and photoluminescent spectra measurements reveal that the C-dot/perovskite bilayer heterojunction has a band gap similar to the pure perovskite layer, confirming that the absorption and emission in the bilayer heterojunction is dominated by the top layer of the perovskite. Moreover, the emission intensity of the C-dot/perovskite bilayer heterojunction is less than that of the pure perovskite layer, indicating that a significant number of charges were extracted by the C-dot layer. The studied band alignment of the C-dots and perovskites in the dark and under emission reveals that the photodetector has a highly efficient charge separation mechanism at the C-dot/perovskite interface, where the recombination rate between photogenerated electrons and holes is significantly reduced. This highly efficient charge separation mechanism is the main reason behind the enhanced performance of the C-dot/perovskite bilayer heterojunction photodetector.