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In this study, we develop a stretchable/self-healable polymer, PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA, with remarkably high ionic thermoelectric (iTE) properties: an ionic figure-of-merit of 12.3 at 70% relative humidity (RH). The iTE properties of PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA are optimized by controlling the ion carrier concentration, ion diffusion coefficient, and Eastman entropy, and high stretchability and self-healing ability are achieved based on the dynamic interactions between the components. Moreover, the iTE properties are retained under repeated mechanical stress (30 cycles of self-healing and 50 cycles of stretching). An ionic thermoelectric capacitor (ITEC) device using PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA achieves a maximum power output and energy density of 4.59 μW‧m −2 and 1.95 mJ‧m −2 , respectively, at a load resistance of 10 KΩ, and a 9-pair ITEC module produces a voltage output of 0.37 V‧K −1 with a maximum power output of 0.21 μW‧m −2 and energy density of 0.35 mJ‧m −2 at 80% RH, demonstrating the potential for a self-powering source. Thermoelectric devices have received significant attention for energy generation owing to their unique advantages over traditional heat engines. Here, the authors developed a well performing stretchable and self-healable iono thermoelectric material by optimizing the thermophoresis of protons in a polymer complex PEDOT:PAAMPSA:PA polymer.

Single-molecule junctions have been extensively used to probe properties as diverse as electrical conduction 1 – 3 , light emission 4 , thermoelectric energy conversion 5 , 6 , quantum interference 7 , 8 , heat dissipation 9 , 10 and electronic noise 11 at atomic and molecular scales. However, a key quantity of current interest—the thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions—has not yet been directly experimentally determined, owing to the challenge of detecting minute heat currents at the picowatt level. Here we show that picowatt-resolution scanning probes previously developed to study the thermal conductance of single-metal-atom junctions 12 , when used in conjunction with a time-averaging measurement scheme to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, also allow quantification of the much lower thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions. Our experiments on prototypical Au–alkanedithiol–Au junctions containing two to ten carbon atoms confirm that thermal conductance is to a first approximation independent of molecular length, consistent with detailed ab initio simulations. We anticipate that our approach will enable systematic exploration of thermal transport in many other one-dimensional systems, such as short molecules and polymer chains, for which computational predictions of thermal conductance 13 – 16 have remained experimentally inaccessible. The thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions is measured using picowatt-resolution calorimetric scanning probes and is found to be nearly independent of the length of the alkanedithiol molecules studied.

A charge transport layer based on transition metal‐oxides prepared by an anhydrous sol–gel method normally requires high‐temperature annealing to achieve the desired quality. Although annealing is not a difficult process in the laboratory, it is definitely not a simple process in mass production, such as roll‐to‐roll, because of the inevitable long cooling step that follows. Therefore, the development of an annealing‐free solution‐processable metal‐oxide is essential for the large‐scale commercialization. In this work, a room‐temperature processable annealing‐free “aqueous” MoOx solution is developed and applied in non‐fullerene PBDB‐T‐2F:Y6 solar cells. By adjusting the concentration of water in the sol–gel route, an annealing‐free MoOx with excellent electrical properties is successfully developed. The PBDB‐T‐2F:Y6 solar cell with the general MoOx prepared by the anhydrous sol–gel method shows a low efficiency of 7.7% without annealing. If this anhydrous MoOx is annealed at 200 °C, the efficiency is recovered to 17.1%, which is a normal value typically observed in conventional structure PBDB‐T‐2F:Y6 solar cells. However, without any annealing process, the solar cell with aqueous MoOx exhibits comparable performance of 17.0%. In addition, the solar cell with annealing‐free aqueous MoOx exhibits better performance and stability without high‐temperature annealing compared to the solar cells with PEDOT:PSS. Annealing‐free solution‐processable aqueous MoOx are developed and applied in bulk‐heterojunction polymer solar cells based on non‐fullerene system PBDB‐T‐2F:Y6. The solar cells with aqueous MoOx exhibit higher efficiencies and better stabilities without high‐temperature annealing compared to the solar cells with PEDOT:PSS.

By trapping molecules between two gold electrodes with a temperature difference across them, the junction Seebeck coefficients of 1,4-benzenedithiol (BDT), 4,4′-dibenzenedithiol, and 4,4\"-tribenzenedithiol in contact with gold were measured at room temperature to be +8.7 ± 2.1 microvolts per kelvin (μV/K), +12.9 ± 2.2 μV/K, and +14.2 ± 3.2 μV/K, respectively (where the error is the full width half maximum of the statistical distributions). The positive sign unambiguously indicates p-type (hole) conduction in these heterojunctions, whereas the Au Fermi level position for Au-BDT-Au junctions was identified to be 1.2 eV above the highest occupied molecular orbital level of BDT. The ability to study thermoelectricity in molecular junctions provides the opportunity to address these fundamental unanswered questions about their electronic structure and to begin exploring molecular thermoelectric energy conversion.

Chalcogenides are promising materials for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting owing to their suitable band gaps, favourable band alignments, and efficient charge transport properties. However, their practical application has been limited by poor stability in aqueous environments, as they are prone to self-oxidation prior to water oxidation. This instability typically necessitates the use of sacrificial agents to scavenge photogenerated holes, thereby restricting long-term device operation and real-world implementation. Here we report a metal-encapsulated PbS quantum dot (PbS-QD) solar cell-based photoelectrode that simultaneously achieves high photocurrent and long-term operational stability for PEC water splitting without sacrificial agents. The optimised PbS-QD-based photoanode delivers a photocurrent density of 18.6 mA cm –2 at 1.23 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode in 1.0 M NaOH, retaining 90% of its initial performance over 24 h. These values are comparable to those reported for chalcogenide-based photoelectrodes operating in the presence of sacrificial agents. This study reports a metal-encapsulated PbS quantum dot photoanode that delivers high photocurrent and long-term stability for PEC water splitting without sacrificial agents, advancing sustainable clean energy.

We have developed highly efficient, ambient temperature, solid-state ionic conductors (SSICs) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by doping a molecular plastic crystal, succinonitrile (SN), with trialkyl-substituted imidazolium iodide salts. High performance SSICs with enhanced ionic conductivity (2–4 mScm −1 ) were obtained. High performance solid-state DSSCs with power conversion efficiency of 7.8% were fabricated using our SSICs combined with unique hierarchically nanostructured TiO 2 sphere (TiO 2 -SP) photoelectrodes; these electrodes have significant macroporosity, which assists penetration of the solid electrolyte into the electrode. The performance of our solid-state DSSCs is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest reported thus far for cells using plastic crystal-based SSICs and is comparable to that of the state-of-the-art DSSCs which use ionic liquid type electrolytes. This report provides a logical strategy for the development of efficient plastic crystal-based SSICs for DSSCs and other electrochemical devices.

In conventional fullerene-based organic photovoltaics (OPVs), in which the excited electrons from the donor are transferred to the acceptor, the electron charge transfer state (eECT) that electrons pass through has a great influence on the device’s performance. In a bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) system based on a low bandgap non-fullerene acceptor (NFA), however, a hole charge transfer state (hECT) from the acceptor to the donor has a greater influence on the device’s performance. The accurate determination of hECT is essential for achieving further enhancement in the performance of non-fullerene organic solar cells. However, the discovery of a method to determine the exact hECT remains an open challenge. Here, we suggest a simple method to determine the exact hECT level via deconvolution of the EL spectrum of the BHJ blend (ELB). To generalize, we have applied our ELB deconvolution method to nine different BHJ systems consisting of the combination of three donor polymers (PM6, PBDTTPD-HT, PTB7-Th) and three NFAs (Y6, IDIC, IEICO-4F). Under the conditions that (i) absorption of the donor and acceptor are separated sufficiently, and (ii) the onset part of the external quantum efficiency (EQE) is formed solely by the contribution of the acceptor only, ELB can be deconvoluted into the contribution of the singlet recombination of the acceptor and the radiative recombination via hECT. Through the deconvolution of ELB, we have clearly decided which part of the broad ELB spectrum should be used to apply the Marcus theory. Accurate determination of hECT is expected to be of great help in fine-tuning the energy level of donor polymers and NFAs by understanding the charge transfer mechanism clearly.

The enhancement of interfacial charge collection efficiency using buffer layers is a cost‐effective way to improve the performance of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) because they are often universally applicable regardless of the active materials. However, the availability of high‐performance buffer materials, which are solution‐processable at low temperature, are limited and they often require burdensome additional surface modifications. Herein, high‐performance ZnO based electron transporting layers (ETLs) for OPVs are developed with a novel g‐ray‐assisted solution process. Through careful formulation of the ZnO precursor and g‐ray irradiation, the pre‐formation of ZnO nanoparticles occurs in the precursor solutions, which enables the preparation of high quality ZnO films. The g‐ray assisted ZnO (ZnO‐G) films possess a remarkably low defect density compared to the conventionally prepared ZnO films. The low‐defect ZnO‐G films can improve charge extraction efficiency of ETL without any additional treatment. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the device using the ZnO‐G ETLs is 11.09% with an open‐circuit voltage (VOC), short‐circuit current density ( JSC), and fill factor (FF) of 0.80 V, 19.54 mA cm‐2, and 0.71, respectively, which is one of the best values among widely studied poly[4,8‐bis(5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[1,2‐b;4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐2,6‐diyl‐alt‐(4‐(2‐ethylhexyl)‐3‐fluorothieno[3,4‐b]thiophene‐)‐2‐carboxylate‐2‐6‐diyl)]: [6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester (PTB7‐Th:PC71BM)‐based devices. High‐performance ZnO‐based electron transport layers for organic solar cells are developed using a radio‐chemically assisted solution‐process at low temperature. The irradiation‐assisted ZnO films exhibit significantly lower defect density compared to conventional ZnO films, thus lead to one of the highest power conversion efficiencies (11.09%) among the widely studied poly[4,8‐bis(5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[1,2‐b;4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐2,6‐diyl‐alt‐(4‐(2‐ethylhexyl)‐3‐fluorothieno[3,4‐b]thiophene‐)‐2‐carboxylate‐2‐6‐diyl)]: [6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester‐based organic solar cells.

Solar hydrogen production is one of the ultimate technologies needed to realize a carbon-neutral, sustainable society. However, an energy-intensive water oxidation half-reaction together with the poor performance of conventional inorganic photocatalysts have been big hurdles for practical solar hydrogen production. Here we present a photoelectrochemical cell with a record high photocurrent density of 19.8 mA cm −2 for hydrogen production by utilizing a high-performance organic–inorganic halide perovskite as a panchromatic absorber and lignocellulosic biomass as an alternative source of electrons working at lower potentials. In addition, value-added chemicals such as vanillin and acetovanillone are produced via the selective depolymerization of lignin in lignocellulosic biomass while cellulose remains close to intact for further utilization. This study paves the way to improve solar hydrogen productivity and simultaneously realize the effective use of lignocellulosic biomass. While light-driven water splitting offers a means to produce renewable H 2 fuel, water oxidation limits performances and yields low-value products. Here, authors demonstrate a photoelectrochemical cell that converts lignocellulosic biomass into valuable products alongside H 2 .