Explore the vast range of titles available.

The power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has witnessed continuous breakthroughs in the past few years, mostly benefiting from the extensive use of a facile ternary blending strategy by blending the host polymer donor:small molecule acceptor mixture with a second small molecule acceptor. Nevertheless, this rather general strategy used in the well‐known PM6 systems fails in constructing high‐performance P3HT‐based ternary OPVs. As a result, the efficiencies of all resulting ternary blends based on a benchmark host P3HT:ZY‐4Cl and a second acceptor are no more than 8%. Employing the mutual miscibility of the binary blends as a guide to screen the second acceptor, here we were able to break the longstanding 10%‐efficiency barrier of ternary OPVs based on P3HT and dual nonfullerene acceptors. With this rational approach, we identified a multifunctional small molecule acceptor BTP‐2Br to simultaneously improve the photovoltaic performance in both P3HT and PM6‐based ternary OPVs. Attractively, the P3HT:ZY‐4Cl:BTP‐2Br ternary blend exhibited a record‐breaking efficiency of 11.41% for P3HT‐based OPVs. This is the first‐ever report that over 11% efficiency is achieved for P3HT‐based ternary OPVs. Importantly, the study helps the community to rely less on trial‐and‐error methods for constructing ternary solar cells.

Conductive organic polymers are most commonly generated from the oxidation or reduction of conjugated polymers. Although such conjugated polymers are typically viewed as modern materials, the earliest examples of these polymers date back to the early 19th century. The modern era of conjugated polymers began with the first reports of their conductive nature in the early 1960s. However, it was advances in the 1970s that brought particular focus to these materials with the first example of conductivity values in the metallic regime, for which the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Hideki Shirakawa, Alan MacDiarmid, and Alan Heeger. Unfortunately, the historical narrative of these polymers is currently quite muddled in the primary literature, with various inaccuracies commonly propagated. In an effort to present a more accurate account as a resource for the field, the present report will review the first 150 years of the four primary parent polymers−polyaniline, polypyrrole, polyacetylene, and polythiophene, from their early origins in 1834 to their rapid development in the mid‐1980s. Conductive organic polymers, from the oxidation or reduction of conjugated polymers, are viewed as modern materials, yet conjugated polymers date back to the 19th century. Here, the first 150 years of polyaniline, polypyrrole, polyacetylene, and polythiophene are reviewed from their origins in 1834 to their rapid development in the mid‐1980s.

With the urgent requirement for high-performance rechargeable Li-S batteries, besides various carbon materials and metal compounds, lots of conducting polymers have been developed and used as components in Li-S batteries. In this review, the synthesis of polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPy) and polythiophene (PTh) is introduced briefly. Then, the application progress of the three conducting polymers is summarized according to the function in Li-S batteries, including coating layers, conductive hosts, sulfur-containing compounds, separator modifier/functional interlayer, binder and current collector. Finally, according to the current problems of conducting polymers, some practical strategies and potential research directions are put forward. We expect that this review will provide novel design ideas to develop conducting polymer-containing high-performance Li-S batteries.

Organic semiconductors typically exhibit exciton diffusion lengths on the order of tens of nanometers. Jin et al. prepared nanofibers from block polymers consisting of emissive polyfluorene cores surrounded by coronas of polyethylene glycol and polythiophene (see the Perspective by Holmes). Excitons generated in the polyfluorene cannot enter the polyethylene glycol layer and so diffuse more than 200 nm. This distance can be tuned by varying the length of the polyethylene glycol—a feature that could potentially be exploited in the development of organic devices such as photovoltaics. Science , this issue p. 897 ; see also p. 854 Block-copolymer core-shell fibers show extremely efficient exciton transport, with almost complete incoming light absorption. Easily processed materials with the ability to transport excitons over length scales of more than 100 nanometers are highly desirable for a range of light-harvesting and optoelectronic devices. We describe the preparation of organic semiconducting nanofibers comprising a crystalline poly(di- n -hexylfluorene) core and a solvated, segmented corona consisting of polyethylene glycol in the center and polythiophene at the ends. These nanofibers exhibit exciton transfer from the core to the lower-energy polythiophene coronas in the end blocks, which occurs in the direction of the interchain π-π stacking with very long diffusion lengths (>200 nanometers) and a large diffusion coefficient (0.5 square centimeters per second). This is made possible by the uniform exciton energetic landscape created by the well-ordered, crystalline nanofiber core.

Simultaneous transport and coupling of ionic and electronic charges is fundamental to electrochemical devices used in energy storage and conversion, neuromorphic computing and bioelectronics. While the mixed conductors enabling these technologies are widely used, the dynamic relationship between ionic and electronic transport is generally poorly understood, hindering the rational design of new materials. In semiconducting electrodes, electrochemical doping is assumed to be limited by motion of ions due to their large mass compared to electrons and/or holes. Here, we show that this basic assumption does not hold for conjugated polymer electrodes. Using operando optical microscopy, we reveal that electrochemical doping speeds in a state-of-the-art polythiophene can be limited by poor hole transport at low doping levels, leading to substantially slower switching speeds than expected. We show that the timescale of hole-limited doping can be controlled by the degree of microstructural heterogeneity, enabling the design of conjugated polymers with improved electrochemical performance.Electrochemical doping is assumed to be limited by ion motion due to large mass in mixed ionic-electronic conductors. Here, the authors reveal in a typical polythiophene that electrochemical doping speeds are limited by poor hole transport at low doping levels, leading to much slower switching speeds than expected.

Fast and sensitive determination of biologically active compounds is very important in biomedical diagnostics, the food and beverage industry, and environmental analysis. In this review, the most promising directions in analytical application of conducting polymers (CPs) are outlined. Up to now polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) are the most frequently used CPs in the design of sensors and biosensors; therefore, in this review, main attention is paid to these conducting polymers. The most popular polymerization methods applied for the formation of conducting polymer layers are discussed. The applicability of polypyrrole-based functional layers in the design of electrochemical biosensors and biofuel cells is highlighted. Some signal transduction mechanisms in CP-based sensors and biosensors are discussed. Biocompatibility-related aspects of some conducting polymers are overviewed and some insights into the application of CP-based coatings for the design of implantable sensors and biofuel cells are addressed. New trends and perspectives in the development of sensors based on CPs and their composites with other materials are discussed.

Integrating safety features to cut off excessive current during accidental internal short circuits in Li-ion batteries (LIBs) can reduce the risk of thermal runaway. However, making this concept practical requires overcoming challenges in both material development and scalable manufacturing. Here, we demonstrate the roll-to-roll production of a safety reinforced layer (SRL) on current collectors at a rate of 5 km per day. The SRL, made of molecularly engineered polythiophene (PTh) and carbon additives, interrupts current flow during voltage drops or overheating without adversely affecting battery performance. Impact testing on 3.4-Ah pouch cells shows that the SRL reduces battery explosions from 63% to 10%. This work underscores the potential of integrating material science with manufacturing technology to enhance battery safety. The authors present a scalable method for implementing a thermo-responsive safety reinforced layer (SRL) in batteries, which enables immediate shutdown during internal short circuits and reduces the risk of overheating and explosions.

At present, most of state‐of‐the‐art power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of organic solar cells (OSCs) are achieved from the photoactive materials involving donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymer donors. It is well known that the complicated molecular structure of D–A copolymers means the tedious synthesis, which brings about severe cost issue and poor scalability for the industrial production. Therefore, to develop application‐oriented OSCs, considerable attention should be paid on simplifying the chemical structures of polymer donors. Polythiophene (PT) and poly(thiophene vinylene) (PTV) derivatives should be among the simplest polymer donors, and OSCs based on them have made some breakthroughs in past 2 years. Here, we briefly introduce the recent advances of OSCs based on low‐cost polymers including poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT), PT derivatives, and PTV derivatives, respectively, and emphasize the importance of modulating energy levels, preaggregation effect, and D/A miscibility for the past progress as well as the future development. At last, we also propose some challenges demanding prompt solution for realizing practical application of OSCs, aiming at providing guidance and stimulating new ideas for further research.

Certainly, the success of polythiophenes is due in the first place to their outstanding electronic properties and superior processability. Nevertheless, there are additional reasons that contribute to arouse the scientific interest around these materials. Among these, the large variety of chemical modifications that is possible to perform on the thiophene ring is a precious aspect. In particular, a turning point was marked by the diffusion of synthetic strategies for the preparation of terthiophenes: the vast richness of approaches today available for the easy customization of these structures allows the finetuning of their chemical, physical, and optical properties. Therefore, terthiophene derivatives have become an extremely versatile class of compounds both for direct application or for the preparation of electronic functional polymers. Moreover, their biocompatibility and ease of functionalization make them appealing for biology and medical research, as it testifies to the blossoming of studies in these fields in which they are involved. It is thus with the willingness to guide the reader through all the possibilities offered by these structures that this review elucidates the synthetic methods and describes the full chemical variety of terthiophenes and their derivatives. In the final part, an in-depth presentation of their numerous bioapplications intends to provide a complete picture of the state of the art.

Novel multiple emitting amphiphilic conjugated polythiophene‐coated CdTe quantum dots for picogram level determination of the 2,4,6‐trinitrophenol (TNP) explosive are developed. Four biocompatible sensors, cationic polythiophene nanohybrids (CPTQDs), nonionic polythiophene nanohybrids (NPTQDs), anionic polythiophene nanohybrids (APTQDs), and thiophene copolymer nanohybrids (TCPQDs), are designed using an in situ polymerization method, which shows highly enhanced fluorescence intensity and quantum yield (up to 78%). All sensors are investigated for nitroexplosive detection to provide a remarkable fluorescence quenching for TNP and the quenching efficiency reached 96% in the case of TCPQDs. The fluorescence of the sensors are quenched by TNP through inner filter effect, electrostatic, π−π, and hydrogen bonding interactions. Under optimal conditions, the detection limits of CPTQDs, NPTQDs, APTQDs, and TCPQDs are 2.56, 7.23, 4.12, and 0.56 × 10−9 m, respectively, within 60 s. More importantly, portable, cost effective, and simple to use paper strips and chitosan film are successfully applied to visually detect as little as 2.29 pg of TNP. The possibility of utilizing a smartphone with a color‐scanning APP in the determination of TNP is also established. Moreover, the practical application of the developed sensors for TNP detection in tap and river water samples is described with satisfactory recoveries of 98.02−107.50%. Amphiphilic conjugated polythiophene‐coated CdTe quantum dots with enhanced biocompatibility, fluorescence intensity, and quantum yield are developed for the selective detection of nitroexplosives. The applicability of the method is extended using a portable and cost‐effective chitosan film and a paper‐based sensor coupled with smartphone. This work reveals unique opportunities for detection of nitroexplosives in national security and environment protection.