Re-examination of methodologies used for flat band potential determination to help avoid misleading results from the Mott–Schottky approximation.

The copolymerization of carbon dioxide with epoxides is an industrially relevant means to valorize wastes and improve sustainability in polymer manufacturing, and may also provide an economic benefit to CO2 capture and storage technologies. The efficiency of the process depends upon the catalyst used; previously Zn(II)Mg(II) heterodinuclear catalysts showed good performances at low CO2 pressures, which has been attributed to synergic interactions between the metals. Here we report a Mg(II)Co(II) catalyst for the production of polyols by copolymerization of CO2 with cyclohexene oxide that exhibits significantly better activity (turn-over-frequency over 12,000 h-1), high CO2 utilization (over 99 %) and high polymer selectivity (over 99 %). Detailed kinetic investigations show a second-order rate law, independent of CO2 pressure from 1 to 40 bar. Investigations of the synergy between the metal centres showed that epoxide coordination occurs at Mg(II) with reduced transition state entropy, which the carbonate attack step is accelerated at Co(II) through lowering of the transition state enthalpy. functionalization of alternating polyesters: selective patterning of (AB)n sequences.

This study reports the development of copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) hole-transport layers (HTLs) processed from aqueous ammonia as a novel alternative to conventional n-alkyl sulfide solvents. Wide bandgap (3.4–3.9 eV) and ultrathin (3–5 nm) layers of CuSCN are formed when the aqueous CuSCN–ammine complex solution is spin-cast in air and annealed at 100 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms the high compositional purity of the formed CuSCN layers, while the high-resolution valence band spectra agree with first-principles calculations. Study of the hole-transport properties using field-effect transistor measurements reveals that the aqueous-processed CuSCN layers exhibit a fivefold higher hole mobility than films processed from diethyl sulfide solutions with the maximum values approaching 0.1 cm2 V−1 s−1. A further interesting characteristic is the low surface roughness of the resulting CuSCN layers, which in the case of solar cells helps to planarize the indium tin oxide anode. Organic bulk heterojunction and planar organometal halide perovskite solar cells based on aqueous-processed CuSCN HTLs yield power conversion efficiency of 10.7% and 17.5%, respectively. Importantly, aqueous-processed CuSCN-based cells consistently outperform devices based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate HTLs. This is the first report on CuSCN films and devices processed via an aqueous-based synthetic route that is compatible with high-throughput manufacturing and paves the way for further developments

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Moving from hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), a well-known crystalline insulator, to amorphous BN, leads to the creation of a semiconductor able to photoreduce CO2 in the gas/solid phase, under UV-vis and pure visible light.