Solution processable planar heterojunction perovskite solar cell is a very promising new technology for low cost renewable energy. One of the most common cell structures is FTO/TiO2/CH3NH3PbI3-xClx/spiro-OMeTAD/Au. The main issues of this type of solar cell are the poor coverage and morphology control of the perovskite CH3NH3PbI3-xClx film on TiO2. For the first time, we demonstrate that the problems can be easily resolved by using a polymer additive in perovskite precursor solution during the film formation process. A 25% increase in power conversion efficiency at a value of 13.2% is achieved by adding 1 wt % of poly(ethylene glycol) in the perovskite layer using a 150 °C processed TiO2 nanoparticle layer. The morphology of this new perovskite was carefully studied by SEM, XRD, and AFM. The results reveal that the additive controls the size and aggregation of perovskite crystals and helps the formation of smooth film over TiO2 completely. Thus, the Voc and Jsc are greatly increased for a high efficiency solar cell. The amount of additive is optimized at 1 wt % due to its insulating characteristics. This research provides a facile way to fabricate a high efficiency perovskite solar cell by the low temperature solution process (<150 °C), which has the advancement of conserving energy over the traditional high temperature sintering TiO2 compact layer device.

Keywords: Drug design / Hydrolases / Inhibitors / Peptidomimetics / Proteases / Silanes / Silicon Silanediols are isosteric with the unstable hydrated carbonyl group, but are most commonly associated with polymerization to give silicone polymers. Placement of a silanediol in a dipeptide analogue yields a new kind of nonhydrolyzable transition-state-analogue protease inhibitor. Both metallo and aspartic protease inhibitors have been prepared using silanediols, with enzyme inhibition in the low nanomolar range. Structure-activity comparisons with known inhibitors,

There is widespread interest in developing fluorescent reporters of protein kinase activity, species that can furnish a visual readout of both when and where intracellular kinases are activated in response to a stimulus. We have constructed and identified, via a combination of rational design, library synthesis, and screening, a difluorofluorescein-appended peptide-based species that responds to protein kinase C phosphorylation in a fluorescently sensitive fashion. The phosphorylation-induced divalent metal ion-mediated 265% enhancement in fluorescence proceeds with a V(max) of 8.5 micromol/min.mg and a K(m) of 20.5 microM.

A series of isoindigo-based low-band-gap copolymers (PnTI) containing an extended thiophene unit in the donor segment of the polymer were synthesized. The results show that the extended thiophene unit with centrosymmetric conformation simultaneously broadens the polymer absorption and enhances the crystallinity and, thus, hole mobility. Consequently, with additional improved solubility, the polymer P6TI exhibits the highest PCE of 7.25% (and a high J sc of 16.24 mA cm À2 ) among isoindigo-based low-bandgap copolymers. This work demonstrates that by simply adjusting the donor segment and with relatively simple synthetic schemes, a material for high-performance and scalable PSCs will become available.

Monitoring the ammonia gas is of great interest to both environmental benefits and human health. The recent advance in polymer thin film transistors (TFTs) can realize high sensitivity and low-cost gas sensors. Ammonia gas interacts with charge carrier channels and polymer/dielectrics interface through Coulomb force. This is the first report of high sensitivity and reusable ammonia sensor fabricated from thiophene-isoindigo donoracceptor conducting polymer. This kind of polymer has advantages of simple synthesis and excellent air stability. The systematic study is carried out to investigate relationship among chemical structure variation and morphology control of polymer to the performance of ammonia sensor. High crystallinity, favored crystal orientation, and direct percolation routes for analytes are found to be essential to increase the susceptibility of polymers to ammonia gas. By strengthening edge-on morphology, the sensitivity can be enhanced fivefold for the same polymer. The idea can put forward the development of sensor array in a time-efficient manner by employing the morphology effect.