A poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) hydrogel is prepared by thermal treatment of a commercial PEDOT:PSS (PH1000) suspension in 0.1 mol L sulfuric acid followed by partially removing its PSS component with concentrated sulfuric acid. This hydrogel has a low solid content of 4% (by weight) and an extremely high conductivity of 880 S m . It can be fabricated into different shapes such as films, fibers, and columns with arbitrary sizes for practical applications. A highly conductive and mechanically strong porous fiber is prepared by drying PEDOT:PSS hydrogel fiber to fabricate a current-collector-free solid-state flexible supercapacitor. This fiber supercapacitor delivers a volumetric capacitance as high as 202 F cm at 0.54 A cm with an extraordinary high-rate performance. It also shows excellent electrochemical stability and high flexibility, promising for the application as wearable energy-storage devices.

Organo-lead halide perovskites have emerged as promising materials for high-performance photodetectors. However, the toxicity of lead cations in these materials limits their further applications. Here, a flexible photoconductor is developed based on lead-free two-dimensional (2D) perovskite (PEA)2SnI4via a one-step solution processing method. The flexible transparent electrodes are patterned from rGO/(PEDOT:PSS) hybrid films. The stability and reproducibility of the devices are significantly improved on adding 30 mol% SnF2 to the perovskite. The flexible photoconductors show a photoresponsivity of 16 A W-1 and a detectivity of 1.92 × 1011 Jones under 470 nm illumination, which are higher than those of most of the similar devices. Besides, the devices possess much better mechanical flexibility and durability than the flexible devices with an Au electrode. Finally, this flexible photoconductor is applied as a light-stimulated synaptic device and can mimic the short-term plasticity of biological synapses. This is the first study to report that lead-free 2D perovskite can be used in flexible photoconductors and synaptic devices.

Natural vascular plants leaves rely on differences in osmotic pressure, transpiration and guttation to produce tons of clean water, powered by sunlight. Inspired by this, we report a sunlight-driven purifier for high-efficiency water purification and production. This sunlight-driven purifier is characterized by a negative temperature response poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogel (PN) anchored onto a superhydrophilic melamine foam skeleton, and a layer of PNIPAm modified graphene (PG) filter membrane coated outside. Molecular dynamics simulation and experimental results show that the superhydrophilicity of the relatively rigid melamine skeleton significantly accelerates the swelling/deswelling rate of the PNPG-F purifier. Under one sun, this rational engineered structure offers a collection of 4.2 kg m −2 h −1 and an ionic rejection of > 99% for a single PNPG-F from brine feed via the cooperation of transpiration and guttation. We envision that such a high-efficiency sunlight driven system could have great potential applications in diverse water treatments.

No abstract

Filtering capacitor is a necessary component in the modern electronic circuit. Traditional filtering capacitor is often limited by its bulky and rigid configuration and narrow workable scope of applications. Here, an aqueous hybrid electrochemical capacitor is developed for alternating current line filtering with an applicable wide frequency range from 1 to 10,000 Hz. This capacitor possesses an areal specific energy density of 438 μF V 2 cm −2 at 120 Hz, which to the best of our knowledge is record high among aqueous electrochemical capacitors reported so far. It can convert arbitrary alternating current waveforms and even noises to straight signals. After integration of capacitor units, a workable voltage up to hundreds of volts (e.g., 200 V) could be achieved without sacrificing its filtering capability. The integrated features of wide frequency range and high workable voltage for this capacitor present promise for multi-scenario and applicable filtering capacitors of practical importance.