Two-dimensional (2D) Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites have shown great potential for application in perovskite solar cells due to their appealing environmental stability. However, 2D perovskites generally show poor photovoltaic performance. Here, a new type of 2D perovskite using 2-thiophenemethylammonium (ThMA) as a spacer cation was developed and high photovoltaic performance as well as enhanced stability in comparison with its 3D counterpart was demonstrated. The use of the 2D perovskite (ThMA)(MA) PbI ( n = 3) in deposited highly oriented thin films from N, N-dimethylformamide using a methylammonium chloride (MACl) assisted film-forming technique dramatically improves the efficiency of 2D perovskite photovoltaic devices from 1.74% to over 15%, which is the highest efficiency for 2D perovskite ( n < 6) solar cells so far. The enhanced performance of the 2D perovskite devices using MACl as additive is ascribed to the growth of a dense web of nanorod-like film with near-single-crystalline quality, in which the crystallographic planes of the 2D MA PbI slabs preferentially aligned perpendicular to the substrate, thus facilitating efficient charge transport. This work provides a new insight into exploration of the formation mechanism of 2D perovskites with increased crystallinity and crystal orientation suitable for high-performance solar cells.

Enhancing the intrinsic activity and space time yield of Cu based heterogeneous methanol synthesis catalysts through CO2 hydrogenation is one of the major topics in CO2 conversion into value-added liquid fuels and chemicals. Here we report inverse ZrO2/Cu catalysts with a tunable Zr/Cu ratio have been prepared via an oxalate co-precipitation method, showing excellent performance for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Under optimal condition, the catalyst composed by 10% of ZrO2 supported over 90% of Cu exhibits the highest mass-specific methanol formation rate of 524 gMeOHkgcat−1h−1 at 220 °C, 3.3 times higher than the activity of traditional Cu/ZrO2 catalysts (159 gMeOHkgcat−1h−1). In situ XRD-PDF, XAFS and AP-XPS structural studies reveal that the inverse ZrO2/Cu catalysts are composed of islands of partially reduced 1–2 nm amorphous ZrO2 supported over metallic Cu particles. The ZrO2 islands are highly active for the CO2 activation. Meanwhile, an intermediate of formate adsorbed on the Cu at 1350 cm−1 is discovered by the in situ DRIFTS. This formate intermediate exhibits fast hydrogenation conversion to methoxy. The activation of CO2 and hydrogenation of all the surface oxygenate intermediates are significantly accelerated over the inverse ZrO2/Cu configuration, accounting for the excellent methanol formation activity observed.

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Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have demonstrated superior catalytic performance in numerous heterogeneous reactions. However, producing thermally stable SACs, especially in a simple and scalable way, remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report the synthesis of Ru SACs from commercial RuO 2 powders by physical mixing of sub-micron RuO 2 aggregates with a MgAl 1.2 Fe 0.8 O 4 spinel. Atomically dispersed Ru is confirmed by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Detailed studies reveal that the dispersion process does not arise from a gas atom trapping mechanism, but rather from anti-Ostwald ripening promoted by a strong covalent metalsupport interaction. This synthetic strategy is simple and amenable to the large-scale manufacture of thermally stable SACs for industrial applications.

Highly efficient and stable 2D/3D hybrid perovskite solar cells using 2‐thiophenemethylammonium (ThMA) as the spacer cation are successfully demonstrated. It is found that the incorporation of ThMA spacer cation into 3D perovskite, which forms a 2D/3D hybrid structure, can effectively induce the crystalline growth and orientation, passivate the trap states, and hinder the ion motion, resulting in improved carrier lifetime and reduced recombination losses. The optimized device exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.49%, combined with a high VOC of 1.16 V and a notable fill factor (FF) of 81%. More importantly, an encapsulated 2D/3D hybrid perovskite device sustains ≈99% of its initial PCE after 1680 h in the ambient atmosphere, whereas the control 3D perovskite device drops to ≈80% of the original performance. Importantly, the device stability under continuous light soaking (100 mW cm−2) is enhanced significantly for 2D/3D perovskite device in comparison with that of the control device. These results reveal excellent photovoltaic properties and intrinsic stabilities of the 2D/3D hybrid perovskites using ThMA as the spacer cation.