Chemical Reviews最新文献

The development of stretchable electrodes for intrinsically stretchable organic solar cells (IS-OSCs) with both high power conversion efficiency (PCE) and mechanical stability is crucial for wearable electronics. However, research on top electrodes that maintain high conductivity and excellent stretchability has been underexplored. Herein, we introduce a novel liquid metal electrode architecture (i.e., indium/metallic interlayer/gallium, InMiG) for IS-OSCs. Thermally deposited indium significantly improves mechanical properties by dispersing stress, mitigating crack initiation and propagation within the underlying layers. The metallic interlayer enhances the electrical conductivity and wettability of gallium, enabling the formation of a smooth and uniform film. The InMiG electrode surpasses eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) in both electrical conductivity and adhesion energy. Notably, the IS-OSCs with InMiG electrode achieve a high PCE of 14.6% and retain 70% of their initial PCE at 63% strain, highlighting their potential for commercial use in wearable electronics.

Grease traps are commonly used in the dairy industry to separate fats from their generated wastewater. Due to its properties, grease trap waste (GTW) is predominantly incinerated or landfilled despite its high energy content. In this study, hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was used to convert dairy industry GTW into biocrude while the generated HTL-wastewater (AP) was subjected to anaerobic digestion (AD) to recover biomethane. To maximize organic carbon to biocrude conversion, and to minimize the use of freshwater, a fraction of the AP was recirculated in subsequent HTL reactions. AP recirculation increased biocrude yields (73 vs. 78 wt%) but decreased both the higher heating value (HHV) (38 vs. 37 MJ kg⁻¹) and the fraction (72 vs. 64%) of lighter hydrocarbons. Continuous AD using an EGSB reactor proved to be an effective method to further reduce the COD of the AP from 6.5 g L⁻¹ to 0.7 g L⁻¹ and enhance the overall energy recovery of the GTW from 81% (HTL only) to 83.1% (HTL-AD). Integrating HTL with AD and recycling a fraction of the AP in the HTL process allows for efficient wastewater treatment and a recovery of up to 84.8% of the energy contained in the GTW.

Developing aluminium gallium nitride deep-ultraviolet (UVC) micro-light-emitting diodes (micro-LEDs) with sufficient power has been a challenge, which particularly limits these devices to various applications. However, advanced fabrication processes have been developed to enable the demonstration of highly efficient 270 nm UVC micro-LEDs and large-format UVC micro-LED displays with high resolution for maskless photolithography. Optical and electrical characterizations were performed on UVC micro-LEDs with sizes ranging from 3 µm to 100 μm to evaluate these emerging devices. The 3 μm device achieved a record-high peak external quantum efficiency of 5.7% and a maximum brightness of 396 W cm^–2. Moreover, 2,540 pixels per inch parallel-connected UVC micro-LED arrays featuring rear-side reflection layers exhibited emission uniformity and collimation. UVC micro-LED displays, with a resolution of 320 × 140, were explicitly designed for maskless photolithography applications utilizing a customized integrated circuit driver for optimal performance. The UVC micro-LEDs and UVC micro-displays provide sufficient doses to fully expose the photoresist film within seconds, owing to their enhanced current spreading uniformity, improved heat dispersion and superior light extraction efficiency. This work may open a path to maskless photolithography, potentially leading to revolutionary developments in the semiconductor industry.

Rapid progress in photonics has led to an explosion of integrated devices that promise to deliver the same performance as table-top technology at the nanoscale, heralding the next generation of optical communications, sensing and metrology, and quantum technologies. However, the challenge of co-integrating the multiple components of high-performance laser systems has left application of these nanoscale devices thwarted by bulky laser sources that are orders of magnitude larger than the devices themselves. Here we show that the two main components for high-performance lasers—noise reduction and isolation—can be sourced simultaneously from a single, passive, CMOS-compatible nanophotonic device, eliminating the need to combine incompatible technologies. To realize this, we take advantage of both the long photon lifetime and the non-reciprocal Kerr nonlinearity of a high-quality-factor silicon nitride ring resonator to self-injection lock a semiconductor laser chip while also providing isolation. We also identify a previously unappreciated power regime limitation of current on-chip laser architectures, which our system overcomes. Using our device, which we term a unified laser stabilizer, we demonstrate an on-chip integrated laser system with built-in isolation and noise reduction that operates with turnkey reliability. This approach departs from efforts to directly miniaturize and integrate traditional laser system components and serves to bridge the gap to fully integrated optical technologies.

Polymer dielectrics capable of operating at elevated temperatures are essential components in advanced electronics and electrical power systems. However, dielectric polymers generally display significantly deteriorated capacitive performance at high temperatures because of exponential growth of electrical conduction. Here we design and prepare the cross-linked copolymers with interrupted translational symmetry and the use of local disorder-induced electron localization (i.e., Anderson localization) to impede electrical conduction of the copolymers. Consequently, the copolymer exhibits state-of-the-art discharged energy density of 3.5 J cm⁻³ with a charge–discharge efficiency of 90% at 250 °C. The copolymer also displays much more stable capacitive energy storage performance in the temperature range of 25 to 250 °C compared to existing dielectric polymers. With the demonstrated breakdown self-healing ability and excellent cyclability of the copolymer, this work sheds a new light on the design of high-temperature high-energy-density polymer dielectrics.