Materials Horizons最新文献

Planar, carbon-electrode-based perovskite solar cells (C-PSCs) without a hole transport layer (HTL) are highly attractive due to their simple fabrication, low cost, and scalability. However, their performance is often limited by inefficient physical and electrical contact at the perovskite/carbon interface, which impedes hole extraction and promotes charge recombination. This study introduces a pre-engineered, multifunctional interlayer for HTL-free C-PSCs utilizing tetrabutylammonium ion (TBA⁺)-intercalated black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs). The TBA⁺ intercalation during synthesis pre-engineers the BPQDs with enhanced conductivity, a raised valence band maximum (-5.27 eV), and defect-passivation capabilities. This creates a favorable cascade energy-level alignment between the perovskite absorber (-5.5 eV) and the carbon electrode (-5.0 eV), thereby facilitating efficient hole extraction. The BPQDs interlayer also ensures seamless perovskite/carbon contact, promoting interfacial charge transfer. Additionally, TBA⁺ ions released from BPQDs effectively passivate defects on the perovskite surface, suppressing nonradiative recombination. Consequently, the optimized devices achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.08%, which is 24.1% and 11.9% higher than that of control devices without an interlayer (13.76%) and with a pristine BPQDs interlayer (15.26%), respectively. Furthermore, the encapsulated devices demonstrate improved operational stability, retaining 89.1% of their initial PCE after 360 hours under 1-sun illumination at 85 °C and 85% relative humidity.

The morphology and chain orientation of conjugated polymer films strongly influence their charge transport properties. In this study, we investigate the solution crystallization behavior of semiconducting polymers in nanoconfinement generated using 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene (sym-TCB), a solvent additive that crystallizes at room-temperature. Solutions of a diketopyrrolopyrrole-bithiophene (pDPPBT) copolymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and other polymers were prepared in chloroform with varying concentrations of sym-TCB. Upon film casting, sym-TCB crystals directed the growth of polymer domains, resulting in spherulitic morphologies replicated from the solvent crystals. pDPPBT films exhibited predominantly edge-on chain orientation at the dielectric interface, whereas P3HT showed bimodal orientation: face-on alignment near the top film surface via epitaxial crystallization and edge-on alignment at the bottom interface. This crystallization behavior was also observed in other conjugated polymer systems. Notably, pDPPBT films with conductive domains templating the solvent crystals significantly enhanced field-effect mobility (∼5.60 cm² V^-1 s^-1), outperforming control films with randomly aligned fibrillar domains (1.60-2.40 cm² V^-1 s^-1). These findings demonstrate that solvent crystal-induced nanoconfinement enables precise control over multiscale polymer ordering, offering an effective strategy to enhance charge transport in organic thin-film transistors.

This work describes an electrochemical biosensor using iron-doped copper nitride (Cu₃N-Fe) nanostructures for the rapid detection of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a key metabolic biomarker released by cancer cells. The sensor, prepared by drop-casting the nanocomposite onto a glassy carbon electrode, shows high electrocatalytic activity towards H₂O₂ oxidation, with a wide linear range from 0.01 mM to 1 M and a detection limit of 9.8 µM. The sensor successfully differentiated multiple cancer cell lines from non-cancerous controls and was clinically validated using 28 cancer patient tissue samples, distinguishing cancerous from adjacent normal tissues with approximately 90% accuracy. A strong positive correlation was established between the response of the sensor and the expression levels of formyl peptide receptor-1 in the cancer tissues, which validates the sensing mechanism. This work shows the potential of Cu₃N-Fe as a material for developing cost-effective, point-of-care diagnostic tools for rapid, qualitative cancer screening.

Tissue engineering is an emerging and integrated field for the repair of defective tissues, which benefits from the interdisciplinary development of biomaterial and engineering techniques. Electrospinning is a promising technique used in tissue engineering to fabricate fiber-based biomaterials that could mimic the extracellular matrix even at the nanometer level, but there has been no review to identify the trends and systematically summarize the application strategies of electrospinning in tissue engineering. This review initially used bibliometric analysis to investigate the trends of electrospinning in tissue engineering from the beginning of this century by evaluating distinctive aspects including publication years, countries, institutions, and keywords. Then, this review presents the multi-hierarchical strategies used in electrospinning to fabricate functional scaffolds for tissue engineering, including biochemical modification, biophysical modification and cell incorporation. Moreover, the hybrid combinations of electrospinning with other biofabrication techniques to fabricate composite scaffolds are summarized including textile, 3D printing, hydrogel, lyophilization and gas foaming, thus finely simulating the bionic 3D microenvironment or the complex/interfacial tissue structures. Finally, this review discusses the research prospects and ongoing challenges, aiming to promote further development and clinical transformation.

The pursuit of single-phase multiferroics that operate at room temperature remains a significant challenge due to the mutual exclusiveness of ferroelectricity and magnetism in most materials. LaFeO₃ (LFO), a classic antiferromagnet, is non-ferroelectric in its bulk form. Herein, we demonstrate the creation of room-temperature ferroelectricity in epitaxial LFO thin films via a defect-engineering strategy. By modulating the oxygen partial pressure during growth, we deliberately introduce cationic off-stoichiometry, leading to the formation of La_Fe and Fe_La antisite defects. A combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy, positive-up-negative-down measurements, and density functional theory calculations confirms that these antisite defects are the microscopic origin of a polar R3c phase, which gives rise to intrinsic switchable ferroelectricity. Furthermore, piezoresponse force microscopy under applied magnetic fields reveals a noticeable magnetoelectric coupling. This work not only unveils a novel mechanism for activating multiferroicity in LFO but also establishes cationic antisite engineering as a general paradigm for designing multifunctional properties in the rare earth orthoferrite family.

Melanin-inspired materials are being increasingly utilized across diverse areas, with their unique light absorption properties playing a decisive role in multiple domains. However, constrained by the structural complexity, effective strategies for controlling their light absorption properties remain limited, which mainly focus on modulating intramolecular conjugation through molecular doping. Nevertheless, these strategies have hit a bottleneck in regulating the light absorption properties due to constraints in doping levels and the oversight of the critical potential for modulating intermolecular conjugation. In this work, we proposed a modular and facile method to prepare a series of melanin-like polymers with excellent ultraviolet (UV) absorption properties through the direct polymerization of tyrosine-oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) conjugates. Detailed structural analysis revealed that the introduction of OEG chains into the resulting polymers could disrupt the intramolecular conjugations by inhibiting the oxidation and cyclization of phenolic units and simultaneously restricting the intermolecular conjugations through steric hindrance that prevented tight packing of the oligomers. These synergistic effects significantly increased the energy bandgap of the polymers, effectively suppressing the redshift in their absorption spectra and ultimately enhancing the UV absorption. These melanin-like polymers with boosted UV absorption capabilities demonstrated excellent performance in the efficient protection of photosensitive pesticides.

Ice accumulation presents persistent challenges across critical infrastructure sectors, including aviation, energy transmission, transportation, and telecommunications. With the advancement of nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as powerful components for the design of high-performance anti-icing and deicing coatings. Owing to their exceptional thermal, electrical, and surface properties, CNTs enable both passive (e.g., superhydrophobic) and active (e.g., photothermal, electrothermal) strategies for ice mitigation. This review critically examines the integration of pristine and chemically modified CNTs into functional coatings, highlighting synthesis approaches, surface engineering, performance metrics, and operational mechanisms - reported from 2016 to 2025. Particular emphasis is placed on the correlation between coating efficacy and the physicochemical characteristics of CNT surfaces, interpreted through the framework of Hansen Solubility Parameters (HSPs) as a predictive tool for CNT-matrix compatibility and icephobic performance. By mapping structure-function relationships and identifying synergistic design strategies, this work provides a comprehensive perspective on the future development of scalable, durable, and climate-resilient CNT-based anti-icing and deicing technologies.

It is essential to harness energy from every available source to meet the rapidly growing demand. Motion-assisted energy harvesting is an emerging and promising technique to achieve this. Mechanical friction between two surfaces generates charge separation, which results in an electric current that can be captured as usable energy. This principle is utilized in a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which relies on surfaces with appropriate charge characteristics. In this work, we present a novel approach to create a negatively charged surface by using bromine- and oxygen-rich broken frameworks of a 3D covalent organic framework (3D-COF) on a PAN surface (TamDbta-PAN). The TamDbta-PAN was fabricated through in situ dripping of TamDbta broken framework spheres from a water-ethylacetate interface onto a PAN surface. Notably, this functionally rich TamDbta-PAN serves as an effective tribonegative layer when paired with a tribopositive nylon-11 layer, achieving a high power density of 2342 mW m^-2 and demonstrating efficient energy harvesting from mechanical friction.

The photothermal effect does not qualify as real photocatalysis based on the optoelectronic characteristics of semiconductors and is generally considered an assisting approach rather than a substitute. Nearly all studies focus on thermal energy conversion from low-energy photons, highlighting that photothermal catalysis requires only sufficient temperature at local sites instead of heating the entire environment. The photothermal effect indeed contributes, but only when the corresponding photocatalytic reaction has been activated-a factor often neglected in published studies. A priori, one would expect underpowered low-energy photons to lead to extremely low catalytic efficiency, yet experimental observations often defy these expectations. Here, we propose a triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) heterojunction, constructed from MoS₂ and ZIF-FL, which enables near-infrared to blue-violet upconversion with excellent stability. The anti-Stokes shift is large (0.86 eV). Resonance energy transfer and interfacial migration bridges (Mo-N and Fe-S) facilitate efficient triplet-triplet energy transfer from ³MoS₂* to ³ZIF-FL*. When pollutants exist, energy is transferred in situ from TTA-generated high-energy singlets to reactants rather than being emitted as photons (tetracycline removal reaches up to 85.4% even at 5-10 °C), thereby avoiding reabsorption loss and achieving genuine NIR-driven photocatalysis. Finally, the energy-transfer mechanism among various excitons within the TTA-UC heterojunction is elucidated.

The crystallinity of electron donors and their compatibility with electron acceptors play important roles for the performance of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells. Considering that large electronegative atoms such as O and S atoms are often introduced into active materials to enhance intermolecular interactions and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is a highly conductive polymer, here in, we introduce dimethoxythiophene (DMOT) and ethylene dioxyl-thiophene (EDOT) side chains at two of the meso positions of a porphyrin core to synthesize two small molecular donors, ZnP-DMOT and ZnP-EDOT, and PCEs of 9.63% and 9.06%, respectively, are achieved for the OSCs with PC₆₁BM as the acceptor. These PCEs are very close to the state-of-the-art among fullerene-based OSCs. In addition, when non-fullerene acceptor 6TIC was employed, the ZnP-DMOT and the ZnP-EDOT binary devices showed PCEs of 11.55% and 10.86%, respectively. Experimental results show that di-alkoxy groups improve not only the crystallinity of the porphyrins but also their compatibility with PC₆₁BM and 6TIC. Furthermore, the introduction of PC₆₁BM as the third component into 6TIC based binary layers significantly improves the electron mobility and the balance of hole and electron transport. As a result, the ternary ZnP-DMOT:6TIC:PC₆₁BM and ZnP-EDOT:6TIC:PC₆₁BM devices achieve PCEs of 13.32% and 12.96%, respectively.