No abstract

Organic semiconductors have attracted a lot of attention since the discovery of highly doped conductive polymers, due to the potential application in field-effect transistors (OFETs), light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and photovoltaic cells (OPVs). Single crystals of organic semiconductors are particularly intriguing because they are free of grain boundaries and have long-range periodic order as well as minimal traps and defects. Hence, organic semiconductor crystals provide a powerful tool for revealing the intrinsic properties, examining the structure-property relationships, demonstrating the important factors for high performance devices and uncovering fundamental physics in organic semiconductors. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the molecular packing, morphology and charge transport features of organic semiconductor crystals, the control of crystallization for achieving high quality crystals and the device physics in the three main applications. We hope that this comprehensive summary can give a clear picture of the state-of-art status and guide future work in this area.

Organic sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are potential alternatives of current commercial inorganic lithium-ion batteries for portable electronics (especially wearable electronics) because of their low cost and flexibility, making them possible to meet the future flexible and large-scale requirements. However, only a few organic SIBs have been reported so far, and most of them either were tested in a very slow rate or suffered significant performance degradation when cycled under high rate. Here, we are focusing on the molecular design for improving the battery performance and addressing the current challenge of fast-charge and -discharge. Through reasonable molecular design strategy, we demonstrate that the extension of the π-conjugated system is an efficient way to improve the high rate performance, leading to much enhanced capacity and cyclability with full recovery even after cycled under current density as high as 10 A g(-1).

Black phosphorus (BP) is a rapidly up and coming star in two‐dimensional (2D) materials. The unique characteristic of BP is its in‐plane anisotropy. This characteristic of BP ignites a new type of 2D materials that have low‐symmetry structures and in‐plane anisotropic properties. On this basis, they offer richer and more unique low‐dimensional physics compared to isotropic 2D materials, thus providing a fertile ground for novel applications including electronics, optoelectronics, molecular detection, thermoelectric, piezoelectric, and ferroelectric with respect to in‐plane anisotropy. This article reviews the recent advance in characterization and applications of in‐plane anisotropic 2D materials.

The purpose of this feature article is to give an overview of recent advances in development of high performance organic semiconductors for field-effect transistors, especially those with mobility of/over amorphous silicon, since they are believed to be promising candidates with practical applications in the near future's organic electronic industry. We hope this comprehensive summary of high performance organic semiconductors will provide guidelines for the design and synthesis of novel, high performance organic field-effect semiconductors.

BiVO4 has been regarded as a promising material for photoelectrochemical water splitting, but it suffers from a major challenge on charge collection and utilization. In order to meet this challenge, we design a nanoengineered three-dimensional (3D) ordered macro-mesoporous architecture (a kind of inverse opal) of Mo:BiVO4 through a controllable colloidal crystal template method with the help of a sandwich solution infiltration method and adjustable post-heating time. Within expectation, a superior photocurrent density is achieved in return for this design. This enhancement originates primarily from effective charge collection and utilization according to the analysis of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and so on. All the results highlight the great significance of the 3D ordered macro-mesoporous architecture as a promising photoelectrode model for the application in solar conversion. The cooperating amplification effects of nanoengineering from composition regulation and morphology innovation are helpful for creating more purpose-designed photoelectrodes with highly efficient performance.

Na-ion batteries are a potential substitute to Li-ion batteries for energy storage devices. However, the poor electrochemical performance, especially capacity and rate capability are the major bottlenecks to future development. Here we propose a performance-oriented electrode structure, which is 1D nanostructure arrays with large-scale high ordering, well vertical alignment, and large interval spacing. 10 Benefiting from these structure merits, a great enhancement on electrochemical performance could be achieved. To Sb as an example, we firstly report large-scale highly ordered Sb nanorod arrays with uniform large interval spacing (190 nm). In return for this electrode design, high ion accessibility, fast electron transport, and strong electrode integrity are presented here. Used as additive-and binder-free anode for Na-ion batteries, Sb nanorod arrays showed a high capacity of 620 mAh g -1 at the 100th cycle 15 with a retention of 84% up to 250 cycles at 0.2 A g -1 , and superior rate capability for delivering reversible capacities of 579.7 and 557.7 mAh g -1 at 10 and 20 A g -1 , respectively. A full cell coupled by P2-Na 2/3 Ni 1/3 Mn 2/3 O 2 cathode and Sb nanorod arrays anode was also conducted, which showed a good cycle performance up to 250 cycles, high rate capability up to 20 A g -1 , and large energy density up to 130 Wh kg -1 . These excellent electrochemical performances shall pave a way to develop more applications of Sb 20 nanorod arrays in energy storage devices. 65 friendly. 17 The abundance of Sb in the Earth's crust is estimated at 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million. In addition, Sb has been found in over 100 mineral species. Sb is considered a promising anode material for SIBs due to its large Na storage capacity of 660 mAh g -1 , good electronic conductivity, and moderate operating voltage. 17 70 However, the practical application of Sb is mainly hindered by Journal Name, [year], [vol], 00-00 | 7 65 cell was tested with a voltage range of 1.4-4.0 V at a large current density of 0.5 A g -1 (with respect to the anode weight) using 1.0 M NaClO 4 in EC-PC-5% FEC electrolyte. According to the This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry [year] [journal], [year], [vol], 00-00 | 10 Broader contextDue to the lower cost and larger abundance of Na, Na-ion batteries have been a potential alternative to Li-ion batteries for energy storage devices. The development of electrode materials or structures with good electrochemical performance is currently key task in Na-ion batteries research. In this work, we presented a performance-oriented 1D nanostucture arrays with large-scale high ordering, well vertical 5 alignment, and large interval spacing, fabricated by a facile and cost-effective nanoimprinted AAO templating technique, might be successfully used as an electrode and showed an excellent electrochemical performance. This arrays conceptual design is universial to most of electrode materials. Taking antimony (Sb) as an example, large-scale higly ordered Sb nanorod arrays with uniform large interval spac...

p-d Conjugated coordination polymers (CCPs) have attracted muchattention for various applications,although the chemical states and structures of many CCPs are still blurry. Now,aone-dimensional (1D) p-d conjugated coordination polymer for high performance sodium-ion batteries is presented. The chemical states of the obtained coordination polymer are clearly revealed. The electrochemical process undergoes at hree-electron reaction and the structure transforms from C=Nd ouble bonds and Ni II to CÀNs ingle bonds and Ni I ,r espectively.Our unintentional experiments provided visual confirmation of Ni I .T he existence of Ni I was further corroborated by its X-raya bsorption near-edge structure (XANES) and its catalytic activity in Negishi cross-coupling.Supportinginformation and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under: https://doi.