Novel star-shaped hole transporting materials with a triazine unit have been synthesized. When the new Triazine-Th-OMeTPA was used as a hole transporting material in perovskite solar cells, the power conversion efficiency reached 12.51% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW cm(-2)) illumination, showing competitive photovoltaic performance with the widely used spiro-OMeTAD based solar cell (13.45%).

A new type of hole transporting material (HTMs) with an incorporated planar amine or triphenylamine as a core unit have been prepared. The two amine derivatives were demonstrated to be efficient hole transporting materials in fabricating solid-state organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. Perovskite-based solar cells with a planar amine derivative gave a short circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) of 20.98 m Acm(-2), an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.972 V, and a fill factor of 0.67, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 13.63 %. The photovoltaic performance is comparable to that of the standard spiro-OMeTAD. Moreover, the device showed good stability under light soaking for 500 h. These HTMs hold promise to replace the expensive spiro-OMeTAD because of their high efficiency, excellent stability, synthesis from simple and inexpensive materials.

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Acid-catalyzed skeletal C-C bond isomerizations are important benchmark reactions for the petrochemical industries. Among those, o-xylene isomerization/disproportionation is a probe reaction for strong Brønsted acid catalysis, and it is also sensitive to the local acid site density and pore topology. Here, we report on the use of phosphotungstic acid (PTA) encapsulated within NU-1000, a Zr-based metal-organic framework (MOF), as a catalyst for o-xylene isomerization at 523 K. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), P NMR, N physisorption, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) show that the catalyst is structurally stable with time-on-stream and that WO clusters are necessary for detectable rates, consistent with conventional catalysts for the reaction. PTA and framework stability under these aggressive conditions requires maximal loading of PTA within the NU-1000 framework; materials with lower PTA loading lost structural integrity under the reaction conditions. Initial reaction rates over the NU-1000-supported catalyst were comparable to a control WO-ZrO, but the NU-1000 composite material was unusually active toward the transmethylation pathway that requires two adjacent active sites in a confined pore, as created when PTA is confined in NU-1000. This work shows the promise of metal-organic framework topologies in giving access to unique reactivity, even for aggressive reactions such as hydrocarbon isomerization.

Novel steric bulky hole transporting materials (HTMs) with two or four N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)aminophenyl units have been synthesized. When the EtheneTTPA was used as a hole transporting material in perovskite solar cell, the power conversion efficiency afforded 12.77 % under AM 1.5 G illumination, which is comparable to the widely used spiro-OMeTAD based solar cell (13.28 %).

Novel star-shaped hole transporting materials (HTMs) with a bis-dimethylfluorenylamino moiety have been synthesized and evaluated for high performance perovskite solar cell applications. Maximum power conversion efficiency of 14.21% has been achieved by using the HTM with a fused TPA core and the long-term stability was also shown to be comparable with that of .

Six organic sensitizers containing 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and thienothiophene in the bridged group are designed and synthesized, which under standard global AM 1.5 solar conditions, the device using JK-184 gave a conversion efficiency of 8.70%. The photovoltaic performance data are quite sensitive to the structural modification of sensitizer. The hexyl substituent of the hexyloxy group on the sensitizer was shown to improve the efficiency and stability. The device based on the JK-184 with an ionic liguid electolyte exhibits an excellent stability after 1000 h of light soaking at 60 °C.

Well-organized (CH3NH3)PbI3 perovskite films fabricated from various solution-processing conditions were characterized and used in hybrid solar cells with PC71BM planar heterojuncion films, exhibiting a high power-conversion efficiency of 12.2% with the better photocurrent and fill factor compared to those with PC61BM due to a better spectral response in the visible region and a better planar junction with the Ag electrode than the PC61BM.