As a promising strategy for enhancing light utilization, constructing cell with tandem structure exhibits great potential in achieving high efficiency, which encourages the field of organic solar cells. Here, we develop an advanced interconnecting layer for tandem organic solar cell, which is composed of electron beam evaporated TiO x and PEDOT:PSS. By using electron beam evaporation, a sharp, smooth, and dense TiO x /PEDOT:PSS interface is obtained. By exquisite controlling the O 2 flux during evaporation, efficient electron extraction and low Schottky barrier are obtained in PBDB-TF:GS-ISO/TiO 1.76 and TiO 1.76 /PEDOT:PSS, which guarantee the charge recombination between two subcells. The tandem cell with interconnecting layer of TiO 1.76 /PEDOT:PSS shows 20.27% efficiency, which is certified as 20.0% by National Institute of Metrology, China. Therefore, our result marks the arrival of 20% era in the field of organic solar cells.

With rapid development for tens of years, organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted much attention for their potential in practical applications. As an important photovoltaic parameter, the fill factor (FF) of OSCs stands for the effectiveness of charge generation and collection, which significantly depends on the properties of the interlayer and active layer. Here, a facile and effective strategy to improve the FF through hole-transporting layer (HTL) modification is demonstrated. By mixing WO nanoparticles with a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) emulsion, the surface free energy of the HTL is improved and the morphology of the active layer is optimized. Benefiting from increased carrier lifetime, a device based on WO :PEDOT:PSS HTL exhibits a boosted performance with an FF of 80.79% and power conversion efficiency of 14.57% PCE. The results are certified by the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), which, to date, are the highest values in this field with certification. This work offers a simple and viable option of HTL modification to realize highly efficient OSCs.

Abbreviations used in this paper: MBP, maltose-binding protein; MS, mass spectrometry; PCH, S. pombe cdc15 homology; TAP, tandem affi nity purifi cation; TEV, tobacco etch virus; YE, yeast extract.

Despite more potential in realizing higher photovoltaic performance, the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of tandem organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells still lags behind that of state‐of‐the‐art single‐junction cells. In this work, highly efficient double‐junction tandem OPV cells are fabricated by optimizing the photoactive layers with low voltage losses and developing an effective method to tune optical field distribution. The tandem OPV cells studied are structured as indium tin oxide (ITO)/ZnO/bottom photoactive layer/interconnecting layer (ICL)/top photoactive layer/MoOx/Ag, where the bottom and top photoactive layers are based on blends of PBDB‐TF:ITCC and PBDB‐TF:BTP‐eC11, respectively, and ICL refers to interconnecting layer structured as MoOx/Ag/ZnO:PFN‐Br. As these results indicate that there is not much room for optimizing the bottom photoactive layer, more effort is put into fine‐tuning the top photoactive layer. By rationally modulating the composition and thickness of PBDB‐TF:BTP‐eC11 blend films, the 300 nm‐thick PBDB‐TF:BTP‐eC11 film with 1:2 D/A ratio is found to be an ideal photoactive layer for the top sub‐cell in terms of photovoltaic characteristics and light distribution control. For the optimized tandem cell, a PCE of 19.64% is realized, which is the highest result in the OPV field and certified as 19.50% by the National Institute of Metrology.

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Various types of nanoparticles, such as liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, superparamagnetic iron oxide crystals, and colloidal gold, have been employed in targeted therapies for cancer. Both passive and active targeting strategies can be utilized for nano-drug delivery. Passive targeting is based on the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of the vasculature surrounding tumors. Active targeting relies on ligand-directed binding of nanoparticles to receptors expressed by tumor cells. Release of loaded drugs from nanoparticles may be controlled in response to changes in environmental condition such as temperature and pH. Biodistribution profiles and anticancer efficacy of nano-drugs in vivo would be different depending upon their size, surface charge, PEGylation and other biophysical properties. This review focuses on the recent development of nanoparticles for tumor targeted therapies, including physicochemical properties, tumor targeting, control of drug release, pharmacokinetics, anticancer efficacy and safety. Future perspectives are discussed as well.

Mutations of human telomerase RNA component (TERC) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) are associated with a subset of lung aging diseases, but the mechanisms by which TERC and TERT participate in lung diseases remain unclear. In this report, we show that knock-out (KO) of the mouse gene Terc or Tert causes pulmonary alveolar stem cell replicative senescence, epithelial impairment, formation of alveolar sacs, and characteristic inflammatory phenotype. Deficiency in TERC or TERT causes a remarkable elevation in various proinflammatory cytokines, including IL-1, IL-6, CXCL15 (human IL-8 homolog), IL-10, TNF-␣, and monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2)); decrease in TGF-␤1 and TGF␤RI receptor in the lungs; and spillover of IL-6 and CXCL15 into the bronchoalveolar lavage fluids. In addition to increased gene expressions of ␣-smooth muscle actin and collagen 1␣1, suggesting myofibroblast differentiation, TERC deficiency also leads to marked cellular infiltrations of a mononuclear cell population positive for the leukocyte common antigen CD45, low-affinity Fc receptor CD16/CD32, and pattern recognition receptor CD11b in the lungs. Our data demonstrate for the first time that telomerase deficiency triggers alveolar stem cell replicative senescence-associated low-grade inflammation, thereby driving pulmonary premature aging, alveolar sac formation, and fibrotic lesion.

Although pigmented hES-RPE and fRPE resurfaced aged and AMD BM to a similar, limited degree at day 21, cell behavior at earlier times was markedly dissimilar. Differences in protein secretion may indicate that hES-RPE may not function identically to native RPE after seeding on aged or AMD BM.