The fabrication of ultrasmall nanogaps (sub‐1 nm) with high density is of significant interest and importance in physics, chemistry, life science, materials science, surface science, nanotechnology, and environmental engineering. However, it remains a challenge to generate uncovered and clean sub‐1‐nm gaps with high density and uniform reproducibility. Here, a facile and low‐cost approach is demonstrated for the fabrication of high‐density sub‐1‐nm gaps from Au nanoparticle monolayers as reproducible surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. Au nanoparticles with larger diameters possess lower surface charge, thus the obtained large‐area nanoparticle monolayer generates a high‐density of sub‐1‐nm gaps. In addition, a remarkable SERS performance with a 1011 magnitude for the Raman enhancement is achieved for 120 nm Au nanoparticle monolayers due to the dramatic increase in the electromagnetic field enhancement when the obtained gap is smaller than 0.5 nm. The Au nanoparticle monolayer is also transferred onto a stretchable PDMS substrate and the structural stability and reproducibility of the high‐density sub‐1‐nm gaps in Au monolayer films are illustrated. The resultant Au nanoparticle monolayer substrates with an increasing particle diameter exhibit tunable plasmonic properties, which control the plasmon‐enhanced photocatalytic efficiency for the dimerization of p‐aminothiophenol. The findings reported here offer a new opportunity for expanding the SERS application.

A silver-based organic salt, silver bis(trifluoromethane-sulfonyl)imide (AgTFSI), was employed as an effective p-type dopant for the triarylamine-based organic hole-transport material Spiro-MeOTAD, which has been successfully applied in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of AgTFSI-doped devices improved by 20%, as compared to the device based on the commonly used oxygen doping both for ssDSCs and PSCs. Moreover, the solid-state dye-sensitized devices exposed to AgTFSI as dopant showed considerably better stability than those of oxygen doped, qualifying this p-type dopant as a promising alterative for the preparation of highly efficient as well as stable ssDSCs and PSCs for the future.

Naval ships as well as aerospace power systems are incorporating a greater degree of power electronic switching sources and loads. Although these components provide exceptional performance, they are prone to instability due to their high efficiency and constant power characteristics that can exhibit negative impedance nature at certain frequencies. When designing these systems, integrators must consider the impedance versus frequency at an interface (which designates source and load). Stability criteria have been developed in terms of source and load impedances for both dc and ac systems, and it is often helpful to have techniques for impedance measurement. For dc systems, the measurement techniques have been well established. This paper introduces a new method of impedance measurement for three-phase ac systems. By injecting an unbalanced line-to-line current between two lines of the ac system, all impedance information in the traditional synchronous reference frame d−q model can be determined. For medium-voltage systems, the proposed technique is simpler and less costly than having an injection circuit for each phase. Since the current injection is between only two phase lines, the proposed measurement device can be used for both ac and dc interfaces. Simulation and laboratory measurements demonstrate the effectiveness of this new technique.Index Terms-Impedance measurement, power conversion, power system stability, power system testing.

Two novel Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor (A-D-A) structured small molecular (SM-) materials POZ2 and POZ3 using an electron-rich phenoxazine (POZ) unit as a core building block were designed and synthesized. Their unique characteristics, such as suitable energy levels, strong optical absorption in the visible region, high hole mobility, and high conductivity, prompted us to use them both as p-type donor materials (DMs) in SM-bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ OSCs) and as hole transport materials (HTMs) in CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 -based perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The POZ2based devices yielded promising power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 7.44% and 12.8% in BHJ OSCs and PSCs, respectively, which were higher than the PCEs of 6.73% (BHJ-OSCs) and 11.5% (PSCs) obtained with the POZ3-based devices. Moreover, our results demonstrated that the POZ2 employing the electron-deficient benzothiazole (BTZ) as linker exhibited higher hole mobility and conductivity than that of the POZ3 using thiophene as linker, leading to better device performance both in BHJ-OSCs and PSCs. These results also provide guidance for the molecular design of high charge carrier mobility SM-materials for highly efficient BHJ OSCs and PSCs in the future.

Power loss due to parasitic resistance limits the scale‐up of nanocarbon/Si solar cells and, here, a viable approach that mitigates this problem is reported. The direct solution casting of silver nanowires (AgNWs) onto the single‐walled nanotube (SWNT)/silicon junctions leads to a significant improvement in photovoltaic properties owing to enhanced carrier transport in the bilayer AgNW/SWNT composites, implying a great potential for wafer‐scale nanocarbon/Si solar cells with relatively high efficiency.

This paper presents the fabrication of a molecularly imprinting sol-gel hybrid film by the one-step electrodeposition of the constitutional individuals including chitosan (CS), phenyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS), in situ formed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and template p-nitrophenol (p-NP). The electrodeposition was triggered by applying an optimal potential at -0.30 V vs. SCE, leading to the formation of the p-NP imprinting CS/PTMS/AuNPs hybrid film on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with a roughly architectural and conductive nature, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical impedance analysis. The mechanism of the hybrid film formation was discussed accordingly. Upon complete removal of the template molecules assisted by cyclic voltammetry, the p-NP imprinted film modified electrode exhibited differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) responses to p-NP in a linear range from 3.0 × 10(-8) to 3.5 × 10(-4) M with a detection limit of 5.0 × 10(-9) M. The selectivity and reusability of the sensor was demonstrated by discriminating the p-NP response from its analogues and successive rebinding/debinding cycles, respectively. The methodology is extendable as a simple and general platform for developing hybrid film sensors for the specific determination of various electrochemically active species.

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Thanks to the bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) feature of polymer solar cells (PSC), additional light active components can be added with ease to form ternary solar cells. This strategy has achieved great success largely due to expanded spectral response range and improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) without incurring excessive processing costs. Here, we report ternary blend polymer-polymer solar cells comprised of PTB7, P3HT, and PC 71 BM with PCE as high as 8.2%.2 Analysis from femtosecond time resolved photoluminescence and transient absorption spectroscopy confirm that P3HT is effective in transferring energy non-radiatively by inducing excitons and prolonging their overall lifetime in PTB7. Furthermore, solvent vapor annealing (SVA) treatment has been employed to improve the overly-coarse surface morphology. As a result, the fill factor and interfacial recombination has been further improved, boosting the PCE to 8.7%.