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Stable metallic 1T-WS2 nanoribbons with zigzag chain superlattices, highly stabilized by ammonia-ion intercalation, are produced using a facile bottom-up process. The atomic structure of the nanoribbons, including W-W reconstruction and W-S distorted octahedral coordination, results in distinctive electrical transport and optical Raman scattering properties that are very different from semiconducting 2H-WS2 . The correlations between structure and properties are further confirmed by theory calculations.

Suppression of carrier recombination is critically important in realizing high-efficiency polymer solar cells. Herein, it is demonstrated difluoro-substitution of thiophene conjugated side chain on donor polymer can suppress triplet formation for reducing carrier recombination. A new medium bandgap 2D-conjugated D-A copolymer J91 is designed and synthesized with bi(alkyl-difluorothienyl)-benzodithiophene as donor unit and fluorobenzotriazole as acceptor unit, for taking the advantages of the synergistic fluorination on the backbone and thiophene side chain. J91 demonstrates enhanced absorption, low-lying highest occupied molecular orbital energy level, and higher hole mobility, in comparison with its control polymer J52 without fluorination on the thiophene side chains. The transient absorption spectra indicate that J91 can suppress the triplet formation in its blend film with n-type organic semiconductor acceptor m-ITIC (3,9-bis(2-methylene-(3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-indanone)-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(3-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2,3'-d']-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b']-dithiophene). With these favorable properties, a higher power conversion efficiency of 11.63% with high V of 0.984 V and high J of 18.03 mA cm is obtained for the polymer solar cells based on J91/m-ITIC with thermal annealing. The improved photovoltaic performance by thermal annealing is explained from the morphology change upon thermal annealing as revealed by photoinduced force microscopy. The results indicate that side chain engineering can provide a new solution to suppress carrier recombination toward high efficiency, thus deserves further attention.

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We compute the thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity of solid hcp Fe to pressures and temperatures of Earth's core. We find significant contributions from electron-electron scattering, usually neglected at high temperatures in transition metals. Our calculations show a quasilinear relation between the electrical resistivity and temperature for hcp Fe at extreme high pressures. We obtain thermal and electrical conductivities that are consistent with experiments considering reasonable error. The predicted thermal conductivity is reduced from previous estimates that neglect electron-electron scattering. Our estimated thermal conductivity for the outer core is 77±10  W m^{-1} K^{-1} and is consistent with a geodynamo driven by thermal convection.

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Considering the potential applications of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) as wearable power generators, there is an urgent need to develop photoactive layers that possess intrinsic mechanical endurance, while maintaining a high power-conversion efficiency (PCE).Herein a strategy is demonstrated to simultaneously control the intercalation behavior and nanocrystallite size in the polymer-polymer blend by using a newly developed, high-viscosity polymeric additive, poly(dimethylsiloxane-co-methyl phenethylsiloxane) (PDPS), into the TQ-F:N2200 all-PSC matrix. A mechanically robust 10wt% PDPS blend film with a great toughness was obtained. Our results provide a feasible route for producing high-performance ductile all-PSCs, which can potentially be used to realize stretchable all-PSCs as a linchpin of next-generation electronics.

In organic photovoltaic (OPV) blends, photogenerated excitons dissociate into charge-separated electrons and holes at donor/acceptor interfaces. The bimolecular recombination of spin-uncorrelated electrons and holes may cause nonradiative loss by forming the low-lying triplet excited states (T1) via the intermediate charge-transfer triplet states. Here, we show that such a spin-related loss channel can be suppressed in the OPV blends with fluorinated nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs). By combining ultrafast optical spectroscopy and triplet sensitization measurements, the T1 states at the acceptors have been observed to generate from the charge-separated electrons and holes in the OPV blends with a same polymer donor and two sets of NFAs with and without fluorination. The triplet formation is largely suppressed and the lifetime of charge carrier is markedly prolonged in the blends with fluorinated NFAs. The fluorination effect on the charge dynamics can be ascribed to the modified energy alignment between the triplet excited states of charge-transfer and locally excited characters as supported by quantum chemical computation. Our findings explain the mechanism responsible for the improved photocurrent generation in the OPV blends with fluorinated NFAs, suggesting that manipulating the energy landscape of triplet excited states is a promising strategy for further optimizing OPV devices.