The recent developments of lignin were reviewed in terms of different approaches to synthesize lignin-based copolymers, the resulting features and the potential applications of such copolymers.

New technologies rely on the development of new materials, and these may simply be the innovative combination of known components. The structural combination of a polymer hydrogel network with a nanoparticle (metals, non‐metals, metal oxides, and polymeric moieties) holds the promise of providing superior functionality to the composite material with applications in diverse fields, including catalysis, electronics, bio‐sensing, drug delivery, nano‐medicine, and environmental remediation. This mixing may result in a synergistic property enhancement of each component: for example, the mechanical strength of the hydrogel and concomitantly decrease aggregation of the nanoparticles. These mutual benefits and the associated potential applications have seen a surge of interest in the past decade from multi‐disciplinary research groups. Recent advances in nanoparticle–hydrogel composites are herein reviewed with a focus on their synthesis, design, potential applications, and the inherent challenges accompanying these exciting materials.

Electronic devices have become ubiquitous in modern society and are prevalent in every facet of human activities.

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Vitreous substitutes are crucial adjuncts during vitreo-retinal surgery for retinal diseases such as complicated retinal detachment, macular holes, complications of diabetic retinopathy, and ocular trauma involving posterior segment. In retinal detachment surgery, an internal tamponade agent is required to provide internal pressure for reattachment of the detached neurosensory retina. Current available options serve only as a temporary surgical adduct or short-term solution and are associated with inherent problems. Despite many years of intensive research, an ideal vitreous substitute remains elusive. Indeed, the development of an ideal vitreous substitute requires the concerted efforts of synthetic chemists and biomaterial engineers, as well as ophthalmic surgeons. In this review, we propose that polymeric hydrogels present the future of artificial vitreous substitutes due to its high water composition, optical transparency, and rheological properties that closely mimic the natural vitreous. In particular, thermosensitive smart hydrogels, with reversible sol to gel change, have emerged as the material class with the most potential to succeed as ideal vitreous substitutes, facilitating easy implementation during surgery. Importantly, these smart hydrogels also display potential as efficacious drug delivery systems.

In this work, efficient bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSC) in inverted configuration have been demonstrated. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.7% is reported for OSC employing silver top electrodes, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) as the hole-transport interlayer (HTL), active layer comprising of poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as well as a nanocrystalline solution-synthesized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle (NP) film as the electron-transport layer (ETL). By using solution-processable ZnO crystalline NPs as ETL, we can eliminate the typical high temperature processing/annealing step, which is widely adopted in the conventional ZnO ETL fabrication process via the sol-gel method. Such highly crystalline ZnO NP films can enhance charge collection at the electrodes. It is also found that inverted OSCs exhibit greater air stability and lifetime performance compared to the OSC employing the normal structure.

Review: 178 refs.

No abstract