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While extensive research has driven the rapid efficiency trajectory noted to date for organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PSCs), their thermal stability remains one of the key issues hindering their commercialization. Herein, a significant reduction in surface defects (a precursor to perovskite instability) could be attained by introducing triphenylphosphine (TPP), an effective Lewis base passivator, to the vulnerable perovskite/ spiro-OMeTAD interface. Not only did TPP passivation enable a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.22 % to be achieved, these devices also exhibited superior ambient and thermal stability. Unlike the pristine device, which exhibited a sharp descend to 16 % of its initial PCE on storing in relative humidity of 10 %, at 85 °C for more than 720 h, the TPPpassivated devices retained 71 % of its initial PCE. Hence, this study presents a facile yet excellent approach to attain highperforming yet thermally stable PSCs.

Due to their unique physicochemical characteristics, palladium nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) have shown tremendous promise in biological applications. The biosynthesis of Pd-NPs employing Saudi propolis has been designed to be environmental, fast, controlled, and cost-effective. The formation and stability of biosynthesized Pd-NPs by Saudi propolis extract were proved by ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Zeta potential analysis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) findings show that the average particle size of Pd-NPs is between 3.14 and 4.62 nm, which is in quantum scale. The Saudi propolis enhanced the antimicrobial activity against B. subtilis, S. aureus, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and C. albicans. Pd-NPs show effective anticancer activity against ductal carcinoma (MCF-7) with IC50 of 104.79 µg/mL.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted wide attention due to their capacity to achieve high‐power conversion efficiencies. However, the high trap‐assisted recombination taking place in the active layer leads to performance loss in PSCs. In particular, the excessive recombination at the interface between the perovskite active layer and the carrier selective contacts can be especially problematic. Therefore, the identification of the dominant recombination pathways in a given PSC architecture is of significant importance for the mitigation of losses and enhancement of device performance. Here, we introduce an approach for identifying the dominant recombination pathways in PSCs by applying illumination‐side‐dependent impedance spectroscopy (ISD‐IS) measurements on the devices with a semi‐transparent top electrode. We validate this technique using coupled ionic‐electronic numerical simulations and apply it experimentally on a standard PSC structure. Overall, this approach could be of significant importance for pinpointing the performance bottlenecks in PSC devices under operationally relevant conditions and providing a more detailed picture of the losses in a complete PSC device by examining its behaviors under illumination from both sides at different operation conditions, which could allow for a more targeted optimization strategy of PSCs to improve their performance.

n-Doping of poly(naphthalenediimide-bithiophene) was demonstrated using benzyl viologen radical cation.

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A classification algorithm is applied to UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) system to estimate the indoor position of a passive tag utilizing a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). Passive tag signals are collected by conventional UHF RFID reader antenna located at two different positions. K-NN and curve fitting are used for distance estimation and examined at different frequencies within the range 902-928 MHz to find suitable frequencies which can minimize the average error. In the proposed method, the measured RSSI values are compared with the fingerprint database in different frequencies to find the nearest neighbor. The best accuracy achieved at frequency range 926-928 MHz is 18.3 cm. The monitoring system is composed of a reader and tags under test, which makes the proposed system robust, easy to set up, and with low cost. The limitation of the proposed method is also discussed.