Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a bast-fiber crop well-known for the great potential to produce sustainable fibers. Nevertheless, hemp fiber quality is a complex trait, and little is known about the phenotypic variability and heritability of fiber quality traits in hemp. The aim of this study is to gain insights into the variability in fiber quality within the hemp germplasm and to estimate the genetic components, environmental components, and genotype-by-environment (G×E) interactions on fiber quality traits in hemp. To investigate these parameters, a panel of 123 hemp accessions was phenotyped for 28 traits relevant to fiber quality at three locations in Europe, corresponding to climates of northern, central, and southern Europe. In general, hemp cultivated in northern latitudes showed a larger plant vigor while earlier flowering was characteristic of plants cultivated in southern latitudes. Extensive variability between accessions was observed for all traits. Most cell wall components (contents of monosaccharides derived from cellulose and hemicellulose; and lignin content), bast fiber content, and flowering traits revealed large genetic components with low G×E interactions and high broad-sense heritability values, making these traits suitable to maximize the genetic gains of fiber quality. In contrast, contents of pectin-related monosaccharides, most agronomic traits, and several fiber traits (fineness and decortication efficiency) showed low genetic components with large G×E interactions affecting the rankings across locations. These results suggest that pectin, agronomic traits, and fiber traits are unsuitable targets in breeding programs of hemp, as their large G×E interactions might lead to unexpected phenotypes in untested locations. Furthermore, all environmental effects on the 28 traits were statistically significant, suggesting a strong adaptive behavior of fiber quality in hemp to specific environments. The high variability in fiber quality observed in the hemp panel, the broad range in heritability, and adaptability among all traits prescribe positive prospects for the development of new hemp cultivars of excellent fiber quality.

Metal phosphorous tri-chalcogenides are a category of new ternary 2D layered materials with a wide range of tuneable bandgaps (1.2-3.5 eV). These wide-bandgap semiconductors exhibit great potential applications in solar-blind ultraviolet (SBUV) photodetection. However, these 2D solarblind photodetectors suffer from low photoresponsivity, slow photoresponse speed, and narrow operation spectral region, thereby limiting their practical applications. Here, an ultra-broadband photodetection based on a FePSe 3 / MoS 2 heterostructure with coverage ranging from solar-blind ultraviolet 265 nm to longwave infrared (LWIR) 10.6 µm is reported. Notably, the device exhibits excellent weak light detection capability. A high photoresponsivity of 33 600 A W −1 and an external quantum efficiency of 1.57 × 10 7 % are demonstrated. A noise-equivalent power as low as 5.7 × 10 -16 W Hz −1/2 and a specific detectivity up to 1.51 × 10 13 cm Hz 1/2 W −1 are realized in the SBUV region. The room temperature LWIR photoresponsivity of 0.12 A W −1 is realized. This work opens a route to design high-performance SBUV photo detectors and wide spectral photoresponse applications.

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In this work, we propose a sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) composite proton-conductive membrane based on a 3-(1-hydro-imidazolium-3-yl)-propane-1-sulfonate (Him-pS) additive to break through the trade-off between conductivity and selectivity of a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). Specifically, Him-pS enables an oriented distribution of the SPEEK matrix to construct highly conductive proton nanochannels throughout the membrane arising from the noncovalent interaction. Moreover, the “acid–base pair” effect from an imidazolium group and a sulfonic group further facilitates the proton transport through the nanochannels. Meanwhile, the structure of the acid–base pair is further confirmed based on density functional theory calculations. Material and electrochemical characterizations indicate that the nanochannels with a size of 16.5 nm are vertically distributed across the membrane, which not only accelerate proton conductivity (31.54 mS cm–1) but also enhance the vanadium-ion selectivity (39.9 × 103 S min cm–3). Benefiting from such oriented proton-conductive nanochannels in the membrane, the cell delivers an excellent Coulombic efficiency (CE, ≈ 98.8%) and energy efficiency (EE, ≈ 78.5%) at 300 mA cm–2. More significantly, the cell maintains a stable energy efficiency over 600 charge–discharge cycles with only a 5.18% decay. Accordingly, this work provides a promising fabrication strategy for a high-performance membrane of VRFB.