We reported a facile method to transform surface energy of plain cotton and silk into different tribopolarities. A single natural textile based TENG generated the maximum output voltage of 216.8 V and output current of 50.3 uA.

This research work aims to investigate the effects of types and concentration of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) prepared from bacterial cellulose (BC) and nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) on structure properties of polyurethane (PU) composites. Feasibility of applying the polymer composite for encapsulation of dye sensitized solar cells was of interest. Both CNCs were pretreated via esterification before mixing with the polyurethane by a solution process. Tensile strength and thermal stability of the PU/esterified CNCs were found to be superior to those of the systems reinforced with untreated CNCs. With the introduction of both untreated and esterified CNCs, water vapor transmission rates through the PU composite films were lowered while their visible light transmittance values were maintained to be above 80%. Also, better efficiency and stability of the solar cell were obtained when the PU was reinforced with CNCs, indicating its longer lifetime usage. The most suitable cell, described in terms of durability, was obtained when the PU was mixed with 2 wt % of esterified CNCs obtained from BC. Overall, this study shows that the surface modification of the CNCs is an important factor, affecting the reinforcing efficacy. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45010.

BODIPY triad, BD, was prepared as co-sensitizer. The stepwise sensitization method exhibited higher PCE, compared to the co-deposition method.

The boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) triads consisting of two triphenylamine units as electron donor (D) and BODIPY core as electron acceptor (A; B3, and B4) have been synthesized using facile palladium cross‐coupling reactions to broaden the absorption of the BODIPY dyes. All dyes and intermediates were characterized by 1H NMR, 11B NMR, 13C NMR, and 19F NMR spectroscopies, UV–Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and time‐dependent density functional theory calculations. It was found that an increase in conjugation to the BODIPY core systematically extended the absorption and emission wavelength maxima. As a consequence, B4 containing the D–π–A–π–D structure, exhibited the longest absorption and emission maxima at 597 and 700 nm, respectively, with 1.8 eV in optical bandgap. The 96 nm red‐shifted absorption of B4 as compared to the unsubstituted BODIPY (B1) indicated the effective electronic communication between triphenylamine and BODIPY. This suggested that the proper alignment of triphenylamine and BODIPY triad could lead to broader absorption and suitable low energy bandgap. Furthermore, the molecular modeling has been employed to analyze the electronic and optical properties of the dyes. We found that the optical, electrochemical, and theoretical bandgaps of all dyes were in good agreement.