Carrier‐selective contact‐based silicon heterojunction solar cells are fabricated using nickel oxide (NiOx) as a hole‐selective layer by thermal evaporation. The highest power conversion efficiency of ≈15.20% with a chemically grown SiOx interlayer is achieved from a Ag/ITO/NiOx/n‐Si/LiFx/Al cell structure in comparison with ≈12.43% without SiOx. The cells without and with the SiOx layer are analyzed by considering crucial parameters for conversion efficiency, such as minority carriers' diffusion lengths, lifetimes, recombination resistance, and density of interface defect states at the NiOx/n‐Si junction, by studying the dark/light current density–voltage, quantum efficiency, impedance, and parallel conductance characteristics. Device analysis provides evidence for the cell's open‐circuit voltage and short‐circuit current enhancement with the SiOx interlayer. This is due to an improvement in minority carrier lifetimes from ≈8.6 to ≈48.27 μs (photo‐conductance decay analysis), which is also estimated from ≈7.45 to ≈49.20 μs by impedance spectra analysis, increased minority carrier diffusion length from ≈171 to ≈952 μm, and decreased rear surface recombination velocity from ≈1106 to ≈170 cm s−1 (quantum efficiency analysis). These investigations reveal that engineering the n‐Si/LiFx interface by the SiOx interlayer is more important than the NiOx/n‐Si interface because of a thin unintentionally grown SiOx layer during NiOx evaporation simultaneously mediating silicon surface passivation.
Microbial burden associated with medical devices poses serious health challenges and is accountable for an increased number of deaths leading to enormous medical costs. Catheter‐associated urinary tract infections are the most common hospital‐acquired infections with enhanced patient morbidity. Quite often, catheter‐associated bacteriuria produces apparent adverse outcomes such as urosepsis and even death. Taking this into account, the methods to modify urinary catheters to control microbial infections with relevance to clinical drug resistance are systematically evaluated in this review. Technologies to restrict biofilm formation at initial stages by using functional nanomaterials are elucidated. The conventional methodology of using single therapeutic intervention for developing an antimicrobial catheter lacks clinically meaningful benefit. Therefore, catheter modification using naturally derived antimicrobials such as essential oils, curcumin, enzymes, and antimicrobial peptides in combination with synthetic antibiotics/nanoantibiotics is likely to exert sufficient inhibitory effect on uropathogens and is extensively discussed. Futuristic efforts in this area are projected here that demand clinical studies to address areas of uncertainty to avoid development of bacterial resistance to the new generation therapy with minimum discomfort to the patients.
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