In this report, a pivotal improvement in the performance of dye‐sensitized solar cells has been achieved, thus taking it one step closer toward the commercialization. Through the stepwise modification on the anthracene‐based organic sensitizers, the alteration of alkyl to alkoxy chain and incorporation of electron deficient moieties in the new sensitizing dyes TY3, TY4, and TY6 are found to play a significant role in the efficiency enhancement. The dye TY6, when tested under 1 sun (AM 1.5G) illumination, is found to exhibit the best efficiency of 8.08% in the series reported here. Taking it further, sensitizer TY6 achieves a milestone by displaying an efficiency of 28.56% when tested under T5 fluorescent illumination of 6000 lux and 20.72% under same illuminance from a commercial light emitting diode light source. Such an excellent performance can be attributed to its outstanding J
SC and V
OC, which are characteristic properties of these anthracene dyes.
Diabetic
wounds are difficult to heal due to recurrent bacterial
infection, decreased proliferation, and migration of epidermal and
endothelial cells. This is related to impaired leukocyte function
and low blood concentrations of H2S in diabetic patients.
Herein, an antibacterial polymersome-based wound dressing spray was
demonstrated for complete diabetic wound healing. The designed polymersome
was self-assembled from poly(ε-caprolactone)24-block-poly[lysine15-stat-(S-aroylthiooxime)23] [PCL24-b-P(Lys23-stat-SATO15)], where PCL is the hydrophobic membrane-forming
block and P(Lys-stat-SATO) acts as a hydrophilic
stabilizer block. The polymersomes can penetrate and kill Gram-positive
and Gram-negative bacteria because of the electrostatic interaction
induced by the antibacterial P(Lys23-stat-SATO15) block. Furthermore, the SATO segments are capable
of long-term H2S generation by reacting with cysteine (up
to 12 h). This promotes proliferation, migration of epidermal and
endothelial cells, and angiogenesis. Overall, this polymersome-based
wound dressing spray acts as a bacterial inhibitor and H2S generator and offers a fresh insight into the effective treatment
of diabetic wounds.
Ternary noble metal–semiconductor nanocomposites (NCs) with core–shell–satellite nanostructures have received widespread attention due to their outstanding performance in detecting pollutants through surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and photodegradation of organic pollutants. In this work, ternary Au@Cu2O–Ag NCs were designed and prepared by a galvanic replacement method. The effect of different amounts of Ag nanocrystals adsorbed on the surfaces of Au@Cu2O on the SERS activity was investigated based on the SERS detection of 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) reporter molecules. Based on electromagnetic field simulations and photoluminescence (PL) results, a possible SERS enhancement mechanism was proposed and discussed. Moreover, Au@Cu2O–Ag NCs served as SERS substrates, and highly sensitive SERS detection of malachite green (MG) with a detection limit as low as 10−9 M was achieved. In addition, Au@Cu2O–Ag NCs were recycled due to their superior self-cleaning ability and could catalyze the degradation of MG driven by visible light. This work demonstrates a wide range of possibilities for the integration of recyclable SERS detection and photodegradation of organic dyes and promotes the development of green testing techniques.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.