Ternary architecture is one of the most effective strategies to boost the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, an OSC with a ternary architecture featuring a highly crystalline molecular donor DRTB‐T‐C4 as a third component to the host binary system consisting of a polymer donor PM6 and a nonfullerene acceptor Y6 is reported. The third component is used to achieve enhanced and balanced charge transport, contributing to an improved fill factor (FF) of 0.813 and yielding an impressive PCE of 17.13%. The heterojunctions are designed using so‐called pinning energies to promote exciton separation and reduce recombination loss. In addition, the preferential location of DRTB‐T‐C4 at the interface between PM6 and Y6 plays an important role in optimizing the morphology of the active layer.
We report a first-principles density functional theory study on the role of grain boundary and dislocation loop in H blistering in W. At low temperature, the Σ3(111) tilt grain boundary, when combined with a vacancy of vanishing formation energy, can trap up to nine H atoms per (1×1) unit in (111) plane. This amount of H weakens the cohesion across the boundary to an extent that a cleavage along the GB is already exothermic. At high temperature, this effect can be still significant. For an infinitely large dislocation loop in (100) plane, four H can be trapped per (1×1) unit even above room temperature, incurring a decohesion strong enough to break the crystal. Our numerical results demonstrate unambiguously the grain boundaries and dislocation loops can serve as precursors of H blistering. In addition, no H 2 molecules can be formed in either environment before fracture of W bonds starts, well explaining the H blistering in the absence of voids during non-damaging irradiation.
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health threat, with over a third of the world population suffering from the disease, and 1.5 million deaths due to the disease in 2013 alone. Despite significant advances in TB detection strategies in recent years, a bigger push toward detecting TB in the shortest and easiest way possible at the point-of-care (POC) is still in demand. To this end, we have designed a simple yet rapid and sensitive bioassay that detects Mtb DNA electrochemically using colloidal gold nanoparticles. This assay couples rapid isothermal amplification of target DNA that is specific to Mtb with gold nanoparticle electrochemistry on disposable screen printed carbon electrodes. The assay is capable of detecting a positive differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) response from as low as 1 CFU of Mtb bacilli DNA input material, having shown its exquisite sensitivity over a conventional gel based readout. The translation of our assay onto a portable potentiostat was also demonstrated, with promising results. We believe that our assay has significant potential for translation into broader bioassay applications or development as a POC diagnostic tool.
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