Magnetite nanoparticles of Fe3O4 were found to assemble into monodisperse hollow Fe3O4 microspheres with tunable diameters ranging from 200 to 400 nm and open pores on the shells in ethylene glycol in the presence of dodecylamine (DDA). The oriented assembly of nanoparticles conferred the individual hollow Fe3O4 microspheres a remarkable feature of single crystals. The morphologies of the products could be easily manipulated by varying the synthesis parameters. Increasing the concentration of DDA led to an obvious shape evolution of the products from rhombic nanoparticles to hollow microspheres, solid microspheres, and finally irregular nanoparticles, which were mainly attributed to the special self-assembly phenomenon of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the solvothermal process.

No abstract

The stability issue is still one of the main limitations of the commercialization of perovskite photovoltaics. The mixed cation FAxCs1−xPbI3 has shown great promise owing to its improved thermal and moisture stability. However, the study of FAxCs1−xPbI3 is concentrated on formamidine (FA)‐rich perovskite, whereas cesium (Cs)‐rich FAxCs1−xPbI3 perovskites are barely studied due to the inevitable phase separation when Cs > 30 mol%. Here, a Cs4PbI6‐mediated method is developed to synthesize Cs‐rich FAxCs1−xPbI3 perovskites. It is demonstrated that Cs4PbI6 intermediate phase has a low Cs cation diffusion barrier and therefore offers a fast ion exchange with the preformed FA‐rich perovskite phase to finally form the Cs‐rich FAxCs1−xPbI3 perovskite. The results indicate that ≈15% alloying with organic FA cations can sufficiently stabilize the perovskite phase with excellent phase and UV‐irradiation stability. The FA0.15Cs0.85PbI3 perovskite solar cells achieve a champion power conversion efficiency of 17.5%, showing the great potential of Cs‐based perovskites for efficient and stable solar cells.

No abstract

In solution-processed organic-inorganic halide perovskite films, halide-anion related defects including halide vacancies and interstitial defects can easily form at the surfaces and grain boundaries. The uncoordinated lead cations produce defect levels within the band gap, and the excess iodides disturb the interfacial carrier transport. Thus these defects lead to severe nonradiative recombination, hysteresis, and large energy loss in the device. Herein, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was introduced to passivate the uncoordinated lead cations in the perovskite films. The coordinating ability of cyano group was found to be stronger than that of the normally used carbonyl groups, and the strong coordination could reduce the I/Pb ratio at the film surface. With the PAN perovskite film, the device efficiency improved from 21.58 % to 23.71 % and the open-circuit voltage from 1.12 V to 1.23 V, the ion migration activation energy increased, and operational stability improved.

Accurate and repeated forest inventory data are critical to understand forest ecosystem processes and manage forest resources. In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne light detection and ranging (lidar) systems have demonstrated effectiveness at deriving forest inventory attributes. However, their high cost has largely prevented them from being used in large-scale forest applications. Here, we developed a very low-cost UAV lidar system that integrates a recently emerged DJI Livox MID40 laser scanner (~$600 USD) and evaluated its capability in estimating both individual tree-level (i.e., tree height) and plot-level forest inventory attributes (i.e., canopy cover, gap fraction, and leaf area index (LAI)). Moreover, a comprehensive comparison was conducted between the developed DJI Livox system and four other UAV lidar systems equipped with high-end laser scanners (i.e., RIEGL VUX-1 UAV, RIEGL miniVUX-1 UAV, HESAI Pandar40, and Velodyne Puck LITE). Using these instruments, we surveyed a coniferous forest site and a broadleaved forest site, with tree densities ranging from 500 trees/ha to 3000 trees/ha, with 52 UAV flights at different flying height and speed combinations. The developed DJI Livox MID40 system effectively captured the upper canopy structure and terrain surface information at both forest sites. The estimated individual tree height was highly correlated with field measurements (coniferous site: R2 = 0.96, root mean squared error/RMSE = 0.59 m; broadleaved site: R2 = 0.70, RMSE = 1.63 m). The plot-level estimates of canopy cover, gap fraction, and LAI corresponded well with those derived from the high-end RIEGL VUX-1 UAV system but tended to have systematic biases in areas with medium to high canopy densities. Overall, the DJI Livox MID40 system performed comparably to the RIEGL miniVUX-1 UAV, HESAI Pandar40, and Velodyne Puck LITE systems in the coniferous site and to the Velodyne Puck LITE system in the broadleaved forest. Despite its apparent weaknesses of limited sensitivity to low-intensity returns and narrow field of view, we believe that the very low-cost system developed by this study can largely broaden the potential use of UAV lidar in forest inventory applications. This study also provides guidance for the selection of the appropriate UAV lidar system and flight specifications for forest research and management.

The spontaneously formed uncoordinated Pb 2 + defects usually make the perovskite films demonstrate strong n-type with relatively lower carrier diffusion length and serious non-radiative recombination energy loss. In this work, we adopt different polymerization strategies to construct three-dimensional passivation frameworks in the perovskite layer. Thanks to the strong C�N•••Pb coordination bonding and the penetrating passivation structure, the defect state density is obviously reduced, accompanied by a significant increase in the carrier diffusion length. Additionally, the reduction of iodine vacancies also changed the Fermi level of the perovskite layer from strong n-type to weak n-type, which substantially promotes the energy level alignment and carrier injection efficiency. As a result, the optimized device achieved an efficiency exceeded 24 % (the certified efficiency is 24.16 %) with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.194 V, and the corresponding module achieved an efficiency of 21.55 %.

Solvents employed for perovskite film fabrication not only play important roles in dissolving the precursors but also participate in crystallization process. High boiling point aprotic solvents with O-donor ligands have been extensively studied, but the formation of a highly uniform halide perovskite film still requires the participation of additives or an additional step to accelerate the nucleation rate. The volatile aliphatic methylamine with both coordinating ligands and hydrogen protons as solvent or post-healing gas facilitates the process of methylamine-based perovskite films with high crystallinity, few defects, and easy large-scale fabrication as well. However, the attempt in formamidinium-containing perovskites is challenged heretofore. Here, we reveal that the degradation of formamidinium-containing perovskites in aliphatic amines environment results from the transimination reaction of formamidinium cation and aliphatic amines along with the formation of ammonia. Based on this mechanism, ammonia is selected as a post-healing gas for a highly uniform, compact formamidinium-based perovskite films. In particular, low temperature is proved to be crucial to enable formamidinium-based perovskite materials to absorb enough ammonia molecules and form a liquid intermediate state which is the key to eliminating voids in raw films. As a result, the champion perovskite solar cell based on ammonia post-healing achieves a power conversion efficiency of 23.21% with excellent reproducibility. Especially the module power conversion efficiency with 14 cm2 active area is over 20%. This ammonia post-healing treatment potentially makes it easier to upscale fabrication of highly efficient formamidinium-based devices.