Boosting urea-assisted water splitting over P-MoO2@CoNiP through Mo leaching/reabsorption coupling CoNiP reconstruction.

Combining the urea oxidation reaction (UOR) with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an effective technology for energy-saving hydrogen production. Herein, a bifunctional electrocatalyst with CoNiP nanosheet coating on P-doped MoO2 nanorods (P-MoO2@CoNiP) is obtained via a two-step hydrothermal followed a phosphorization process. The catalyst demonstrates exceptional alkaline HER performance due to the formation of MoO2 and the dissolution/absorption of Mo. Meanwhile, the inclusion of Co and P in the P-MoO2@CoNiP catalyst facilitated the formation of NiOOH, enhancing UOR performance. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energy (ΔGH*) of P-MoO2@CoNiP is closer to 0 eV than CoNiP, favoring the HER. The catalyst only needs -0.08 and 1.38 V to reach 100 mA cm-2 for catalyzing the HER and UOR, respectively. The full urea electrolysis system driven by P-MoO2@CoNiP requires 1.51 V to achieve 100 mA cm-2, 120 mV lower than the traditional water electrolysis.

Sustainable thermal regulation improves stability and efficiency in all-perovskite tandem solar cells.

Mixed Sn-Pb perovskites have emerged as promising photovoltaic materials for both single- and multi-junction solar cells. However, achieving their scale-up and practical application requires further enhancement in stability. We identify that their poor thermal conductivity results in insufficient thermal transfer, leading to heat accumulation within the absorber layer that accelerates thermal degradation. A thermal regulation strategy by incorporating carboranes into perovskites is developed; these are electron-delocalized carbon-boron molecules known for their efficient heat transfer capability. We specifically select ortho-carborane due to its low thermal hysteresis. We observe its existence through the perovskite layer showing a decreasing trend from the buried interface to the top surface, effectively transferring heat and lowering the surface temperature by around 5 °C under illumination. o-CB also facilitates hole extraction at the perovskite/PEDOT:PSS interface and reduces charge recombination. These enable mixed Sn-Pb cells to exhibit improved thermal stability, retaining 80% of their initial efficiencies after aging at 85 °C for 1080 hours. When integrated into monolithic all-perovskite tandems, we achieve efficiencies of over 27%. A tandem cell maintains 87% of its initial PCE after 704 h of continuous operation under illumination.

Understanding the Role of Fluorine Groups in Passivating Defects for Perovskite Solar Cells.

Introducing fluorine (F) groups into a passivator plays an important role in enhancing the defect passivation effect for the perovskite film, which is usually attributed to the direct interaction of F and defect states. However, the interaction between electronegative F and electron-rich passivation groups in the same molecule, which may influence the passivation effect, is ignored. We herein report that such interactions can vary the electron cloud distribution around the passivation groups and thus changing their coordination with defect sites. By comparing two fluorinated molecules, heptafluorobutylamine (HFBM) and heptafluorobutyric acid (HFBA), we find that the F/-NH2 interaction in HFBM is stronger than the F/-COOH one in HFBA, inducing weaker passivation ability of HFBM than HFBA. Accordingly, HFBA-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) provide an efficiency of 24.70 % with excellent long-term stability. Moreover, the efficiency of a large-area perovskite module (14.0 cm2 ) based on HFBA reaches 21.13 %. Our work offers an insight into understanding an unaware role of the F group in impacting the passivation effect for the perovskite film.