Nature-inspired functional porous materials for low-concentration biomarker detection.

Nanostructuration is a promising tool for enhancing the performance of sensors based on electrochemical transduction. Nanostructured materials allow for increasing the surface area of the electrode and improving the limit of detection (LOD). In this regard, inverse opals possess ideal features to be used as substrates for developing sensors, thanks to their homogeneous, interconnected pore structure and the possibility to functionalize their surface. However, overcoming the insulating nature of conventional silica inverse opals fabricated via sol-gel processes is a key challenge for their application as electrode materials. In this work, colloidal assembly, atomic layer deposition and selective surface functionalization are combined to design conductive inverse opals as an electrode material for novel glucose sensing platforms. An insulating inverse opal scaffold is coated with uniform layers of conducting aluminum zinc oxide and platinum, and subsequently functionalized with glucose oxidase embedded in a polypyrrole layer. The final device can sense glucose at concentrations in the nanomolar range and is not affected by the presence of common interferents gluconolactone and pyruvate. This method may also be applied to different conductive materials and enzymes to generate a new class of highly efficient biosensors.

A Geometrically Well-Defined and Systematically Tunable Experimental Model to Transition from Planar to Mesoporous Perovskite Solar Cells.

A series of perovskite solar cells with systematically varying surface area of the interface between n-type electron conducting layer (TiO2) and perovskite are prepared by using an ordered array of straight, cylindrical nanopores generated by anodizing an aluminum layer evaporated onto a transparent conducting electrode. A series of samples with pore length varied from 100 to 500 nm are compared to each other and complemented by a classical planar cell and a mesoporous counterpart. All samples are characterized in terms of morphology, chemistry, optical properties, and performance. All samples absorb light to the same degree, and the increased interface area does not generate enhanced recombination. However, the short circuit current density increases monotonically with the specific surface area, indicating improved charge extraction efficiency. The importance of the slow interfacial rearrangement of ions associated with planar perovskite cells is shown to decrease in a systematic manner as the interfacial surface area increases. The results demonstrate that planar and mesoporous cells obey to the same physical principles and differ from each other quantitatively, not qualitatively. Additionally, the study shows that a significantly lower TiO2 surface area compared to mesoporous TiO2 is needed for an equal charge extraction.

A Self-Ordered Nanostructured Transparent Electrode of High Structural Quality and Corresponding Functional Performance.

The preparation of a highly ordered nanostructured transparent electrode based on a combination of nanosphere lithography and anodization is presented. The size of perfectly ordered pore domains is improved by an order of magnitude with respect to the state of the art. The concomitantly reduced density of defect pores increases the fraction of pores that are in good electrical contact with the underlying transparent conductive substrate. This improvement in structural quality translates directly and linearly into an improved performance of energy conversion devices built from such electrodes in a linear manner.

ZnS Ultrathin Interfacial Layers for Optimizing Carrier Management in Sb2S3-based Photovoltaics.

Antimony chalcogenides represent a family of materials of low toxicity and relative abundance, with a high potential for future sustainable solar energy conversion technology. However, solar cells based on antimony chalcogenides present open-circuit voltage losses that limit their efficiencies. These losses are attributed to several recombination mechanisms, with interfacial recombination being considered as one of the dominant processes. In this work, we exploit atomic layer deposition (ALD) to grow a series of ultrathin ZnS interfacial layers at the TiO2/Sb2S3 interface to mitigate interfacial recombination and to increase the carrier lifetime. ALD allows for very accurate control over the ZnS interlayer thickness on the ångström scale (0-1.5 nm) and to deposit highly pure Sb2S3. Our systematic study of the photovoltaic and optoelectronic properties of these devices by impedance spectroscopy and transient absorption concludes that the optimum ZnS interlayer thickness of 1.0 nm achieves the best balance between the beneficial effect of an increased recombination resistance at the interface and the deleterious barrier behavior of the wide-bandgap semiconductor ZnS. This optimization allows us to reach an overall power conversion efficiency of 5.09% in planar configuration.

Solid state interdigitated Sb2S3 based TiO2 nanotube solar cells.

TiO2 nanotubes generated by anodization of metallic titanium sputter-coated on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates are used as a conductive scaffold for all solid-state Sb2S3-sensitized extremely thin absorber (ETA) solar cells. A blocking layer of TiO2 placed between Ti and ITO in combination with optimized Ti deposition and anodization conditions enables the formation of crack-free layers of straight, cylindrical TiO2 nanotubes of tunable length and diameter. ALD (atomic layer deposition) is subsequently used to coat this substrate conformally with a highly pure Sb2S3 light absorber layer under an inert atmosphere. The high absorption coefficient of Sb2S3 as compared to molecular dyes allows for the utilization of very short nanotubes, which facilitates the infiltration of the organic hole transport material and formation of a p-i-n heterojunction in an interdigitated and tunable geometry. We investigate the influence of nanotube length and of the absorber thickness to enhance the photocurrent value to twice that of planar reference structures.

Adjusting Interfacial Chemistry and Electronic Properties of Photovoltaics Based on a Highly Pure Sb2S3 Absorber by Atomic Layer Deposition.

The combination of oxide and heavier chalcogenide layers in thin film photovoltaics suffers limitations associated with oxygen incorporation and sulfur deficiency in the chalcogenide layer or with a chemical incompatibility which results in dewetting issues and defect states at the interface. Here, we establish atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a tool to overcome these limitations. ALD allows one to obtain highly pure Sb2S3 light absorber layers, and we exploit this technique to generate an additional interfacial layer consisting of 1.5 nm ZnS. This ultrathin layer simultaneously resolves dewetting and passivates defect states at the interface. We demonstrate via transient absorption spectroscopy that interfacial electron recombination is one order of magnitude slower at the ZnS-engineered interface than hole recombination at the Sb2S3/P3HT interface. The comparison of solar cells with and without oxide incorporation in Sb2S3, with and without the ultrathin ZnS interlayer, and with systematically varied Sb2S3 thickness provides a complete picture of the physical processes at work in the devices.

Spin configuration in isolated FeCoCu nanowires modulated in diameter.

Cylindrical Fe28Co67Cu5 nanowires modulated in diameter between 22 and 35 nm are synthesized by electroplating into the nanopores of alumina membranes. High-sensitivity MFM imaging (with a detection noise of 1 µN m(-1)) reveals the presence of single-domain structures in remanence with strong contrast at the ends of the nanowires, as well as at the transition regions where the diameter is modulated. Micromagnetic simulations suggest that curling of the magnetization takes place at these transition sites, extending over 10-20 nm and giving rise to stray fields measurable with our MFM. An additional weaker contrast is imaged, which is interpreted to arise from inhomogeneities in the nanowire diameter.

Conformal Cu2S-coated Cu2O nanostructures grown by ion exchange reaction and their photoelectrochemical properties.

Cuprous oxide Cu2O is a promising p-type semiconductor for photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar hydrogen generation because it has a suitable bandgap (Eg = 2.0-2.2 eV) and a band alignment adapted to water reduction. In addition, metallic Cu is earth-abundant thus making Cu2O a low-cost material. However, the reduction potential of Cu2O into metallic Cu (0.47 V versus RHE) is lower than that of water which induces a severe instability under irradiation in a PEC cell. Therefore, our recent efforts focused on the growth of a protective overlayer on top of Cu2O in order to stabilize Cu2O when used as a photocathode in an aqueous electrolyte. Among potential protective materials cuprous sulphide Cu2S is another p-type semiconductor with a 1.2 eV bandgap and an appropriate energy level alignment with Cu2O that would allow electrons flowing to the interface. We present here an original and simple method aimed at protecting a compact layer (CL) or nanowires (NWs) of Cu2O with a Cu2S coating. Our method is based on the ions exchange reaction (IER) of O(2-) into S(2-) at the surface of Cu2O itself in a solution-containing Na2S as the sulphur source. The local surface IER implies the formation of a conformal and uniform coating independently on the starting Cu2O morphology, CLs or NWs. As expected, coating Cu2O photocathodes by a conformal Cu2S layer improves their stability and PEC performances.