Adaptive filter method in Bendlet domain for biological slice images.

The biological cross-sectional images majorly consist of closed-loop structures, which are suitable to be represented by the second-order shearlet system with curvature (Bendlet). In this study, an adaptive filter method for preserving textures in the bendlet domain is proposed. The Bendlet system represents the original image as an image feature database based on image size and Bendlet parameters. This database can be divided into image high-frequency and low-frequency sub-bands separately. The low-frequency sub-bands adequately represent the closed-loop structure of the cross-sectional images and the high-frequency sub-bands accurately represent the detailed textural features of the images, which reflect the characteristics of Bendlet and can be effectively distinguished from the Shearlet system. The proposed method takes full advantage of this feature, then selects the appropriate thresholds based on the images' texture distribution characteristics in the database to eliminate noise. The locust slice images are taken as an example to test the proposed method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly eliminate the low-level Gaussian noise and protect the image information compared with other popular denoising algorithms. The PSNR and SSIM obtained are better than other methods. The proposed algorithm can be effectively applied to other biological cross-sectional images.

An unfused-ring acceptor with high side-chain economy enabling 11.17% as-cast organic solar cells.

Side-chain engineering on nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) is crucial for modulating their solubility and crystallinity as well as packing behaviours in active layers to pursue high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs). High weight ratios of side chains are generally used by NFAs for the desired device efficiencies. Side-chain economy has seldom been discussed despite increased cost and difficulties in synthesis when optimizing the molecular design. Herein, we introduce 7H-dibenzo[c,g]carbazole (DCB) as an electron-donating core to design unfused-ring acceptors (UFAs) with a dramatically low weight ratio of side chains. DCB-4F has thus been designed and compared with the carbazole cored analogue (CB-4F). The unique conformation of the DCB core endows DCB-4F with higher solubility (8.2 mg mL-1 in chloroform) compared to CB-4F (2.2 mg mL-1) when using the same side chains. Featuring a lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level of -3.86 eV and an optical bandgap of 1.55 eV, the DCB-4F film exhibits an absorption profile (maximum 667 nm) complementary to polymer donor PM6. The PM6:DCB-4F as-cast OSCs deliver a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.56% with a high open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.00 V. By adding 10 wt% PC71BM into the casting solutions, a greatly improved PCE of 11.17% is readily achieved, which is one of the highest PCEs for as-cast single-junction UFA-based devices. The PM6:DCB-4F based blends show homogeneous nano-fiberous morphology and higher hydrophobicity. The design of conformation-tuned NFAs using sterically hindered DCB-like cores is promising to achieve highly efficient as-cast OSCs.

A Simple Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrol-Rhodanine Molecular Third Component Enables Over 16.7% Efficiency and Stable Organic Solar Cells.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) can achieve greatly improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) by incorporating suitable additives in active layers. Their structure design often faces the challenge of operation generality for more binary blends. Herein, a simple dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole-rhodanine molecule (DR8) featuring high compatibility with polymer donor PM6 is developed as a cost-effective third component. By employing classic ITIC-like ITC6-4Cl and Y6 as model nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) in PM6-based binary blends, DR8 added PM6:ITC6-4Cl blends exhibit significantly promoted energy transfer and exciton dissociation. The PM6:ITC6-4Cl:DR8 (1:1:0.1, weight ratio) OSCs contribute an exciting PCE of 14.94% in comparison to host binary devices (13.52%), while PM6:Y6:DR8 (1:1.2:0.1) blends enable 16.73% PCE with all simultaneously improved photovoltaic parameters. To the best of the knowledge, this performance is among the best for ternary OSCs with simple small molecular third components in the literature. More importantly, DR8-added ternary OSCs exhibit much improved device stability against thermal aging and light soaking over binary ones. This work provides new insight on the design of efficient third components for OSCs.

Synergistic Interplay between Asymmetric Backbone Conformation, Molecular Aggregation, and Charge-Carrier Dynamics in Fused-Ring Electron Acceptor-Based Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells.

Asymmetric fused-ring electron acceptors (a-FREAs) have proved to be a promising type of electron acceptor for high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs). However, the relationship among molecular structures of a-FREAs and their nanoscale morphology, charge-carrier dynamics, and device performance remains unclear. In this contribution, two FREAs differing in conjugated backbone geometry with an asymmetric conformation (IPT-2F) or symmetric one (INPIC-2F) are selected to systematically explore the superiorities of the asymmetric conformation. Despite the frailer extinction coefficient and weaker crystallinity, IPT-2F shows stronger dipole interactions in the asymmetrical backbone, which would induce a closer lamellar packing than that of the symmetrical counterpart. Using PBDB-T as the electron donor, the IPT-2F-based OSCs achieve the best power conversion efficiency of 14.0%, which is ca. 67% improvement compared to the INPIC-2F-based ones (8.37%), resulting from a simultaneously increased short-circuited current density (Jsc) and fill factor. Systematical investigations on optoelectronic and morphological properties show that the asymmetric conformation-structured IPT-2F exhibits better miscibility with the polymer donor to induce a favorable blend ordering with small domain sizes and suitable phase separation compared to the INPIC-2F symmetric molecule. This facilitates an efficient charge generation and transport, inhibits charge-carrier recombination, and promotes valid charge extraction in IPT-2F-based devices.

Over 15.7% Efficiency of Ternary Organic Solar Cells by Employing Two Compatible Acceptors with Similar LUMO Levels.

Efficient organic solar cells (OSCs) are fabricated using polymer PM6 as donor, and IPTBO-4Cl and MF1 as acceptors. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of IPTBO-4Cl based and MF1 based binary OSCs individually arrive to 14.94% and 12.07%, exhibiting markedly different short circuit current density (JSC ) of 23.18 mA cm-2 versus 17.01 mA cm-2 , fill factor (FF) of 72.17% versus 78.18% and similar open circuit voltage (VOC ) of 0.893 V versus 0.908 V. The two acceptors, IPTBO-4Cl and MF1, have similar lowest unoccupied molecular orbital levels, which is beneficial for efficient electron transport in the ternary active layer. The PCE of optimized ternary OSCs arrives to 15.74% by incorporating 30 wt% MF1 in acceptors, resulting from the simultaneously increased JSC of 23.20 mA cm-2 , VOC of 0.897 V, and FF of 75.64% in comparison with IPTBO-4Cl based binary OSCs. The gradually increased FFs of ternary OSCs indicate the well-optimized phase separation and molecular arrangement with MF1 as morphology regulator. This work may provide a new viewpoint for selecting an appropriate third component to achieve efficient ternary OSCs from materials and photovoltaic parameters of two binary OSCs.

Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrol Fused Nonfullerene Acceptors Enabling Over 13% Efficiency for Organic Solar Cells.

A new electron-rich central building block, 5,5,12,12-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-indacenobis-(dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrol) (INP), and two derivative nonfullerene acceptors (INPIC and INPIC-4F) are designed and synthesized. The two molecules reveal broad (600-900 nm) and strong absorption due to the satisfactory electron-donating ability of INP. Compared with its counterpart INPIC, fluorinated nonfullerene acceptor INPIC-4F exhibits a stronger near-infrared absorption with a narrower optical bandgap of 1.39 eV, an improved crystallinity with higher electron mobility, and down-shifted highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels. Organic solar cells (OSCs) based on INPIC-4F exhibit a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.13% and a relatively low energy loss of 0.54 eV, which is among the highest efficiencies reported for binary OSCs in the literature. The results demonstrate the great potential of the new INP as an electron-donating building block for constructing high-performance nonfullerene acceptors for OSCs.

Variation of flow rate and angle of injected venous needle on influencing intimal hyperplasia at the venous anastomosis of the hemodialysis graft.

During hemodialysis, arteriovenous (AV) grafts tends to result in intimal hyperplasia (IH) at the venous anastomosis which leads to graft failure. It is well documented that hemodynamic factors have been implicated in IH, as well as pathogenesis of graft stenosis. In this paper, we investigate the flow rate and angle of injection of a venous needle on damaging the hemodialysis graft. Such damage is mainly caused by hemodynamics rather than the actual physical puncture of the needle. By computational fluid dynamic analysis of flow through the AV grafts, we demonstrate that slower flow rate of the needle preserve a larger region of low wall shear stress (WSS). High needle flow angle and fast flow rate tends to induce high shearing of blood against the graft wall, and therefore resulting in a concentrated region of high WSS. Despite that, the increased flow rate causes more significant change to wall shear stress gradient than the flow angle. Obviously, it is important to optimize the injection rate since a high angle can reduce the size of the injection puncture and have smaller injury for the vessel walls; but a slower injection rate may delay hemodialysis. Therefore, the ideal angle and flow rate of needle is sought in this study.