Probing the Effect of Photovoltaic Material on Voc in Ternary Polymer Solar Cells with Non-Fullerene Acceptors by Machine Learning.

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs) with non-fullerene has a phenomenal increase in recent years. However, improving the open circuit voltage (Voc) of ternary PSCs with non-fullerene still remains a challenge. Therefore, in this work, machine learning (ML) algorithms are employed, including eXtreme gradient boosting, K-nearest neighbor and random forest, to quantitatively analyze the impact mechanism of Voc in ternary PSCs with the double acceptors from the two aspects of photovoltaic materials. In one aspect of photovoltaic materials, the doping concentration has the greatest impact on Voc in ternary PSCs. Furthermore, the addition of the third component affects the energy offset between the donor and acceptor for increasing Voc in ternary PSCs. More importantly, to obtain the maximum Voc in ternary PSCs with the double acceptors, the HOMO and LUMO energy levels of the third component should be around (-5.7 ± 0.1) eV and (-3.6 ± 0.1) eV, respectively. In the other aspect of molecular descriptors and molecular fingerprints in the third component of ternary PSCs with the double acceptors, the hydrogen bond strength and aromatic ring structure of the third component have high impact on the Voc of ternary PSCs. In partial dependence plot, it is clear that when the number of methyl groups is four and the number of carbonyl groups is two in the third component of acceptor, the Voc of ternary PSCs with the double acceptors can be maximized. All of these findings provide valuable insights into the development of materials with high Voc in ternary PSCs for saving time and cost.

Protective effects of sulforaphane and aerobic exercise on acute alcoholic hepatic injury in mice.

OBJECTIVE: The paper intends to study the protective effects of sulforaphane (SF) on acute alcoholic hepatic injury in mice by intragastric administration of SF, aerobic exercise and the approach of SF integrated with aerobic exercise. METHODOLOGY: 60 NIH mice were randomly divided into 6 groups of equal number according to their body weight and were intragastrically administrated with 50% ethanol. The serum and liver indexes of each group of mice were detected, and the liver was stained with oil red O for pathological examination. RESULTS: Compared with the model group, the serum TG and the ratio of liver to body weight of the model mice that suffered from acute alcoholic hepatic injury could be significantly decreased in the group that practiced aerobic exercise, the group administered with SF, and the group treated with the approach of SF integrated with aerobic exercise (P < 0.05). The contents of TG and MDA in liver could be significantly decreased (P < 0.05) and SOD activity could be significantly increased (P < 0.05) both in the group administered with SF and the group treated with the approach of SF integrated with aerobic exercise. Serum VLDL (P < 0.05) could also be significantly reduced in the group treated with the approach of SF integrated with aerobic exercise. CONCLUSION: Both SF and aerobic exercise could alleviate alcohol-induced acute alcoholic hepatic injury in mice possibly thanks to the working mechanism related to antioxidant stress that reduced the harm posed by alcohol on hepatic cells. In addition, the protective effect of SF on acute alcoholic hepatic injury in mice was stronger than that of aerobic exercise, while the approach of SF integrated with aerobic exercise had the strongest protective effect on acute alcoholic hepatic injury in mice.

Aequorivita lutea sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from the estuarine sediment of the Pearl River in China, and transfer of Vitellibacter todarodis and Vitellibacter aquimaris to the genus Aequorivita as Aequorivita todarodis comb. nov. and Aequorivita aquimaris comb. nov.

A Gram-negative, aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile by gliding bacterium was isolated from the estuarine sediment of the Pearl River in PR China and designated as strain q18T. Colonies were circular, smooth and yellow on marine agar after 48 h cultivation. Salinity, temperature and pH for optimal growth were 5 % (NaCl), 30 °C and 7, respectively. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of the strain q18T showed the highest similarity of 97.3 % to the type strain of Aequorivita echinoideorum CC-CZW007T. 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis indicated that strain q18T grouped into the genus Aequorivita in the family Flavobacteriaceae of the phylum Bacteroidetes, and was distinct from all known species in the genus. Menaquinone (MK-6) was the main respiratory quinone detected in strain q18T. The major fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C17 : 0 3-OH. The polar lipids of strain q18T mainly comprised phosphatidylethanolamine, two unidentified aminolipids, two unidentified phospholipids and one unidentified polar lipid. The G+C content of the genome was ~42.8 mol%. The draft genome size of strain q18T was 3.3 Mbp. The average nucleotide identity values were around 79.0 % between strain q18T and reference Aequorivita strains. Based on the polyphasic analysis, strain q18T was confirmed to represent a novel species of the genus Aequorivita, for which the name Aequorivita lutea sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is q18T (=CICC 24821T=KCTC 72764 T). Further, based on the results of phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic analyses, two species previously classified into the genus Vitellibacter, Vitellibacter todarodis Kim et al. 2018 and Vitellibacter aquimaris Thevarajoo et al. 2016, are transferred to the genus Aequorivita as Aequorivita todarodis comb. nov. and Aequorivita aquimaris comb. nov. respectively.

3D graphene foams cross-linked with pre-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanospheres for enhanced lithium storage.

Electrostatic assembly between Fe3O4 nanospheres and graphene oxide, and subsequent hydrothermal assembly with additional graphene sheets, leads to Fe3O4 nanospheres encapsulated in the graphene shells and interconnected by the graphene networks. Such 3D Fe3O4 /graphene foams exhibit enhanced lithium storage with excellent cycling performance and rate capability.

Poly(9,9'-diheylfluorene carbazole) functionalized with reduced graphene oxide: convenient synthesis using nitrogen-based nucleophiles and potential applications in optical limiting.

Covalently functionalized reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheet was prepared by treating nitrogen-centered anions generated from poly(9,9'-diheylfluorene carbazole) (PCF) with GO. The resultant hybrids with different chemical behavior were separated by centrifugation. The covalent modification was fully characterized by IR spectroscopy, UV/Vis spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman spectroscopy, TEM, and SEM. It was found that RGO-PCF-s, the soluble part, was split into small platelets with a size of about 200 nm, and the hydrophobic polymer PCF became hydrophilic after wrapping by RGO. The content of RGO in RGO-PCF-s was about 11.9%, and the hybrid material showed good dispersion stability in water. Besides, RGO-PCF-i, the insoluble part, with larger size, displayed excellent optical-limiting response, in which both nonlinear absorption and nonlinear scattering play important roles. As nitrogen-centered anions are an important type of intermediates in chemistry, this one-step "grafting-to" strategy could be used to obtain RGO-based materials with different applications.

Epitaxial crystallization of poly(3-hexylthiophene) on a highly oriented polyethylene thin film from solution.

Crystallization of P3HT on highly oriented PE ultrathin films via solution-deposition has been studied by means of optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and electron diffraction. The results clearly indicated the occurrence of heteroepitaxy of P3HT on the PE substrate, which results in a parallel alignment of P3HT on the PE substrate. FTIR spectra and electron diffraction analyses demonstrate that molecular chains of P3HT are oriented in the film plane and aligned parallel to the chain direction of PE substrate crystals, while the (100) lattice plane of P3HT is in contact with the PE substrate. The observed epitaxy can be explained in terms of an excellent one-dimensional lattice matching between the interchain distances of PE in the (110) lattice plane and P3HT in the (100) lattice plane. This kind of epitaxial crystallization provides an efficient way for fabricating large area P3HT films with unique oriented structures.