Hole‐transporting materials (HTMs) play a significant role in hole transport and extraction for perovskite solar cells (PeSCs). As an important type of HTMs, the spiro‐architecture‐based material is ...widely used as small organic HTM in PeSCs with good photovoltaic performances. The skeletal modification of spiro‐based HTMs is a critical way of modifying energy level and hole mobility. Thus, many spiro alternatives are developed to optimize the spiro‐type HTMs. Herein, a novel carbazole‐based single‐spiro‐HTM named SCZF‐5 is designed and prepared for efficient PeSCs. In addition, another single‐spiro HTM SAF‐5 with reported 10‐phenyl‐10H‐spiroacridine‐9,9′‐fluorene (SAF) core is also synthesized for comparison. Through varying from SAF core to SCZF core as well as comparing with the classic 9,9′‐spiro‐bifluorene, it is found that the new HTM SCZF‐5 exhibits more impressive power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.10% than SAF‐5 (13.93%) and the commercial HTM spiro‐OMeTAD (19.11%). On the other hand, the SCZF‐5‐based device also has better durability in lifetime testing, indicating the newly designed SCZF by integrating carbazole into the spiro concept has good potential for developing effective HTMs.
Two novel spiro‐type hole‐transporting materials (HTMs) SCZF‐5 and SAF‐5 are designed based on different spiro‐cores, SZCF and SAF, respectively, and are applied in the perovskite solar cells. An impressive power conversion efficiency of 20.10% is achieved in the SCZF‐5‐based device, which is obviously higher than that of commercial HTM spiro‐OMeTAD (19.11%) and SAF‐5 (13.93%).
A reversible CO2-responsive luminescent material was constructed by a facile hydrogen-bond self-assembly of a two-component ionic crystal. The modification of CO2 on the ionic crystal not only ...alternates the green afterglow, but also endows the material with inverse excitation wavelength dependence for multicolor emission.
High yield is the primary objective of maize breeding. Genomic dissection of grain yield and yield-related traits contribute to understanding the yield formation and improving the yield of maize. In ...this study, two genome-wide association study (GWAS) methods and genomic prediction were made on an association panel of 309 inbred lines. GWAS analyses revealed 22 significant trait–marker associations for grain yield per plant (GYP) and yield-related traits. Genomic prediction analyses showed that reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) outperformed the other four models based on GWAS-derived markers for GYP, ear weight, kernel number per ear and row, ear length, and ear diameter, whereas genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) showed a slight superiority over other modes in most subsets of the trait-associated marker (TAM) for thousand kernel weight and kernel row number. The prediction accuracy could be improved when significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms were fitted as the fixed effects. Integrating information on population structure into the fixed model did not improve the prediction performance. For GYP, the prediction accuracy of TAMs derived from fixed and random model Circulating Probability Unification (FarmCPU) was comparable to that of the compressed mixed linear model (CMLM). For yield-related traits, CMLM-derived markers provided better accuracies than FarmCPU-derived markers in most scenarios. Compared with all markers, TAMs could effectively improve the prediction accuracies for GYP and yield-related traits. For eight traits, moderate- and high-prediction accuracies were achieved using TAMs. Taken together, genomic prediction incorporating prior information detected by GWAS could be a promising strategy to improve the grain yield of maize.
Color-tunable room temperature phosphorescent (RTP) materials have raised wide interest due to their potential application in the fields of encryption and anti-counterfeiting. Herein, a series of CdX
...2
-organic hybrid perovskitoids, (H-apim)CdX
3
and (apim)CdX
2
(denoted as
CdX-apim1
and
CdX-apim2
, apim = 1-(3-aminopropyl)imidazole, X = Cl, Br), were synthesized using apim with both rigid and flexible groups as ligands, which exhibit naked-eye detectable RTP with different durations and colors (from cyan to red) by virtue of different halogen atoms, coordination modes and the coplanar configuration of flexible groups. Interestingly,
CdCl-apim1
and
CdX-apim2
both exhibit excitation wavelength-dependent RTP properties, which can be attributed to the multiple excitation of imidazole/apim, the diverse interactions with halogen atoms, and aggregated state of imidazoles. Structural analysis and theoretical calculations confirm that the aminopropyl groups in
CdCl-apim1
do not participate in luminescence, while those in
CdCl-apim2
are involved in luminescence including both metal/halogen to ligand charge transfer and twisted intramolecular charge transfer. Furthermore, we demonstrate that these perovskitoids can be applied in multi-step anti-counterfeiting, information encryption and smart ink fields. This work not only develops a new type of perovskitoid with full-color persistent luminescence, but also provides new insight into the effect of flexible ligands and halogen engineering on the wide-range modulation of RTP properties.
A new series of perovskitoids were fabricated based on halogen engineering and a rigid and flexible ligand, and exhibit a multi-color afterglow covering nearly the whole visible region from cyan to red.
Summary Since the beginning of the 1980s, 33 emerging tick-borne agents have been identified in mainland China, including eight species of spotted fever group rickettsiae, seven species in the family ...Anaplasmataceae, six genospecies in the complex Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, 11 species of Babesia , and the virus causing severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome. In this Review we have mapped the geographical distributions of human cases of infection. 15 of the 33 emerging tick-borne agents have been reported to cause human disease, and their clinical characteristics have been described. The non-specific clinical manifestations caused by tick-borne pathogens present a major diagnostic challenge and most physicians are unfamiliar with the many tick-borne diseases that present with non-specific symptoms in the early stages of the illness. Advances in and application of modern molecular techniques should help with identification of emerging tick-borne pathogens and improve laboratory diagnosis of human infections. We expect that more novel tick-borne infections in ticks and animals will be identified and additional emerging tick-borne diseases in human beings will be discovered.
An ultrasensitive nanosensor based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between biocompatible graphene quantum dots and carbon nanotubes for DNA detection was reported. We take advantage ...of good biocompatibility and strong fluorescence of graphene quantum dots, base pairing specificity of DNA and unique fluorescence resonance energy transfer between graphene quantum dots and carbon nanotubes to achieve the analysis of low concentrations of DNA. Graphene quantum dots with high quantum yield up to 0.20 were prepared and served as the fluorophore of DNA probe. FRET process between graphene quantum dots-labeled probe and oxidized carbon nanotubes is easily achieved due to their efficient self-assembly through specific π–π interaction. This nanosensor can distinguish complementary and mismatched nucleic acid sequences with high sensitivity and good reproducibility. The detection method based on this nanosensor possesses a broad linear span of up to 133.0nM and ultralow detection limit of 0.4nM. The constructed nanosensor is expected to be highly biocompatible because of all its components with excellent biocompatibility.
•Specific fluorescence “on-off-on” process between GQDs-probe and CNTs is achieved.•FRET between GQDs and CNTs was employed to achieve quantitative analysis of DNA.•The nanosensor can identify DNA sequence with high sensitivity and selectivity.•The nanosensor shows excellent performance in trace analysis of DNA.•All the materials involved in the sensing system are of excellent biocompatibility.
The dynamics, duration, and nature of immunity produced during SARS-CoV-2 infection are still unclear. Here, we longitudinally measured virus-neutralising antibody, specific antibodies against the ...spike (S) protein, receptor-binding domain (RBD), and the nucleoprotein (N) of SARS-CoV-2, as well as T cell responses, in 25 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients up to 121 days post-symptom onset (PSO). All patients seroconvert for IgG against N, S, or RBD, as well as IgM against RBD, and produce neutralising antibodies (NAb) by 14 days PSO, with the peak levels attained by 15-30 days PSO. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and NAb remain detectable and relatively stable 3-4 months PSO, whereas IgM antibody rapidly decay. Approximately 65% of patients have detectable SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4
or CD8
T cell responses 3-4 months PSO. Our results thus provide critical evidence that IgG, NAb, and T cell responses persist in the majority of patients for at least 3-4 months after infection.
In systems with early stage sex-chromosome evolution, climate gradients can largely explain changes in the sex-determining systems (i.e., genetic or environmental factors). However, in the common ...frog Rana temporaria, Phillips et al. found that phylogeography, rather than elevation (used as a proxy for climate), was associated with homomorphic sex-chromosome differentiation levels.