Ternary-/hetero-nanocrystals: a facile one-pot colloidal route for controlled synthesis of ternary AgFeS sub(2) nanocrystals, which have a band gap of 1.21 eV, is presented for the first time. Such ...ternary AgFeS sub(2) nanocrystals can transform to Ag sub(2)S-Fe sub(7)S sub(8 ) heterodimers by internal thermal reaction at elevated temperature, providing a new route to synthesize semiconductor hetero-nanostructures.
Colloidal silver nanowires become instable and tend to fragment into shortened nanorods and nanoparticles at elevated temperatures. Such morphological variations are associated with the ...transformation of crystalline structures from the body-centered tetragonal (b.c.t.) lattices into the face-centered cubic (f.c.c.) ones. The crystalline phase transformation has been probed in real time with an in situtechnique based on time-resolved high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Comprehensive analysis of the in situmeasurements provides, for the first time, the quantitative understanding of kinetics and thermodynamics involved in the fragmentation of the colloidal silver nanowires.
A study is presented on improving the absorption of the PbS colloidal quantum dot films using plasmonic scattering. Unlike previous methods that include high temperature annealing, an integrated ...circuits compatible method of introducing colloidal gold nanoparticles to PbS film during the spin deposition process is developed. The devices are composed of eight layers of PbS and gold nanoparticles are spin casted after the fourth layer that places them in the middle, sandwiched between PbS films in order to avoid electrical shorts between the fingers. Two different solutions of gold nanoparticles in citrate, 0.1% and 0.01%, are used to fabricate two different devices. Introducing 0.01% Au nanoparticles in PbS film increases the responsivity by 2.6-fold, whereas introducing 0.1% Au nanoparticles results in a 6.5-fold increase in responsivity.
Correction for 'Transient coarsening and the motility of optically heated Janus colloids in a binary liquid mixture' by Juan Ruben Gomez-Solano
et al.
,
Soft Matter
, 2020, DOI:
10.1039/d0sm00964d
.
Organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells with a planar architecture have attracted much attention due to the simple structure and easy fabrication. However, the power conversion efficiency and ...hysteresis behavior need to be improved for planar‐type devices where the electron transport layer is vital. SnO2 is a promising alternative for TiO2 as the electron transport layer owing to the high charge mobility and chemical stability, but the hysteresis issue can still remain despite the use of SnO2. Now, a facile and effective method is presented to simultaneously tune the electronic property of SnO2 and passivate the defects at the interface between the perovskite and SnO2. The perovskite solar cells with ammonium chloride induced coagulated SnO2 colloids exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 21.38 % with negligible hysteresis, compared to 18.71 % with obvious hysteresis for the reference device. The device stability can also be significantly improved.
A power conversion efficiency of 21.38 % with negligible hysteresis is obtained for planar‐type perovskite solar cells. NH4Cl‐induced coagulated SnO2 colloids were studied as the electron transport layer (ETL), and the ETL/perovskite interface is modified with a well‐matched energy band alignment and suppressed defects.
The emergence of collective motion among interacting, self-propelled agents is a central paradigm in non-equilibrium physics. Examples of such active matter range from swimming bacteria and ...cytoskeletal motility assays to synthetic self-propelled colloids and swarming microrobots. Remarkably, the aggregation capabilities of many of these systems rely on a theme as fundamental as it is ubiquitous in nature: communication. Despite its eminent importance, the role of communication in the collective organization of active systems is not yet fully understood. Here we report on the multi-scale self-organization of interacting self-propelled agents that locally process information transmitted by chemical signals. We show that this communication capacity dramatically expands their ability to form complex structures, allowing them to self-organize through a series of collective dynamical states at multiple hierarchical levels. Our findings provide insights into the role of self-sustained signal processing for self-organization in biological systems and open routes to applications using chemically driven colloids or microrobots.