Although the rapid development of polymer solar cells (PSCs) has been achieved, it is still a great challenge to explore efficient ways for improving power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs from ...materials and device engineering. Ternary strategy has been confirmed as an efficient way to improve PCE of PSCs by employing three kinds of materials. In this work, one polymer donor PM6, and two non‐fullerene materials N3 and MF1 are selected to prepare ternary PSCs with layer‐by‐layer (LbL) or bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) structure. The LbL and BHJ‐PSCs exhibit PCEs of 16.75% and 16.76% with 15 wt% MF1 content in acceptors, corresponding to over 5% or 4% PCE improvement compared with N3‐based binary PSCs with LbL or BHJ structure. The PCE improvement is mainly attributed to the fill factor enhancement from 73.29% to 76.95% for LbL‐PSCs or from 74.13% to 77.51% for BHJ‐PSCs by employing the ternary strategy. This work indicates that ternary strategy has great potential in preparing highly efficient LbL‐PSCs via simultaneously optimizing molecular arrangement and the thickness of each layer.
The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 16.75% and 16.76% are achieved in ternary layer‐by‐layer (LbL) and bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ)‐polymer solar cells (PSCs) with PM6, N3, and MF1 as active layers, respectively. Ternary strategy on PCE improvement can be confirmed from both LbL and BHJ‐PSCs, which is primarily attributed to the optimized phase separation by incorporating appropriate MF1 as morphology regulator.
Narrowband photomultiplication‐type organic photodetectors (PMOPDs) are realized with poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl) (P3HT) as the optical field adjusting (OFA) layer and transfer‐printed P3HT: ...6,6‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) (50:1, w/w) as the photomultiplication (PM) layer. The thickness of the OFA layers is adjusted to optimize interfacial trapped electron distribution and density, which determines the external quantum efficiency (EQE) and spectral response range of PMOPDs. Narrowband PMOPDs with 2.5 µm thick P3HT as the OFA layer exhibit two narrow response peaks at 350 and 660 nm, and the corresponding EQE values at 350 and 660 nm are 180% and 760% under an applied bias of −20 V. A wide bandgap polymer polyN,N′‐bis(4‐butylphenyl)‐N,N′‐bis(phenyl)benzidine (P‐TPD) is deliberately incorporated into OFA layer for adjusting interfacial trapped electron distribution near Al electrode. Narrowband PMOPDs exhibit only one response peak at 660 nm with the enhanced EQE value of 1120% under the same bias. The enhanced EQE of PMOPDs with P‐TPD is primarily attributed to the increased hole tunneling injection and transport, which can be ascribed to the enhanced trapped electron density near the Al electrode and the improved hole mobility, respectively. Clearly resolved images can be obtained from the imaging system with the narrowband PMOPDs as sensing pixel without any current preamplifier, indicating the promising potential of PMOPDs in imaging sense.
Narrowband photomultiplication‐type organic photodetectors (PMOPDs) are prepared by employing one optical field adjusting (OFA) layer to adjust the optical filed distribution of the device and one photomultiplication layer for achieving photocurrent multiplication. The spectral response of narrowband PMOPDs can be tuned by different OFA layers, which is promising in achieving narrowband PMOPDs with a tunable spectral response.
Immunotherapy has only limited efficacy against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) due to the presence of an immunosuppressive tumor-associated stroma. Here, we demonstrate an effective ...modulation of that stroma by irreversible electroporation (IRE), a local ablation technique that has received regulatory approval in the United States. IRE induces immunogenic cell death, activates dendritic cells, and alleviates stroma-induced immunosuppression without depleting tumor-restraining collagen. The combination of IRE and anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD1) immune checkpoint blockade promotes selective tumor infiltration by CD8
T cells and significantly prolongs survival in a murine orthotopic PDAC model with a long-term memory immune response. Our results suggest that IRE is a promising approach to potentiate the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in PDAC.
The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has exceeded 18% with narrow bandgap, non-fullerene materials Y6 or its derivatives when used as an electron acceptor. The PCE ...improvement of OPVs is due to strong photon harvesting in near-infrared light range and low energy loss. Meanwhile, ternary strategy is commonly recognized as a convenient and efficient means to improve the PCE of OPVs. In this review article, typical donor and acceptor materials in prepared efficient OPVs are summarized. From the device engineering perspective, the typical research work on ternary strategy and tandem structure is introduced for understanding the device design and materials selection for preparing efficient OPVs.
Ternary organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are fabricated with PBDB-T-2Cl:Y6 (1:1.2, wt/wt) as the host system and extra PC
71
BM as the third component. The PBDB-T-2Cl:Y6 based binary OPVs exhibit a power ...conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.49% with a short circuit current (
J
SC
) of 24.98 mA cm
−2
, an open circuit voltage (
V
OC
) of 0.868 V and a fill factor (FF) of 71.42%. A 16.71% PCE is obtained in the optimized ternary OPVs with PBDB-T-2Cl:Y6:PC
71
BM (1:1.2:0.2, wt/wt) active layer, resulting from the synchronously improved
J
SC
of 25.44 mA cm
−2
, FF of 75.66% and the constant
V
OC
of 0.868 V. The incorporated PC
71
BM may prefer to mix with Y6 to finely adjust phase separation, domain size and molecular arrangement in ternary active layers, which can be confirmed from the characterization on morphology, 2D grazing incidence small and wide-angle X-ray scattering, as well as Raman mapping. In addition, PC
71
BM may prefer to mix with Y6 to form efficient electron transport channels, which should be conducive to charge transport and collection in the optimized ternary OPVs. This work provides more insight into the underlying reasons of the third component on performance improvement of ternary OPVs, indicating ternary strategy should be an efficient method to optimize active layers for synchronously improving photon harvesting, exciton dissociation and charge transport, while keeping the simple cell fabrication technology.
A series of binary and ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs) is successfully fabricated. The optimal ternary PSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.14%, benefiting from the increased ...short circuit current density (JSC) of 26.53 mA cm−2 and fill factor (FF) of 78.51% in comparison with the JSCs (25.05 mA cm−2 and 25.65 mA cm−2) and the FFs (77.13% and 76.55%) of the corresponding binary PSCs. The photon harvesting ability of ternary active layers can be enhanced, which can be confirmed from the EQE spectral difference of the optimized ternary and binary PSCs, especially in the wavelength range from 680 nm to 800 nm. The refractive index and extinction coefficients of binary and ternary blend films are measured, which can well support the enhanced photon harvesting ability in different wavelength ranges. Photogenerated exciton distribution in active layers is simulated by the transmission matrix method based on the Beer–Lambert law. The photogenerated exciton density can be enhanced in the middle of the active layers by incorporating a third component in acceptors, which is conducive to charge collection by individual electrodes, resulting in the simultaneously enhanced JSC and FF of the optimal ternary PSCs.
Ternary polymer solar cells (PSCs) are fabricated with polymer PM6 as donor and m‐BTP‐PhC6 and Y6 as acceptors. The incorporation of Y6 can effectively enhance photon harvesting in long wavelength range, optimize phase separation, and adjust photogenerated exciton distribution in the ternary active layers, leading to the PCE enhancement from 16.81% to 18.12%.
Ternary strategy has been confirmed as an efficient method to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic photovoltaics (OPVs). The 15.7% PCE is achieved from PM6:Y6 based binary OPVs. ...One nonfullerene acceptor Br-ITIC and fullerene derivative PC71BM are selected as the third component on the basis of efficient binary OPVs, respectively. The optimized ternary OPVs exhibit 16.4% and 16.2% PCE with Br-ITIC and PC71BM as the third component, respectively, corresponding to the short circuit current density (JSC) of 25.5 mA cm−2 vs. 25.6 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.854 V vs. 0.836 V and fill factor (FF) of 75.1% vs. 75.6%. The advantage on photovoltaic parameters of two ternary OPVs may be recombined into one cell by employing PC71BM as the fourth component. A 16.8% PCE is achieved from the optimized quaternary OPVs, resulting from the further increased JSC of 25.8 mA cm−2 and FF of 76.4% compared with the optimized ternary OPVs. The third party certificated PCE of quaternary OPVs is 16.2%. In comparison to 15.7% PCE of the binary OPVs, about 4.5% and 7.0% PCE improvement are step-by-step achieved from the optimized ternary and quaternary OPVs, respectively. Multi-components strategy may provide enough room to achieve highly efficient OPVs.
Based on highly efficient binary OPVs, Br-ITIC and PC71BM were successively incorporated into the active layer as the third and the fourth component, leading to the step-by-step PCE improvement from 15.7% to 16.4% and then to 16.8%. Display omitted
•A PCE of 16.8% is achieved in the optimized quaternary OPVs.•Photogenerated exciton distribution can be optimized by employing multi-components strategy.•PC71BM can act as a morphology regulator to optimize molecular arrangement and phase separation.
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is considered a promising modality for cancer treatment, but despite ongoing improvements, many patients do not experience clinical benefits. The tumor microenvironment ...is an important limiting factor in immunotherapy that has not been addressed fully in ACT treatments. In this study, we report that upregualtion of the immunosuppressive receptor programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) expressed on transferred T cells at the tumor site, in a murine model of ACT, compared with its expression on transferred T cells present in the peripheral blood and spleen. As PD-1 can attenuate T-cell-mediated antitumor responses, we tested whether its blockade with an anti-PD-1 antibody could enhance the antitumor activity of ACT in this model. Cotreatment with both agents increased the number of transferred T cells at the tumor site and also enhanced tumor regressions, compared with treatments with either agent alone. While anti-PD-1 did not reduce the number of immunosuppressive regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells present in tumor-bearing mice, we found that it increased expression of IFN-γ and CXCL10 at the tumor site. Bone marrow-transplant experiments using IFN-γR-/- mice implicated IFN-γ as a crucial nexus for controlling PD-1-mediated tumor infiltration by T cells. Taken together, our results imply that blocking the PD-1 pathway can increase IFN-γ at the tumor site, thereby increasing chemokine-dependent trafficking of immune cells into malignant disease sites.
Treatment of melanoma patients with selective BRAF inhibitors results in objective clinical responses in the majority of patients with BRAF-mutant tumors. However, resistance to these inhibitors ...develops within a few months. In this study, we test the hypothesis that BRAF inhibition in combination with adoptive T-cell transfer (ACT) will be more effective at inducing long-term clinical regressions of BRAF-mutant tumors.
BRAF-mutated human melanoma tumor cell lines transduced to express gp100 and H-2D(b) to allow recognition by gp100-specific pmel-1 T cells were used as xenograft models to assess melanocyte differentiation antigen-independent enhancement of immune responses by BRAF inhibitor PLX4720. Luciferase-expressing pmel-1 T cells were generated to monitor T-cell migration in vivo. The expression of VEGF was determined by ELISA, protein array, and immunohistochemistry. Importantly, VEGF expression after BRAF inhibition was tested in a set of patient samples.
We found that administration of PLX4720 significantly increased tumor infiltration of adoptively transferred T cells in vivo and enhanced the antitumor activity of ACT. This increased T-cell infiltration was primarily mediated by the ability of PLX4720 to inhibit melanoma tumor cell production of VEGF by reducing the binding of c-myc to the VEGF promoter. Furthermore, analysis of human melanoma patient tumor biopsies before and during BRAF inhibitor treatment showed downregulation of VEGF consistent with the preclinical murine model.
These findings provide a strong rationale to evaluate the potential clinical application of combining BRAF inhibition with T-cell-based immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with melanoma.
In order to identify the sources of indoor PM2.5 and to check which factors influence the concentration of indoor PM2.5 and chemical elements, indoor concentrations of PM2.5 and its related elements ...in residential houses in Beijing were explored. Indoor and outdoor PM2.5 samples that were monitored continuously for one week were collected. Indoor and outdoor concentrations of PM2.5 and 15 elements (Al, As, Ca, Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Pb, Se, Tl, V, Zn) were calculated and compared. The median indoor concentration of PM2.5 was 57.64 μg/m3. For elements in indoor PM2.5, Cd and As may be sensitive to indoor smoking, Zn, Ca and Al may be related to indoor sources other than smoking, Pb, V and Se may mainly come from outdoor. Five factors were extracted for indoor PM2.5 by factor analysis, explained 76.8% of total variance, outdoor sources contributed more than indoor sources. Multiple linear regression analysis for indoor PM2.5, Cd and Pb was performed. Indoor PM2.5 was influenced by factors including outdoor PM2.5, smoking during sampling, outdoor temperature and time of air conditioner use. Indoor Cd was affected by factors including smoking during sampling, outdoor Cd and building age. Indoor Pb concentration was associated with factors including outdoor Pb and time of window open per day, building age and RH. In conclusion, indoor PM2.5 mainly comes from outdoor sources, and the contributions of indoor sources also cannot be ignored. Factors associated indoor and outdoor air exchange can influence the concentrations of indoor PM2.5 and its constituents.
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