| 1. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- James, David, 1987, et al.
(author)
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High-Performance Hole Transport and Quasi-Balanced Ambipolar OFETs Based on D–A–A Thieno-benzo-isoindigo Polymers
- 2016
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In: Advanced Electronic Materials. - : Wiley. - 2199-160X. ; 2:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Two new conjugated polymers are synthesized based on a novel donor–acceptor–acceptor (D–A–A) design strategy with the intention of attaining lower lowest unoccupied molecular obital levels compared to the normally used D–A strategy. By coupling two thieno-benzo-isoindigo units together via the phenyl position to give a new symmetric benzene-coupled di-thieno-benzo-isoindigo (BdiTBI) monomer as an A–A acceptor and thiophene (T) or bithiophene (2T) as a donor, two new polymers PT-BdiTBI and P2T-BdiTBI are synthesized via Stille coupling. The two polymers are tested in top gate and top contact field effect transistors, which exhibit balanced ambipolar charge transport properties with poly(methyl methacrylate) as dielectric and a high hole mobility up to 1.1 cm2 V–1 s–1 with poly(trifluoroethylene) as dielectric. The polymer films are investigated using atomic force microscopy, which shows fibrous features due to their high crystallinity as indicated by grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering. The theoretical calculations agree well with the experimental data on the energy levels. It is demonstrated that the D–A–A strategy is very effective for designing low band gap polymers for organic electronic applications.
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| 4. |
- Li, Zhaojun, 1989, et al.
(author)
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9.0% power conversion efficiency from ternary all-polymer solar cells
- 2017
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In: Energy and Environmental Science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1754-5692 .- 1754-5706. ; 10:10, s. 2212-2221
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Integration of a third component into a single-junction polymer solar cell (PSC) is regarded as an attractive strategy to enhance the performance of PSCs. Although binary all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) have recently emerged with compelling power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), the PCEs of ternary all-PSCs still lag behind those of the state-of-the-art binary all-PSCs, and the advantages of ternary systems are not fully exploited. In this work, we realize high-performance ternary all-PSCs with record-breaking PCEs of 9% and high fill factors (FF) of over 0.7 for both conventional and inverted devices. The improved photovoltaic performance benefits from the synergistic effects of extended absorption, more efficient charge generation, optimal polymer orientations and suppressed recombination losses compared to the binary all-PSCs, as evidenced by a set of experimental techniques. The results provide new insights for developing high-performance ternary all-PSCs by choosing appropriate donor and acceptor polymers to overcome limitations in absorption, by affording good miscibility, and by benefiting from charge and energy transfer mechanisms for efficient charge generation.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Meng, Xiangyi, et al.
(author)
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Percolation Theories for Quantum Networks
- 2023
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In: Entropy. - : Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). - 1099-4300. ; 25:11
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Quantum networks have experienced rapid advancements in both theoretical and experimental domains over the last decade, making it increasingly important to understand their large-scale features from the viewpoint of statistical physics. This review paper discusses a fundamental question: how can entanglement be effectively and indirectly (e.g., through intermediate nodes) distributed between distant nodes in an imperfect quantum network, where the connections are only partially entangled and subject to quantum noise? We survey recent studies addressing this issue by drawing exact or approximate mappings to percolation theory, a branch of statistical physics centered on network connectivity. Notably, we show that the classical percolation frameworks do not uniquely define the network’s indirect connectivity. This realization leads to the emergence of an alternative theory called “concurrence percolation”, which uncovers a previously unrecognized quantum advantage that emerges at large scales, suggesting that quantum networks are more resilient than initially assumed within classical percolation contexts, offering refreshing insights into future quantum network design.
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| 7. |
- Wang, Chuanfei, et al.
(author)
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Low Band Gap Polymer Solar Cells With Minimal Voltage Losses
- 2016
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In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 6:18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- One of the factors limiting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) is their large energy losses (E loss) in the conversion from photons to electrons, typically believed to be around 0.6 eV and often higher than those of inorganic solar cells. In this work, a novel low band gap polymer PIDTT-TID with a optical gap of 1.49 eV is synthesized and used as the donor combined with PC71BM in solar cells. These solar cells attain a good power conversion efficiency of 6.7% with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.0 V, leading to the E loss as low as 0.49 eV. A systematic study indicates that the driving force in this donor and acceptor system is sufficient for charge generation with the low E loss. This work pushes the minimal E loss of OSCs down to 0.49 eV, approaching the values of some inorganic and hybrid solar cells. It indicates the potential for further enhancement of the performance of OSCs by improving their V oc since the E loss can be minimized.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Wang, Chuanfei, et al.
(author)
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Ternary organic solar cells with enhanced open circuit voltage
- 2017
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In: Nano Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 2211-2855 .- 2211-3282. ; 37, s. 24-31
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- By introducing a non-fullerene small molecule acceptor as a third component to typical polymer donor: fullerene acceptor binary solar cells, we demonstrate that the short circuit current density (Jsc), open circuit voltage (Voc), power conversion efficiency (PCE) and thermal stability can be enhanced simultaneously. The different surface energy of each component causes most of the non-fullerene acceptor molecules to self-organize at the polymer/fullerene interface, while the appropriately selected oxidation/reduction potential of the non-fullerene acceptor enables the resulting ternary junction to work through a cascade mechanism. The cascade ternary junction enhances charge generation through complementary absorption between the non-fullerene and fullerene acceptors and aids the efficient charge extraction from fullerene domains. The bimolecular recombination in the ternary blend layer is reduced as the ternary cascade junction increases the separation of holes and electrons during charge transportation and the trap assistant recombination induced by integer charge transfer (ICT) state potentially reduced due to the smaller pinning energy of inserted non-fullerene acceptor, leading to an unprecedented increase in the open circuit voltage beyond the binary reference values.
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| 10. |
- Wang, Chuanfei, 1986-, et al.
(author)
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Ternary Organic Solar Cells with Minimum Voltage Losses
- 2017
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In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 7:21
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A new strategy for designing ternary solar cells is reported in this paper. A low-bandgap polymer named PTB7-Th and a high-bandgap polymer named PBDTTS-FTAZ sharing the same bulk ionization potential and interface positive integer charge transfer energy while featuring complementary absorption spectra are selected. They are used to fabricate efficient ternary solar cells, where the hole can be transported freely between the two donor polymers and collected by the electrode as in one broadband low bandgap polymer. Furthermore, the fullerene acceptor is chosen so that the energy of the positive integer charge transfer state of the two donor polymers is equal to the energy of negative integer charge transfer state of the fullerene, enabling enhanced dissociation of all polymer donor and fullerene acceptor excitons and suppressed bimolecular and trap assistant recombination. The two donor polymers feature good miscibility and energy transfer from high-bandgap polymer of PBDTTS-FTAZ to low-bandgap polymer of PTB7-Th, which contribute to enhanced performance of the ternary solar cell.
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