| 1. |
- Manzoni, Claudia, et al.
(author)
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Genome-wide analyses reveal a potential role for the MAPT, MOBP, and APOE loci in sporadic frontotemporal dementia
- 2024
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In: American Journal of Human Genetics. - 0002-9297. ; 111:7, s. 1316-1329
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer disease (AD). Efforts in the field mainly focus on familial forms of disease (fFTDs), while studies of the genetic etiology of sporadic FTD (sFTD) have been less common. In the current work, we analyzed 4,685 sFTD cases and 15,308 controls looking for common genetic determinants for sFTD. We found a cluster of variants at the MAPT (rs199443; p = 2.5 × 10−12, OR = 1.27) and APOE (rs6857; p = 1.31 × 10−12, OR = 1.27) loci and a candidate locus on chromosome 3 (rs1009966; p = 2.41 × 10−8, OR = 1.16) in the intergenic region between RPSA and MOBP, contributing to increased risk for sFTD through effects on expression and/or splicing in brain cortex of functionally relevant in-cis genes at the MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci. The association with the MAPT (H1c clade) and RPSA-MOBP loci may suggest common genetic pleiotropy across FTD and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (MAPT and RPSA-MOBP loci) and across FTD, AD, Parkinson disease (PD), and cortico-basal degeneration (CBD) (MAPT locus). Our data also suggest population specificity of the risk signals, with MAPT and APOE loci associations mainly driven by Central/Nordic and Mediterranean Europeans, respectively. This study lays the foundations for future work aimed at further characterizing population-specific features of potential FTD-discriminant APOE haplotype(s) and the functional involvement and contribution of the MAPT H1c haplotype and RPSA-MOBP loci to pathogenesis of sporadic forms of FTD in brain cortex.
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| 2. |
- Reus, Manuel A., et al.
(author)
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Modular slot-die coater for in situ grazing-incidence x-ray scattering experiments on thin films
- 2024
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In: Review of Scientific Instruments. - : AIP Publishing. - 0034-6748 .- 1089-7623. ; 95:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Multimodal in situ experiments during slot-die coating of thin films pioneer the way to kinetic studies on thin-film formation. They establish a powerful tool to understand and optimize the formation and properties of thin-film devices, e.g., solar cells, sensors, or LED films. Thin-film research benefits from time-resolved grazing-incidence wide- and small-angle x-ray scattering (GIWAXS/GISAXS) with a sub-second resolution to reveal the evolution of crystal structure, texture, and morphology during the deposition process. Simultaneously investigating optical properties by in situ photoluminescence measurements complements in-depth kinetic studies focusing on a comprehensive understanding of the triangular interdependency of processing, structure, and function for a roll-to-roll compatible, scalable thin-film deposition process. Here, we introduce a modular slot-die coater specially designed for in situ GIWAXS/GISAXS measurements and applicable to various ink systems. With a design for quick assembly, the slot-die coater permits the reproducible and comparable fabrication of thin films in the lab and at the synchrotron using the very same hardware components, as demonstrated in this work by experiments performed at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). Simultaneous to GIWAXS/GISAXS, photoluminescence measurements probe optoelectronic properties in situ during thin-film formation. An environmental chamber allows to control the atmosphere inside the coater. Modular construction and lightweight design make the coater mobile, easy to transport, quickly extendable, and adaptable to new beamline environments.
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| 3. |
- Wang, Yilin, et al.
(author)
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Control of the Crystallization and Phase Separation Kinetics in Sequential Blade-Coated Organic Solar Cells by Optimizing the Upper Layer Processing Solvent
- 2023
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In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 13:7
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sequential deposition of the active layer in organic solar cells (OSCs) is favorable to circumvent the existing drawbacks associated with controlling the microstructure in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) device fabrication. However, how the processing solvents impact on the morphology during sequential deposition processes is still poorly understood. Herein, high-efficiency OSCs are fabricated by a sequential blade coating (SBC) through optimization of the morphology evolution process induced by processing solvents. It is demonstrated that the device performance is highly dependent on the processing solvent of the upper layer. In situ morphology characterizations reveal that an obvious liquid–solid phase separation can be identified during the chlorobenzene processing of the D18 layer, corresponding to larger phase separation. During chloroform (CF) processing of the D18 layer, a proper aggregation rate of Y6 and favorable intermixing of lower and upper layers results in the enhanced crystallinity of the acceptor. This facilitates efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport with an inhibited charge recombination in the D18/CF-based devices, contributing to a superior performance of 17.23%. These results highlight the importance of the processing solvent for the upper layer in the SBC strategy and suggest the great potential of achieving optimized morphology and high-efficiency OSCs using the SBC strategy.
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| 4. |
- Harder, Constantin, et al.
(author)
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Optical Properties of Slot‐Die Coated Hybrid Colloid/Cellulose‐Nanofibril Thin Films
- 2023
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In: Advanced Optical Materials. - : Wiley. - 2162-7568 .- 2195-1071. ; 11:13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Correlating nanostructure and optical properties of thin hybrid films is the crucial ingredient for designing sustainable applications ranging from structural colors in anticounterfeiting to sensors. Here, the tailoring of the refractive index of hybrid cellulose nanofibril/water-dispersed colloidal ink thin films is presented. The authors apply scalable, layer-by-layer slot-die coating for preparing the cellulose nanofibril and hybrid thin films. Making use of the mobility of the polymer chains in the colloids upon annealing, the influence of the different colloid sizes and their glass transition temperature on the refractive index of the hybrid material is shown. The complex refractive indices of the thin films are characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry and correlated to the different nanostructures of the thin films. The authors find that post-deposition annealing changes the colloidal nanostructure from particulate to agglomerates. Depending on the size of the colloids, imbibition of the colloids into the cellulose nanofibril template is observed. This scalable approach offers new avenues in structural color functional biomaterial hybrid layers.
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| 5. |
- Reus, Manuel A., et al.
(author)
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INSIGHT: in situ heuristic tool for the efficient reduction of grazing-incidence X-ray scattering data
- 2024
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In: Journal of applied crystallography. - : International Union of Crystallography (IUCr). - 0021-8898 .- 1600-5767. ; 57, s. 509-528
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- INSIGHT is a Python-based software tool for processing and reducing 2D grazing-incidence wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS/GISAXS) data. It offers the geometric transformation of the 2D GIWAXS/GISAXS detector image to reciprocal space, including vectorized and parallelized pixelwise intensity correction calculations. An explicit focus on efficient data management and batch processing enables full control of large time-resolved synchrotron and laboratory data sets for a detailed analysis of kinetic GIWAXS/ GISAXS studies of thin films. It processes data acquired with arbitrarily rotated detectors and performs vertical, horizontal, azimuthal and radial cuts in reciprocal space. It further allows crystallographic indexing and GIWAXS pattern simulation, and provides various plotting and export functionalities. Customized scripting offers a one-step solution to reduce, process, analyze and export findings of large in situ and operando data sets.
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| 6. |
- Yin, Shanshan, et al.
(author)
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Tailored fabrication of quasi-isoporous and double layered alpha-Fe2O3 thin films and their application in photovoltaic devices
- 2023
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In: Chemical Engineering Journal. - : Elsevier BV. - 1385-8947 .- 1873-3212. ; 455, s. 140135-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A series of α-Fe2O3 thin films with distinct morphologies are prepared via a facile polystyrene-block-polyethylene oxide templated sol–gel method. By tailoring the poor solvent contents and FeCl3-to-polymer weight ratio in the sol–gel solutions, quasi-isoporous α-Fe2O3 thin films with different substructures and thicknesses are obtained. Via a thermal annealing post-treatment, double layered structures are induced by a synergistic dewetting and Oswald ripening effect. Special focus is set on the α-Fe2O3 thin films prepared with no annealing/annealing-medium FeCl3 concentration, as they possess uniform periodic structures, which is suitable to be used as hole blocking modification layer of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). An improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) is obtained when the double layered α-Fe2O3 thin film is applied as the hole blocking modification layer for PSCs. The improved PCE primarily originates from the increased VOC, which probably benefits from the synergistic effect of the suppressed charge carrier recombination at the interfaces, the enhanced light transmittance as well as the superior electron extraction capacity.
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| 7. |
- Zou, Yuqin, et al.
(author)
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The Influence of CsBr on Crystal Orientation and Optoelectronic Properties of MAPbI(3)-Based Solar Cells
- 2022
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In: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 14:2, s. 2958-2967
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Crystal orientations are closely related to the behavior of photogenerated charge carriers and are vital for controlling the optoelectronic properties of perovskite solar cells. Herein, we propose a facile approach to reveal the effect of lattice plane orientation distribution on the charge carrier kinetics via constructing CsBr-doped mixed cation perovskite phases. With grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we investigate the crystallographic properties of mixed perovskite films at the microscopic scale and reveal the effect of the extrinsic CsBr doping on the stacking behavior of the lattice planes. Combined with transient photocurrent, transient photovoltage, and space-charge-limited current measurements, the transport dynamics and recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers are characterized. It is demonstrated that CsBr compositional engineering can significantly affect the perovskite crystal structure in terms of the orientation distribution of crystal planes and passivation of trap-state densities, as well as simultaneously facilitate the photogenerated charge carrier transport across the absorber and its interfaces. This strategy provides unique insight into the underlying relationship between the stacking pattern of crystal planes, photogenerated charge carrier transport, and optoelectronic properties of solar cells.
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