Hydroxymetal-clay complexes, which contain reactive surface hydroxyl groups, have a strong affinity for both heavy-metal cations and oxyanions and hence can serve as efficient sorbents for ionic contaminants. The co-sorptive behavior of heavy-metal cations and oxyanions on the surface of hydroxymetal-clay complexes is not well understood, however. The objective of the present investigation was to help bridge that gap by determining the feasibility of co-sorbing Cd cations and phosphate from aqueous solution to a hydroxyiron-montmorillonite complex (HyFe-mont). A montmorillonite-rich clay from Inner Mongolia, China, was the starting material. The results showed that Cd and phosphate could be sorbed, simultaneously and synergistically, to HyFe-mont without a change in solution pH. Similarly, when phosphate was sorbed before Cd, the sorption capacities were comparable to those obtained in the simultaneous sorption experiment, and the solution pH did not change.When Cd was pre-sorbed, however, the subsequent sorption of both Cd and phosphate decreased as did solution pH. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicated that the binding energies of P_2p, Cd_3/2, and Cd_5/2 were of similar magnitude for both the simultaneous sorption system and the phosphate pre-sorbed system. In addition, the single Cd and Cd pre-sorbed systems had similar Cd_3/2 and Cd_5/2 binding energies. The combined sorption and XPS results suggested that sorbed phosphate and Cd formed P-bridged ternary complexes on the HyFe-mont surface, contributing to the synergistic uptake of the contaminants in the simultaneous sorption system.

Linear small molecules have been proved to be promising donor materials for high performance small molecular solar cells (SMSCs). In this paper, a series of narrow-band gap, p-conjugated small molecules (SMs) with a D(A–Ar)2 linear framework, denoted as FBT(PyDPP-T)2, FBT(IID-T)2 and FBT(TDPP-T)2, based on fluorinated 2,2'-bithiophene (FBT) as an electron-donating (D) central core, pyridine-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole (PyDPP), isoindigo (IID) or thiophene-flanked diketopyrrolopyrrole (TDPP) as electron-accepting (A) units, and 2-octylthiophene (Ar) units as end-capping units, have been designed and synthesized for application as donor materials in solution-processed SM organic solar cells (OSCs). The impacts of different acceptor units and fluorinated central cores on bulk properties, such as the optoelectronic properties, carrier mobility, the HOMO/LUMO energy level, and the morphologies of blend films, as well as optimization on device performance via appropriate solvent vapor annealing (SVA) are systematically investigated. The as-cast devices based on FBT(PyDPP-T)2, FBT(IID-T)2 and FBT(TDPPT)2 exhibit PCEs of 5.04%, 5.68% and 6.86%, respectively. Encouragingly, after a SVA treatment with carbon disulfide (CS2) for 20 s, an impressively improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 6.86% to 9.00% with an increase of 35% was obtained in the FBT(TDPP-T)2/PC71BM (w/w, 1 : 1) based cells due to an enhanced short circuit current density (Jsc) of 16.14 mA cm2 and fill factor (FF) of 73.52%, which is among the highest reported for D(A–Ar)2-type SM-based solar cells with a PCE up to 9.0% so far. Our research results reported here clearly demonstrate that highly efficient SM-OSCs can be obtained via rational design of their molecular structure and optimization of the phase-separated morphology through an appropriate solvent-vapor annealing process.

Two NIR-emitting Ir( iii ) phosphors based on acene-fused diazaacene are designed and synthesized. The light-emitting devices using both complexes as dopants achieve a maximum EQE of 8.00% at 716 nm and 3.53% at 772 nm, respectively.

Three novel A–D–A type small-molecule donor materials, namely AAN-DPP₂, AAN(T-DPP)₂ and AANT(T-DPP)₂, with anthanthrene (AAN) as the electron-donating core, diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) as the electron-accepting moiety, and thiophene as π-bridge units, have been designed and synthesized for application in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). Compared to AAN-DPP₂, devices based on AAN(T-DPP)₂ and AANT(T-DPP)₂ show better photovoltaic performance due to broader absorption and better planarity of the molecular backbone. A maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.33% with a short-circuit current density (J_sc) of 6.82 mA cm⁻² and a fill factor (FF) of 39.80 was obtained in the AAN(T-DPP)₂/PC₇₁BM-based solar cells. This is resulting from the suitable thickness of the active layer, improving the ability of catching light and decreasing the twist angle of the backbone by inserting a thiophene spacer. The results indicate that strategic substitution of π-bridges and side-chains in A–D–A type SMs is an efficient strategy to improve photovoltaic performance.