Li-ion batteries are in demand due to technological advancements in the electronics industry; thus, expanding the battery supply chain and improving its electrochemical performance is crucial. Carbon materials are used to increase the cyclic stability and specific capacity of cathode materials, which are essential to batteries. LiFePO₄ (LFP) cathodes are generally safe and have a long cycle life. However, the common LFP cathode has a low inherent conductivity, and adding a carbon nanomaterial significantly influences how well it performs electrochemically. Therefore, the major focus of this review is on the importance, current developments, and future possibilities of carbon-LFP (C-LFP) cathodes in LIBs. Recent research on the impacts of different carbon sizes, LFP’s shape, diffusion, bonding, additives, dopants, and surface functionalization was reviewed. Overall, with suitable modifications, C-LFP cathodes are expected to bring many benefits to the energy storage sector in the forthcoming years.

Low CO ₂ emitting energy extraction techniques and their application in healthcare, textile and smart wearables.

The present review rationalizes the significance of the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) interfaces in the field of photovoltaics and photocatalysis. This perspective considers the role of interface science in energy harvesting using organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). These interfaces include large surface area junctions between photoelectrodes and dyes, the interlayer grain boundaries within the photoanodes, and the interfaces between photoactive layers and the top and bottom contacts. Controlling the collection and minimizing the trapping of charge carriers at these boundaries is crucial to overall power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Similarly, MOS photocatalysts exhibit strong variations in their photocatalytic activities as a function of band structure and surface states. Here, the MOS interface plays a vital role in the generation of OH radicals, which forms the basis of the photocatalytic processes. The physical chemistry and materials science of these MOS interfaces and their influence on device performance are also discussed.

A novel solution-processable non-fullerene electron acceptor 6,6′-(5,5′-(9,9-dioctyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)bis(thiophene-5,2-diyl))bis(2,5-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3-(thiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione) (DPP1) based on fluorene and diketopyrrolopyrrole conjugated moieties was designed, synthesized and fully characterized. DPP1 exhibited excellent solubility and high thermal stability which are essential for easy processing. Upon using DPP1 as an acceptor with the classical electron donor poly(3-hexylthiophene), solution processable bulk-heterojunction solar cells afforded a power conversion efficiency of 1.2% with a high open-circuit voltage (1.1 V). As per our knowledge, this value of open circuit voltage is one of the highest values reported so far for a bulk-heterojunction device using DPP1 as a non-fullerene acceptor.

This article demonstrates improvements in the operational stability of organic solar cells (OSCs) by taking advantage of the relationship between oxygen stoichiometry and conductivity in nanostructured metal oxide semiconductors (n-MOS). OSCs in the inverted device configuration of ITO/Ca/P3HT:PCBM/MoO₃/Ag were employed in the present study. A high degree of oxygen defects were introduced in the hole-conducting MoO₃ layer by annealing the devices under vacuum (≥10⁻⁵ mbar) for nominal temperature (120 °C) and time (10 min). The above devices had much higher operational stability, when tested following the ISOS-D-1 (shelf) protocol, than control devices annealed conventionally, i.e., in nitrogen atmosphere. Employing current–voltage measurement as functions of temperature and photon flux, we show that the devices annealed under vacuum have a lesser density of traps than those annealed in nitrogen. The lesser trap density is shown to be beneficial in reducing the rate of electron recombination thereby increasing the operational stability of the corresponding device. A number of experiments were undertaken to show that the difference in the operation stability of the device results from the difference in conductivity of the nanostructured MoO₃ hole transporting layer. The charge extraction by linear increasing voltage spectroscopy shows that charges are relaxed at the trap states in the device annealed in nitrogen whereas they are efficiently transported in the other device. We identify that building up of an interfacial potential barrier as a result of the charge relaxation at the trap states and the corresponding chemical changes in the devices annealed conventionally is the source of degradation of the device performance over time. To our knowledge, this is the first report that successfully overcomes hole-conductivity induced degradation in organic solar cells.