Xiaoyu Zhang,Yu Zhang,Hua Wu,Long Yan,Zhenguang Wang,Jun Zhao,William W. Yu,Andrey L. Rogach
We explore two strategies to improve the performance of hybrid solar cells fabricated using poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and colloidal PbSe nanocrystals, which have reached a 1 sun power conversion efficiency of 2.9%. Using an atomic passivation strategy towards inorganic ligand-capped nanocrystals, the electron mobilities of PbSe quantum dot films are improved from 1.95 × 10−6 cm2 V−1 s−1 to 1.15 × 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1. Employing ultrasmall PbSe nanocrystals allows us to adjust their bandgaps towards the type II heterojunction with P3HT, thus achieving efficient charge separation and transfer between the polymer/inorganic constituents. The device performance dropped to half after 10 days' storage, and the P3HT/PbSe interface was found to play a primary role in this efficiency degradation.
A novel large-volume immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) on small column was prepared with organic–inorganic hybrid silica particles and applied for fast (10 min) and oriented digestion of protein. At first, a thin enzyme support layer was formed in the bottom of the small column by polymerization with α-methacrylic acid and dimethacrylate. After that, amino SiO 2 particles was prepared by the sol–gel method with tetraethoxysilane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Subsequently, the amino SiO 2 particles were activated by glutaraldehyde for covalent immobilization of trypsin. Digestive capability of large-volume IMER for proteins was investigated by using bovine serum albumin (BSA), cytochrome c (Cyt- c ) as model proteins. Results showed that although the sequence coverage of the BSA (20%) and Cyt- c (19%) was low, the large-volume IMER could produce peptides with stable specific sequence at 101–105, 156–160, 205–209, 212–218, 229–232, 257–263 and 473–451 of the amino sequence of BSA when digesting 1 mg/mL BSA. Eight of common peptides were observed during each of the ten runs of large-volume IMER. Besides, the IMER could be easily regenerated by reactivating with GA and cross-linking with trypsin after breaking the –C N– bond by 0.01 M HCl. The sequence coverage of BSA from regenerated IMER increased to 25% comparing the non-regenerated IMER (17%). 14 common peptides. accounting for 87.5% of first use of IMER, were produced both with IMER and regenerated IMER. When the IMER was applied for ginkgo albumin digestion, the sequence coverage of two main proteins of ginkgo, ginnacin and legumin, was 56% and 55%, respectively. (Reviewer 2) Above all, the fast and selective digestion property of the large-volume IMER indicated that the regenerative IMER could be tentatively used for the production of potential bioactive peptides and the study of oriented protein digestion.
In the propagating process along metal surface, surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) mainly decay into thermal loss or release into photons, while a part of them were converted into electrons with high energy termed as hot electrons, which have great significance in photonics and electronics. In this work, the generation of plasmonic hot electrons was ascertained in the nanoparticle-film system through plasmon-driven surface catalysis (PDSC) reactions. The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of p,p'-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) catalyzed by 4-nitrobenzenethiol (4NBT) experimentally demonstrated the essential catalysis electrons were generated in this hybrid plasmon mode. The results pointed out the priority of plasmonic hot electron generation in the dimer-film gap compared to the monomer-film gap which was analyzed by the surface electric and charge distribution. Furthermore, the SERS spectra of 4NBT in the metal nanoparticle-dielectric film system confirmed the necessity of hybrid plasmon mode in the generation of plasmonic hot electrons in the nanoparticle-film system. Because of the simple configuration and convenient fabrication of nanoparticle-film system, the work on this hybrid plasmon mode has a significant role in promoting the application of plasmonic hot electrons.