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Although Ag‐coated Cu technology is considered to be an effective approach to mitigate the metallization expenses associated with silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, there is limited reporting on the photovoltaic performance and reliability of devices employing Ag/Cu electrodes. Herein, industrial SHJ solar cells were successfully fabricated, yielding an average efficiency of 25.18% with bifacial Ag/Cu fingers, which caused a 0.13% decline in efficiency but saved 46% in Ag consumption when compared to traditional Ag fingers. Performance degradation is demonstrated to originate essentially from the front rather than rear Ag/Cu fingers, as revealed by a comprehensive analysis of resistances enhancement and optical losses. Notably, the Ag/Cu fingers exhibited 1.4% lower printed qualification rate and similar high‐temperature stabilities in contrast to Ag fingers. In the results, valuable insights were provided for further optimization of low‐cost and high‐efficiency SHJ solar cells based on Ag/Cu electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propolis has potential anti-inflammatory properties, but little is known about its efficacy against inflammatory reactions caused by drug-resistant bacteria, and the difference in efficacy between propolis and tree gum is also unclear. Here, an in vivo study was performed to study the effects of ethanol extract from poplar propolis (EEP) and poplar tree gum (EEG) against heat-inactivated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-induced acute lung injury (ALI) in mice. Pre-treatment with EEP and EEG (100 mg/kg, p.o.) resulted in significant protective effects on ALI in mice, and EEP exerted stronger activity to alleviate lung tissue lesions and ALI scores compared with that of EEG. Furthermore, EEP significantly suppressed the levels of pro-inflammatory mediators in the lung, including TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN-γ. Gut microbiota analysis revealed that both EEP and EEG could modulate the composition of the gut microbiota, enhance the abundance of beneficial microbiota and reduce the harmful ones, and partly restore the levels of short-chain fatty acids. EEP could modulate more serum metabolites and showed a more robust correlation between serum metabolites and gut microbiota. Overall, these results support the anti-inflammatory effects of propolis in the treatment of ALI, and the necessity of the quality control of propolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's government environmental protection-related departments attach great importance to the environmental pollution problems of petrochemical enterprises. The Environmental Protection Law as the core ecological regulation policy has been continuously improved to address the impact of macroenvironmental regulation on micro-individual petrochemical enterprises. The study subjects are 182 petrochemical companies from 2011-2021. The effect of different environmental regulations on the financial performance of petrochemical companies is studied empirically using a time-fixed effects model and a mediating effects model and using principal component analysis based on an agency cost perspective. The results show that environmental regulations significantly improve petrochemical firms' financial performance and suppress agency costs. Agency costs play a partial mediating role in the process of environmental regulations affecting financial performance.

High-quality W, Mo, Ti, Zr, and Ga-doped indium oxide (multiple-doped In2O3) films are deposited at room temperature by direct current magnetron sputtering process under different oxygen proportion, with 200 °C annealing. A maximum Hall mobility of 71.6 cm2 V−1 s−1 is obtained at a middle oxygen proportion of 2%, thanks to the reduction of impurity scattering center, which is nearly three times higher than an ITO film of 23.6 cm2 V−1 s−1. The multiple-doped In2O3 films showed a remarkable 30% improvement of the optical transmittance (>80%) in the near-infrared (NIR) region compared to the ITO film (about 60%), which is mainly attributed to the decrement of free carrier absorption due to low carrier concentration (<2 × 1020 cm−3), an order magnitude lower than the ITO film (1.56 × 1021 cm−3). Additionally, x-ray diffraction results confirm that the films have a polycrystalline structure with preferential orientation growth in the <100> direction. In the NIR region, the multiple-doped In2O3 films have a superior figure of merit of 5.02 × 10−3 Ω−1, which is an order magnitude higher than the ITO film (5.31 × 10−4 Ω−1). This work reports a new In2O3-based material with both high electrical and optical performance, which is suitable for the application of advanced optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carrier‐selective contact is a fundamental issue for solar cells. For silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, it is important to improve hole transport because of the low doping efficiency of boron in amorphous silicon and the barrier stemming from valence band offset. Here, we develop a carbon dioxide (CO2) plasma treatment (PT) process to form dipoles and defect states. We find a dipole moment caused by longitudinal distribution of H and O atoms. It improves hole transport and blocks electron transport and thus suppresses carrier recombination. In the meantime, the CO2 PT process also results in defect states, which reduce passivation performance but improve hole hopping in the intrinsic amorphous layer. As a balance, an appropriate CO2 PT process at the i/p interface increases fill factor and power conversion efficiency of SHJ solar cells. We emphasize, based on sufficient evidences, this work finds a distinct role of the CO2 plasma in SHJ solar cells opposed to reported mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To decrease the series resistance in front gallium‐doped zinc oxide (GZO) silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells caused by high‐resistivity GZO films, stack films including tungsten‐doped indium oxide (IWO) films which have better lateral transport properties are used as the front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) to improve charge transport. The crystal structure and electrical and optical characteristics of GZO/IWO stacks with different thickness ratios are investigated, and the current–voltage performance of SHJ solar cells with front GZO/IWO stacks and rear GZO film are analyzed. The effective transmittance of the stacks is greater than 98% in the visible region. When the thickness of GZO/IWO is 50 nm:50 nm, the resistivity reaches 8.59 × 10−4 Ω cm, which is a significantly 70% reduction compared with that of a single GZO film. Meanwhile, the power conversion efficiency is improved to 23.8%, effectively reducing the efficiency gap by approximately 0.12% compared to a single IWO transparent electrode. More effective lateral transport lowers the series resistance of SHJ solar cells. By employing stacks with lower indium content in the front TCO of SHJ solar cells, the cost can be reduced without significantly affecting the efficiency, which is important for the large‐scale development of SHJ solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs) have aroused much attentions in recent years. One of keys for achieving highly efficient and stable TSCs is to guarantee effective charge transfer, especially on the rough textured silicon substrate due to the poor adhesion between interlayers. Here, a 2‐fluoroisonicotinic acid (2‐FNA) additive that possesses fluorine (‐F), carboxylic acid (‐COOH), and pyridine nitrogen as functional groups in the perovskite precursor to assist the crystallization process is utilized. It shows that 2‐FNA can efficiently reduce the defects and suppress non‐radiative recombination of perovskite layers by bonding with the uncoordinated Pb2+ ions, formamidinium (FA+), and halide vacancies, leading to notably prolonged carrier lifetime. Most importantly, this found that 2‐FNA aids in the formation of better interfacial contact between the perovskite and C60 layer on top, thus enhancing the interfacial electron extraction therein, eventually leading to an increased power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 28.61% on champion perovskite/silicon TSCs from 27.08% on control counterparts. This work provides a practical route to further advance the PV performance and applicability of perovskite/silicon TSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]