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Stretchable electrodes are critical to the development of advanced technologies such as human–machine interaction, flexible sensing, and wearable power supply, making them of significant research value. However, the current preparation methods for high‐performance stretchable electrodes are complex and inefficient, posing challenges for their large‐scale application in the realm of flexible wearables. To address this need, a straightforward and efficient embedding strategy is reported for fabricating stretchable silver nanowire/thermoplastic elastomer composite electrodes (referred to as Strem‐AT) utilizing the viscoelasticity and outstanding mechanical properties of polymer elastomers to achieve outstanding extensibility, conductivity, and a smooth surface. These electrodes exhibit excellent tensile behavior, low surface roughness, and stable electrical properties, enabling their successful integration into stretchable sensors and intrinsically stretchable organic photovoltaic cells (IS‐OPV). When applied to human skin joints for motion detection, the sensor demonstrates remarkable stretchability and stable signal output. Importantly, the all‐polymer IS‐OPV exhibits a top‐notch power conversion efficiency (PCE) of >12.5% and a PCE80% strain exceeding 50%. Furthermore, even after subjecting high‐strain stretching at 50% for 1000 cycles, the IS‐OPV can retain 76% of the initial PCE. This study presents a multifunctional stretchable electrode with high repeatability and easy‐to‐scale fabrication in wearable sensors and photovoltaics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsically stretchable organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) have garnered significant attention as crucial devices for powering next‐generation wearable electronics. Despite the rapid power conversion efficiency gains in champion OPVs, their brittle stretchability has failed to meet the demands of the Internet of Things era, severely hindering further development and practical applications. In this regard, a new dual‐donor polymer blending strategy is demonstrated for constructing intrinsically stretchable OPVs by designing a novel high‐molecular–weight conjugated polymer PM6‐HD. This PM6 derivative featuring long alkyl chains can reach a sufficiently high molecular weight and thus exhibits a high fracture strain exceeding 90%, which is ≈12 times higher than the benchmark PM6. Synergistic optimization of mechanical properties and photovoltaic performance in polymer:small molecule and all‐polymer systems constructed from the physical blends of PM6 and PM6‐HD is achieved. Crucially, the resulting intrinsically stretchable OPV demonstrates excellent stretchability and stability, with a record PCE80% strain of 50.3% and the efficiency retention of above 80% even after 1000 cycles of cyclic stretching at high strains. This work contributes to the advancement of intrinsically stretchable OPV technology and opens up new possibilities for its integration into wearable electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progress of stretchable and wearable photovoltaics relies heavily on intrinsically stretchable active layer films. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research clarifying the connections between their microstructure, performance, and their adaptation to large strain in polymer electronic films. The current study utilizes multiple synchrotron X‐ray scattering methods to collectively examine the correlations between morphology and stretchability, as well as the microstructural evolution induced by stretching in three sample cases of highly stretchable ternary blend films. These blends contain over 30% by weight of a polymer elastomer, such as styrene‐ethylene‐butylene‐styrene block copolymer, integrated into the high‐performance polymer:nonfullerene small molecule mixture. Specifically, the real‐time microstructural changes of these durable organic photovoltaic films with elastomers are monitored when subjected to tensile stretching through in situ synchrotron X‐ray scattering. The experiments demonstrate that polymeric elastomers can effectively lower the degree of crystallinity in films and deform the crystallites of semiconductor molecules. The elastomeric component aids in stress dispersion during stretching, thereby improving the microstructural durability of blend films. This study provides new recommendations for advancing stretchable organic optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has witnessed continuous breakthroughs in the past few years, mostly benefiting from the extensive use of a facile ternary blending strategy by blending the host polymer donor:small molecule acceptor mixture with a second small molecule acceptor. Nevertheless, this rather general strategy used in the well‐known PM6 systems fails in constructing high‐performance P3HT‐based ternary OPVs. As a result, the efficiencies of all resulting ternary blends based on a benchmark host P3HT:ZY‐4Cl and a second acceptor are no more than 8%. Employing the mutual miscibility of the binary blends as a guide to screen the second acceptor, here we were able to break the longstanding 10%‐efficiency barrier of ternary OPVs based on P3HT and dual nonfullerene acceptors. With this rational approach, we identified a multifunctional small molecule acceptor BTP‐2Br to simultaneously improve the photovoltaic performance in both P3HT and PM6‐based ternary OPVs. Attractively, the P3HT:ZY‐4Cl:BTP‐2Br ternary blend exhibited a record‐breaking efficiency of 11.41% for P3HT‐based OPVs. This is the first‐ever report that over 11% efficiency is achieved for P3HT‐based ternary OPVs. Importantly, the study helps the community to rely less on trial‐and‐error methods for constructing ternary solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a numerical simulation method based on the camshaft casting process and crack expansion was proposed to study the propagation characteristics of casting hot cracks. The dynamic visualisation process of hot crack growth indicates that the formation of hot tear is dominated by opening mode cracks. And during the propagation process, the equivalent stress intensity factor at the crack front first decreases and then increases. Furthermore, the propagation characteristics of the crack under different hot tear initiation conditions were studied by this method. The results reveal that the expansion ability of a hot crack is affected by the equilibrium solidification scale, solidification sequence, and solidification path of the casting. Finally, using the microscopic morphology of the cracks, the semi-quantitative analysis of the elements illustrates that the carbon content decreases sharply at the crack formation site, while manganese and sulphur are relatively rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging solution‐based solar cells and photodetectors have gained worldwide research interest over the past decades. Hole transport materials (HTMs) have greatly advanced the progress of these solution‐based electronics. Nevertheless, developing low‐cost and efficient HTMs is far from satisfactory. In this contribution, poly(3‐pentylthiophene) (P3PT) is introduced as a facile, low‐cost, and versatile dopant‐free polymer HTM for both quantum dot (QD) and perovskite electronic devices. Compared to the broadly used poly(3‐hexylthiophene), P3PT presents the reduced molecular aggregation and preferential face‐on orientation, which can markedly enhance the hole‐carrier transport in optoelectronic devices. Accordingly, P3PT can deliver the substantial improvement of photovoltaic performance from ∼8.6% to ∼9.5% for QD/polythiophene solar cells and from ∼16% to ∼18.8% for perovskite/polythiophene solar cells, which are both among the topmost values in the corresponding fields. Furthermore, P3PT HTMs can also significantly enhance the photodetection performance of QD and perovskite photodetectors by a factor of ∼3, indicating its great application potential in a variety of emerging optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the comprehensive mechanical properties of Mg-15Al magnesium alloy, different amounts (from 0 to 4.0wt.%) of Nd were added to the alloy and six Mg-15Al-xNd alloys were prepared by metal mould casting. The effect of Nd content on microstructure of the alloys was investigated by means of OM, SEM, EDS, TEM, and XRD. The tensile properties were tested at room temperature (RT) and high temperature (473 K). The results indicate that the primary α-Mg dendrite is significantly refined with the addition of Nd. The best refinement is reached at 1.0wt.% Nd content and the average dendrite arm spacing decreases from 80-100 μm (without Nd addition) to ~20 μm. A further increase in Nd content leads to the coarsening of the primary α-Mg dendrite. The addition of Nd improves the tensile properties of Mg-15Al both at RT and 473 K. The Mg-15Al alloy containing 1.0wt.% Nd exhibits the best tensile properties. Compared with the alloy without Nd, the yield and ultimate tensile strength of the Mg-15Al-1.0Nd alloy at RT increase from 132.3 to 148.6 MPa and 152.3 to 189.6 MPa, increase by 12.3% and 24.5%, respectively; and the elongation at RT increases from 0.05 % to 1.24%. The yield and tensile strength of the alloy at 473 K increase from 97.9 to 115.3 MPa and 121.6 to 140.1 MPa, increase by 15.2% and 20%, respectively. Further increment of Nd content to 1.5wt.% degrades the tensile properties, which is ascribed to grain coarsening and growth of the Al-Nd phase.

The emerging solution-processing photovoltaic technologies, e.g., quantum dot (QD) and organic solar cells, have witnessed unprecedented progress in the past decade. Nevertheless, both technologies have their own merits, holding promising potential to be leveraged for mutual win. Herein, a comprehensive and critical review of the state-of-the-art hybrid solar cells with three promising QDs (lead chalcogenide QDs, AgBiS2 QDs, and perovskite QDs) is delivered with the goal of further enhancing their performance and stability for large-scale applications. Firstly, we discussed the working principles of hybrid solar cells and highlighted the combined support of various structures. Subsequently, QD passivation with organic ligands was further outlined, focusing on further enhancing the performance of QD solar cells. Then, there is an in-depth discussion on worldwide research efforts to enhance the performance and stability of hybrid devices, including bulk-heterojunction, bilayer, and tandem structures. Finally, the remaining open challenges and our insights are presented to offer promising research directions for further performance breakthrough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: With the emergence of Y‐series small molecule acceptors, polymerizing the small molecule acceptors with aromatic linker units has attracted significant research attention, which has greatly advanced the photovoltaic performance of all‐polymer solar cells. Despite the rapid increase in efficiency, the unique characteristics (e. g., mechanical stretchability and flexibility) of all‐polymer systems were still not thoroughly explored. In this work, we demonstrate an effective approach to simultaneously improve device performance, stability, and mechanical robustness of all‐polymer solar cells by properly suppressing the aggregation and crystallization behaviors of polymerized Y‐series acceptors. Strikingly, when introducing 50 wt% PYF‐IT (a fluorinated version of PY‐IT) into the well‐known PM6:PY‐IT system, the all‐polymer devices delivered an impressive photovoltaic efficiency of 16.6%, significantly higher than that of the control binary cell (15.0%). Compared with the two binary systems, the optimal ternary blend exhibits more efficient charge separation and balanced charge transport accompanying with less recombination. Moreover, a high‐performance 1.0 cm2 large‐area device of 15% efficiency was demonstrated for the optimized ternary all‐polymer blend, which offered a desirable PCE of 14.5% on flexible substrates and improved mechanical flexibility after bending 1000 cycles. Notably, these are among the best results for 1.0 cm2 all‐polymer OPVs thus far. This work also heralds a bright future of all‐polymer systems for flexible wearable energy‐harvesting applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: With the emergence of Y‐series small molecule acceptors, polymerizing the small molecule acceptors with aromatic linker units has attracted significant research attention, which has greatly advanced the photovoltaic performance of all‐polymer solar cells. Despite the rapid increase in efficiency, the unique characteristics (e. g., mechanical stretchability and flexibility) of all‐polymer systems were still not thoroughly explored. In this work, we demonstrate an effective approach to simultaneously improve device performance, stability, and mechanical robustness of all‐polymer solar cells by properly suppressing the aggregation and crystallization behaviors of polymerized Y‐series acceptors. Strikingly, when introducing 50 wt% PYF‐IT (a fluorinated version of PY‐IT) into the well‐known PM6:PY‐IT system, the all‐polymer devices delivered an impressive photovoltaic efficiency of 16.6%, significantly higher than that of the control binary cell (15.0%). Compared with the two binary systems, the optimal ternary blend exhibits more efficient charge separation and balanced charge transport accompanying with less recombination. Moreover, a high‐performance 1.0 cm2 large‐area device of 15% efficiency was demonstrated for the optimized ternary all‐polymer blend, which offered a desirable PCE of 14.5% on flexible substrates and improved mechanical flexibility after bending 1000 cycles. Notably, these are among the best results for 1.0 cm2 all‐polymer OPVs thus far. This work also heralds a bright future of all‐polymer systems for flexible wearable energy‐harvesting applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs) are one of the most promising application‐oriented organic photovoltaic technologies due to their excellent operational and mechanical stability. However, the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are mostly lower than 16%, restricting their core competitiveness. Furthermore, the improvement of mechanical durability is rarely paid attention to cutting‐edge all‐PSCs. This work deploys a low‐cost "technical grade" PCBM (incompletely separated but pure mixtures containing ≥90% [70]PCBM or [60]PCBM), into the efficient PM6:PY‐IT all‐polymer blend, successfully yielding a high‐performance ternary device with 16.16% PCE, among the highest PCE values for all‐PSCs. Meanwhile, an excellent mechanical property (i.e., crack onset strain = 11.1%) promoted from 9.5% for the ternary system is also demonstrated. The "technical grade" PCBM slightly disrupts the crystallization of polymers, and disperses well into the amorphous polymer regions of the all‐PSC blends, thus facilitating charge transport and improving film ductility simultaneously. All these results confirm introducing low‐cost "technical grade" PCBM with high electron mobility into all‐polymer blends can improve carrier mobility, reduce charge recombination, and optimize morphology of the amorphous polymer regions, thus yielding more efficient and mechanically durable all‐PSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid solar cells with organic semiconductors and quantum dots (QDs) have witnessed great advance in the past few years. Nevertheless, the great majority of organic and QD hybrid solar cells generally employ halogenated solvents for the processing of organic hole‐transporting interlayers. Herein, the impact of solvents on the organic semiconductor material for hybird solar cells is systematically explored. The o‐xylene‐processed polythiophene delivers a champion photovoltaic performance of 8.7%, which is the record value for QD and poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) hybrid solar cells. The morphology results reveal that P3HT films processed with o‐XY present the moderate morphology and characteristic length scales, enabling the high photovoltaic performance. Moreover, the relationships between solvents, molecular stacking, film morphology, and photovoltaic performance are built to offer the guideline of solvents screening for these hybrid solar cells. Moreover, the great superiority of nonhalogenated solvents in fabricating high‐performance optoelectronic devices with low hazards is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging solution‐processed solar cells have attracted worldwide effort in the last decade. Developing efficient, stable, and cost‐effective solar cells is strongly desirable in countering the growing global warming. Nevertheless, the photovoltaic performance and stability of hybrid solar cells based on low‐cost polythiophenes are far from satisfactory, due to their high‐lying energy levels and excessive aggregation. Herein, it is shown that brominated polythiophene (P3HT‐Br), prepared via a facile two‐step approach can effectively facilitate charge transport and suppress recombination in quantum dot (QD)/organic heterojunctions. Accordingly, the power conversion efficiency of the optimized hybrid polythiophene/QD cell is boosted from 8.7% to 11% (a 26% increase) with markedly reduced energy loss. More strikingly, the device achieves record‐high thermal stability with a lifetime of over 400 h maintaining 80% of the initial performance. Both device efficiency and stability are the best reported for polythiophene/QD hybrid solar cells. Moving forward, brominated polythiophenes hold great application in perovskite solar cells with significantly improved performance and offer new opportunities for other emerging solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of low bandgap polymer acceptors has promoted the efficiency up to ≈17% for all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs). Nevertheless, the polymeric blend film, core to the photoelectric conversion of all‐PSCs, has not been thoroughly understood in terms of the influence and regulatory factors of mechanical properties, which hinders the advances in flexible and wearable applications. Herein, a range of characterization methods is combined to investigate the mechanical properties, miscibility, and film microstructure of the blends based on several representative polymer donors (PTzBI‐Si, PTVT‐T, PM6 and PTQ10) and a benchmark polymer acceptor N2200, and to further reveal the miscibility‐property relationships of the miscibility property. The results stress that fracture behaviors and elastic moduli of these blends with varied compositions show different changing trends, which are affected by molecular interactions and aggregated structure of the blends. The elastic moduli of the four all‐polymer blends can be nicely predicted by different models that are deduced from macromolecular mechanics. Most crucially, the correlations between elastic modulus, morphology, and miscibility of all‐polymer blends are elucidated for the first time. The derived relationships is validated with another high‐efficiency blend and will be the key to the successful fabrication of mechanically robust and stretchable all‐PSCs with high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All‐polymer solar cells (All‐PSCs) have attracted tremendous research interest in the recent decade due to the great potentials in stretchable electronic applications in terms of long‐term stability and mechanical stretchability. Driven by the molecular design of novel polymer acceptors and morphology optimization, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of All‐PSCs has developed rapidly and now exceeded 17%. This review outlines the promising strategies for high‐performance All‐PSCs from the aspect of morphology control with the motivation to rationally guide the optimization. In this review, we briefly discuss the thermodynamic mixing principles of all‐polymer blends and the effects of the molecular structure of conjugated polymers on thin‐film morphology in All‐PSCs. The crucial role of molecular miscibility in influencing morphological features and performance metrics was highlighted. We also expound on the effective methods of controlling film morphology through properly tuning the aggregation behavior of polymers. In particular, insightful studies on the commonly used naphthalene diimide‐based acceptor polymers and the newly emerging polymerized nonfullerene small molecule acceptors (ITIC‐series, Y6 ‐series, etc) are discussed in detail. Finally, we present an outlook on the major challenges and the new opportunities of All‐PSCs for efficiency breakthroughs targeting 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a benchmark semiconducting polymer, poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT) has been broadly used to construct a wide range of organic electronic devices such as photovoltaic cells, photodetectors, thermoelectrics, and transistors. In the last two decades, numerous studies have concentrated on modulating the morphology and performance of organic solar cells based on P3HT and fullerene derivatives. In comparison with P3HT:fullerene systems, the blends of P3HT with emerging nonfullerene acceptors remain significantly less explored and the structure–performance relationships are not well established. In this work, time-dependent grazing incidence X-ray scattering and real-space microscopy experiments were carried out to monitor the microstructure change of the high-efficiency blend of P3HT and a Y6-type nonfullerene acceptor (i.e., ZY-4Cl) over the duration of thermal annealing. By precisely manipulating the crystalline order of both the donor and acceptor, we found that simply shortening the annealing time can cause a remarkable 19-fold increase in the solar cell efficiency. We observed profound changes in all the photovoltaic parameters (open-circuit voltage, current density, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency) within the first 1 minute, while a slight variation emerged in the later stage. Attractively, the P3HT:ZY-4Cl blend film subject to thermal annealing for merely 30 seconds gave rise to a remarkable power conversion efficiency of ∼10.7%, which is the best efficiency of P3HT-based organic photovoltaic cells at present. The research shed light on the morphological optimization and cost-effective processing of polythiophene:nonfullerene blends for optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable strain sensors based on flexible conductive polymer composites (FCPCs) have attracted great attention due to their applications in the fields of human–machine interaction, disease diagnostics, human motion detection, and soft robotic skin. In recent decades, FCPC‐based strain sensors with high stretchability and sensitivity, short response time, and excellent stability have been developed, which are expected to be more versatile and intelligent. Smart strain sensors are required to provide wearable comfort, such as breathability, self‐cooling ability, and so forth. To adapt to the harsh environment, wearable strain sensors should also be highly adaptive to protect the skin and the sensor itself. In addition, portable power supply system, multisite sensing capability, and multifunctionality are crucial for the next generation of FCPC‐based strain sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have shown that the absence of bile in the gut lumen, either by bile duct ligation or bile diversion, induces mucosal injury. However, the mechanism remains elusive. In this study, the role of bile pigments in gut barrier function was investigated in a rat model of bile duct ligation. Methods: Male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were used in this study. After ligation of bile duct, the animals were administrated with free bilirubin, bilirubin ditaurate, or biliverdin by intragastric gavage. 1, 2, or 3 days later, the animals were sacrificed and the damage of mucosa was assessed by histological staining as well as biochemical parameters such as changes of diamine oxidase (DAO) and D-lactate (D-Lac) in the blood. Trypsin and chymotrypsin of the gut were also measured to determine how these digestive proteases may relate to the observed effects of bile pigments. Results: Bile duct ligation (BDL) caused significant increases in gut trypsin and chymotrypsin along with damage of the mucosa as demonstrated by the histological findings under microscope, the reduced expression of tight junction molecules like occludin, and significant changes in DAO and D-lac in the blood. Free bilirubin but not bilirubin ditaurate or biliverdin showed significant inhibitions on trypsin and chymotrypsin as well as alleviated changes of histological and biochemical parameters related to gut barrier disruption. Conclusion: Bile may protect the gut from damage through inhibiting digestive proteases like trypsin and chymotrypsin by free bilirubin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Esophageal cancer (EC) is a highly lethal disease lacking early detection approaches. We previously identified that OTOP2 and KCNA3 were specifically hypermethylated in circulating cell-free DNA from patients with EC. We then developed a blood-based methylation assay targeting OTOP2 and KCNA3 (named "IEsohunter") for esophageal cancer noninvasive detection. This double-blinded, multicenter, prospective study aimed to comprehensively evaluate its clinical diagnostic performance. Methods: Participants with EC, high-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGIN), other malignancies, benign gastrointestinal lesions, or no abnormalities were prospectively enrolled from 5 tertiary referral centers across China. Peripheral blood samples were collected, followed by plasma cell-free DNA methylation analysis using the IEsohunter test based on multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction adopting an algorithm-free interpretation strategy. The primary outcome was the diagnostic accuracy of IEsohunter test for EC. Results: We prospectively enrolled 1116 participants, including 334 patients with EC, 71 with HGIN, and 711 controls. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves of the IEsohunter test for detecting EC and HGIN were 0.903 (95% CI 0.880–0.927) and 0.727 (95% CI 0.653–0.801), respectively. IEsohunter test showed sensitivities of 78.5% (95% CI 69.1–85.6), 87.3% (95% CI 79.4–92.4), 92.5% (95% CI 85.9–96.2), and 96.9% (95% CI 84.3–99.8) for stage I-IV EC, respectively, with an overall sensitivity of 87.4% (95% CI 83.4–90.6) and specificity of 93.3% (95% CI 91.2–94.9) for EC detection. The IEsohunter test status turned negative (100.0%, 47/47) after surgical resection of EC. Conclusions: The IEsohunter test showed high diagnostic accuracy for EC detection, indicating that it could potentially serve as a tool for noninvasive early detection and surveillance of EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible strain sensors capable of acquiring tiny mechanical signals and attaching to various irregular surfaces are becoming prevalent in physiological measurement, soft robotics, and human‐machine interaction. However, the advancement of flexible strain sensors is substantially impeded by the intrinsic compromise between sensitivity and the range of detectable signals. Inspired by the multilayer structure of nacre in nature, a carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/graphene (GR)/graphene (GR)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) mat (CGGTM) is prepared by electrospinning and high‐pressure spraying technology. By designing a multilayer structure with mutually non‐interfering conductive networks, the resulting CGGTM possesses a low detection limit (0.05% strain), high sensitivity (gauge factor, GF > 152537), large detection range (up to 364% strain), fast response/recovery time (80 ms/100 ms), and excellent cyclic durability (up to 1000 cycles). Furthermore, the CGGTM also exhibits satisfactory triboelectric performances when assembled into a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG, 3 × 3 cm2), including high triboelectric output (open‐circuit voltage Voc = 135.4 V, short‐circuit current Isc = 1.25 µA) and power density (88 mW m−2), enabling reliable power supply, self‐powered sensing, and pulse monitoring capability. Finally, CGGTM is successfully applied to the collection of biological signals and multi‐gesture motion recognition assisted by machine learning algorithms, which holds promise for intelligent interaction with gestures in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]