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Organic–inorganic hybrid halide perovskite solar cells are promising for next-generation thin-film solar cells, demonstrating power conversion efficiency exceeding 25%. In particular, single-crystal perovskite materials are estimated to possess superior optoelectronic properties that can further enhance the efficiency. However, fabricating thin single-crystal perovskite for a light-absorber layer remains challenging. In this study, a 40-µm-thick single-crystalline MAPbBr3 perovskite is fabricated by inverse temperature crystallization (ITC) with a selective seed-transfer technique. By using a separate seed growth process and a seed-transfer process, a 16.23-mm2-large single domain high-quality single-crystalline MAPbBr3 perovskite can be grown without additional nucleation. The grown single-crystal MAPbBr3 exhibits a low surface roughness of 0.51 nm and low trap density of 7.61 × 108 cm−3. We also fabricate solar cells with single-crystalline MAPbBr3 using a glass substrate coated with SnO2 and indium-tin-oxide thin films. The single-crystal MAPbBr3-based solar cells demonstrate a power conversion efficiency of 4.31%.

Formic acid is a chemical with a simple molecular structure containing hydrogen. This liquid at room temperature is easy to handle and has a low toxicity, and is thus in the spotlight as a fuel. In particular, formic acid is an excellent fuel candidate because it can be operated at low temperatures when applied as a fuel in fuel cells with a high theoretical open-circuit voltage (1.48 V). However, it has a drawback in that the electrode catalyst is deactivated due to the generation of CO intermediates when formic acid is oxidized during cell operation. Therefore, to prevent this, an irreversibly adsorbed Bi on Pt catalyst is applied to a direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC) anode because it is easy to synthesize and economical. Physical analyses such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were conducted, and electrochemical evaluations were performed through half-cell and single-cell level tests. The results revealed that the formic acid oxidation reaction activity of the Bi-modified Pt/C was 13 times higher than that of the conventional catalyst at 0.58 V. Further, a DFAFC stack was fabricated using the Bi-modified Pt/C, which yielded a power of 300 W. These results suggest that a simple synthesis method can be applied to fabricating industrially available DFAFC stacks.

We propose a neural geometric parser learning single image camera calibration for man-made scenes. Unlike previous neural approaches that rely only on semantic cues obtained from neural networks, our approach considers both semantic and geometric cues, resulting in significant accuracy improvement. The proposed framework consists of two networks. Using line segments of an image as geometric cues, the first network estimates the zenith vanishing point and generates several candidates consisting of the camera rotation and focal length. The second network evaluates each candidate based on the given image and the geometric cues, where prior knowledge of man-made scenes is used for the evaluation. With the supervision of datasets consisting of the horizontal line and focal length of the images, our networks can be trained to estimate the same camera parameters. Based on the Manhattan world assumption, we can further estimate the camera rotation and focal length in a weakly supervised manner. The experimental results reveal that the performance of our neural approach is significantly higher than that of existing state-of-the-art camera calibration techniques for single images of indoor and outdoor scenes.

An ideal oxygen reduction catalyst for use in fuel cells should exhibit both long-term durability and high activity. In this study, to increase the durability of highly loaded platinum- and platinum-nickel alloy catalysts possessing different types of carbon supports, a nitrogen-doped carbon shell was introduced on the catalyst surface through dopamine coating. As the catalyst surfaces were altered following shell formation, the ionomer contents of the catalyst inks were adjusted to optimise the three-phase boundary formation. Single cell tests were then conducted on these inks by applying them in a membrane electrolyte assembly. Furthermore, to confirm the durability of the catalysts under accelerated conditions, the operation was continued for 200 h at 70 °C and at a relative humidity of 100%. Transmission electron microscopy and electrochemical analysis were conducted before and after the durability tests, and the observed phenomena were discussed for catalysts bearing different types of carbon supports.

With emerging stability issues in fuel cell technology, a non-conventional catalyst not supported on carbon materials has been highlighted because it can avoid negative influences of carbon support materials on the stability, such as carbon corrosion. The nanostructured thin film catalyst is representative of non-conventional catalysts, which shows improved stability, enhanced mass specific activity, and fast mass transfer at high current densities. However, the nanostructured thin film catalyst usually requires multi-step processes for fabrication, making its mass production complex and irreproducible. We introduce a Pt-Cu alloy nanostructured thin film catalyst, which can be simply prepared by electrodeposition. By using hydrogen bubbles as a template, a three-dimensional free-standing foam of Cu was electrodeposited directly on the micro-porous layer/carbon paper and it was then displaced with Pt by simple immersion. The structure characterization revealed that a porous thin Pt-Cu alloy catalyst layer was successfully formed on the micro-porous layer/carbon paper. The synthesized Pt-Cu alloy catalyst exhibited superior durability compared to a conventional Pt/C in single cell test.

Novel synthesis of a Pt catalyst encapsulated in a N-containing carbon layer for use in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell is described in this study. A Pt-aniline complex, formed by mixing Pt precursor and aniline monomer, was used as the source of Pt, C, and N. Heat treatment of the Pt-aniline complex with carbon black yielded 5 nm Pt nanoparticles encapsulated by a N-containing carbon layer originating from aniline carbonization. The synthesized Pt catalyst exhibited higher mass specific activity to oxygen reduction reaction than that shown by conventional Pt/C catalyst because pyridinic N with graphitic carbon in the carbon layer provided active sites for oxygen reduction reaction in addition to those provided by Pt. In single cell testing, initial performance of the synthesized catalyst was limited because the thick catalyst layer increased resistance related to mass transfer. However, it was observed that the carbon layer successfully prevented Pt nanoparticles from growing via agglomeration and Ostwald ripening under fuel cell operation, thereby improving durability. Furthermore, a mass specific performance of the synthesized catalyst higher than that of a conventional Pt/C catalyst was achieved by modifying the synthesized catalyst's layer thickness.

Active, stable electrocatalysts based on non-precious metals for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are critical for the development of cost-effective, efficient renewable energy technologies. Here, Fe/Fe3C-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon was fabricated via pyrolysis of iron-porphyrin-encapsulated mesoporous metal–organic frameworks [PCN-333 (Fe), where “PCN” stands for “porous coordination network”] at 700 °C. The various characterization techniques confirmed that Fe- and Fe3C-containing Fe–N–C material (FeP-P333-700) was successfully prepared by pyrolysis of porphyrin-encapsulated PCN-333 (Fe). FeP-P333-700 exhibited superior electrocatalytic performance for the ORR and HER owing to the synergistic effect of Fe/Fe3C and Fe–N–C active sites.

Electrochemical catalysts with a core-shell structure have received much attention because of their enhanced efficiency and activity. Among them, those with a CuPd alloy core exhibit better activity than the ones with a single metal Pd core, which is known to be an excellent core-material. However, the superior performance of previously reported Pt catalysts with CuPd core has only been observed in half-cells, and was not reflected or even expanded to single-cells. We report catalysts having a Matryoshka-like structure with a Pt outer-layer, Cu interlayer, and Pd core for oxygen reduction reaction. This catalyst has 3.4 times higher Pt mass activity than the commercial Pt/C in half-cells, and also performs better in single-cells at only 0.056 mgPt cm−2. Particularly, the stability of this catalyst satisfies the 2020 DOE target, and electrochemical surface area loss during the stability test is only 40 % for this catalyst, while that of Pt/C is 80 %.

Beyond a traditional view that metal nanoparticles formed upon electrochemical reaction are inactive against lithium, recently their electrochemical participations are manifested and elucidated as catalytic and interfacial effects. Here, ruthenium metal composed of ≈5 nm nanoparticles is prepared and the pure ruthenium as a lithium-ion battery anode for complete understanding on anomalous lithium storage reaction mechanism is designed. In particular, the pure metal electrode is intended for eliminating the electrochemical reaction-derived Li2 O phase accompanied by catalytic Li2 O decomposition and the interfacial lithium storage at Ru/Li2 O phase boundary, and thereby focusing on the ruthenium itself in exploring its electrochemical reactivity. Intriguingly, unusual lithium storage not involving redox reactions with electron transfer but leading to lattice expansion is identified in the ruthenium electrode. Size-dependent charge redistribution at surface enables additional lithium adsorption to occur on the inactive but more environmentally sensitive nanoparticles, providing innovative insight into dynamic electrode environments in rechargeable lithium chemistry.

The development of a low cost and highly active alternative to the commercial Pt/C catalysts used in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) requires a facile and environmentally-friendly synthesis process to facilitate large-scale production and provide an effective replacement. Transition metals, in conjunction with nitrogen-doped carbon, are among the most promising substitute catalysts because of their high activity, inexpensive composition, and high carbon monoxide tolerance. We prepared a polyaniline-derived Fe-N-C catalyst for oxygen reduction using a facile one-pot process with no additional reagents. This process was carried out by ultrasonicating a mixture containing an iron precursor, an aniline monomer, and carbon black. The half-wave potential of the synthesized Fe-N-C catalyst for the ORR was only 10 mV less than that of a commercial Pt/C catalyst. The optimized Fe-N-C catalyst showed outstanding performance in a practical anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC), suggesting its potential as an alternative to commercial Pt/C catalysts for the ORR.