Structural,optical and electrical properties of indium doped Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin films synthesized by the DC and RF reactive magnetron cosputtering

Element doping into the Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) absorber is an effective method to optimize the performance of thin film solar cells. In this study, the Cu₂In_xZn_1-xSn(S,Se)₄ (CIZTSSe) precursor film was deposited by magnetron cosputtering technique using indium (In) and quaternary Cu₂ZnSnS₄ (CZTS) as targets. Meanwhile, the In content was controlled using the direct current (DC) power on In target (P_In). A single kesterite CIZTSSe alloy was formed by successfully doping a small number of In³⁺ into the main lattice of CZTSSe. The partial Zn²⁺ cations were substituted by In³⁺ ions, resulting in improving properties of CZTSSe films. Morphological analysis showed that large grain CIZTSSe films could be obtained by doping In. The well-distributed, smooth, and dense film was obtained when the P_In was 30 W. The band gap of CIZTSSe could be continuously adjusted from 1.27 to 1.05 eV as P_In increased from 0 to 40 W. In addition, the CIZTSSe alloy thin film at P_In = 30 W exhibited the best p-type conductivity with Hall mobility of 6.87 cm²V^?1s^?1, which is a potential material as the absorption layer of high-performance solar cells.     

Biocatalytic Alkylation Cascades: Recent Advances and Future Opportunities for Late-Stage Functionalization

This Concept article describes the latest developments in the emerging area of late-stage biocatalytic alkylation. Central to these developments is the ability to efficiently prepare S-adenosyl methionine (SAM) cofactor analogues and couple this with enzymatic alkyl transfer. Recent developments in the enzymatic synthesis of SAM cofactor analogues are summarized first, followed by their application as alkyl transfer agents catalyzed by methyltransferases (MTases). Second, innovative methods to regenerate SAM cofactors by enzymatic cascades is reported. Finally, future opportunities towards establishing a generalized platform for late-stage alkylation are described.     

Ferroelastic domain structure and phase transition in single-crystalline [PbZn1/3Nb2/3O3]1-x[PbTiO3]x observed via in situ x-ray microbeam

(1-x)Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-xPbTiO₃ ((1-x)PZN-xPT in short) is one of the most important piezoelectric materials. In this work, we extensively investigated (1-x)PZN-xPT (x = 0.07–0.11) ferroelectric single crystals using in-situ synchrotron μXRD, complemented by TEM and PFM, to correlate microstructures with phase transitions. The results reveal that (i) at 25 °C, the equilibrium state of (1-x)PZN-xPT is a metastable orthorhombic phase for x = 0.07 and 0.08, while it shows coexistence of orthorhombic and tetragonal phases for x = 0.09 and x = 0.11, with all ferroelectric phases accompanied by ferroelastic domains; (ii) upon heating, the phase transformation in x = 0.07 is Orthorhombic → Monoclinic → Tetragonal → Cubic. The coexistence of ferroelectric tetragonal and paraelectric cubic phases was in-situ observed in x = 0.08 above Curie temperature (T_C), and (iii) phase transition can be explained by the evolution of the ferroelectric and ferroelastic domains. These results disclose that (1-x)PZN-xPT are in an unstable regime, which is possible factor for its anomalous dielectric response and high piezoelectric coefficient.     

Stabilizing temperature-capacitance dependence of (Sr,Pb, Bi)TiO3-Bi4Ti3O12 solutions for energy storage

(1-x)Sr_0.7Pb_0.15Bi_0.1TiO₃-xBi₄Ti₃O₁₂ ((1-x)SPBT-xBIT, x = 0-0.125) bulk ceramics were developed and calcined via the solid-state method, aimed at the application of pulsed power capacitors. The phase structures, temperature stability, hysteresis loop, and discharge properties were systematically investigated. Considering both the temperature stability and dielectric properties, 0.925SPBT-0.075BIT bulk ceramics with a capacitance variation satisfying the X7R specification were developed for pulsed power capacitors. The energy storage density was 0.252 J/cm³, and the ceramics showed high temperature stability at 80 kV/cm. The discharge current waveforms of the 0.925SPBT-0.075BIT ceramics were recorded. A high discharge power density of approximately 1.01 × 10⁸ W/kg with an 8 Ω load resistor and short discharge period of 84 ns were achieved at 50 kV/cm. The good temperature stability properties and high power density show that the 0.925SPBT-0.075BIT ceramics are well suited for pulsed power capacitors with a wide temperature range.     

Visual Detection of Adenosine Triphosphate by Taylor Rising: A Simple Point-of-Care Testing Method Based on Rolling Circle Amplification

Rapid and sensitive point-of-care testing (POCT) is an extremely critical mission in practical applications, especially for rigorous military medicine, home health care, and in the third world. Here, we report a visual POCT method for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) detection based on Taylor rising in the corner of quadratic geometries between two rod surfaces. We discuss the principle of Taylor rising, demonstrating that it is significantly influenced by contact angle, surface tension, and density of the sample, which are controlled by ATP-dependent rolling circle amplification (RCA). In the presence of ATP, RCA reaction effectively suppresses Taylor-rising behavior, due to the increased contact angle, density, and decreased surface tension. Without addition of ATP, untriggered RCA reaction is favorable for Taylor rising, resulting in a significant height. With this proposed method, visual sensitive detection of ATP without the aid of other instruments is realized with only a 5 μL droplet, which has good selectivity and a low detection limit (17 nM). Importantly, this visual method provides a promising POCT tool for user-friendly molecular diagnostics.     

Annular‐ring slot antenna designs with circular polarization radiation

The design of a microstrip‐fed annular‐ring slot antenna (ARSA) with circular polarization (CP) radiation is initially studied. To obtain CP radiation with broad 3‐dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth that can cover the WiMAX 2.3 GHz (2305–2320 MHz, 2345–2360 MHz) and WLAN 2.4 GHz (2400–2480 MHz) bands, a novel technique of extending an inverted L‐shaped slot from the bottom section of the annular‐ring is proposed. To suppress the harmonic modes induced by the CP ARSA, the technique of integrating a defected ground structure into the annular‐ring slot is further introduced. From the measured results, 10‐dB impedance bandwidth and 3‐dB AR bandwidth of 44.86 and 9.68% were achieved by the proposed harmonic suppressed CP ARSA. Furthermore, average gain and radiation efficiency of ～4.7 dBic and 71%, respectively, were also exhibited across the bands of interest. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:337–345, 2015.     

Tetrahydroindoles as Multipurpose Screening Compounds and Novel Sirtuin Inhibitors

Indoles are privileged structures in medicinal and bioorganic chemistry that are particularly well suited to serve as platforms for diversity. Among many other therapeutic areas, the indole scaffold has been used to design aromatic compounds useful to interfere with enzymes engaged in the regulation of substrate acylation status, such as sirtuins. However, the planarity of the indole ring is not necessarily optimal for all target enzymes, especially when functionalization with aromatic side chains is required. Replacement of flat scaffolds by nonplanar molecular cores dominated by sp³ hybridization is a common strategy to avoid the disadvantages associated with poor solubility and high promiscuity, while covering less-well-explored areas of chemical space. Thus, we synthesized fragment-like tetrahydroindoles suitable for fragment-based drug discovery as well as a well-characterized small library intended as multipurpose screening compounds. For proof of principle, these compounds were screened against sirtuins 1–3, enzymes known to be addressable by indoles. We found that 2,6,6-trimethyl-4-oxo-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-1H-indole-3-carboxamides are potent and selective SIRT2 inhibitors. Compound 16 t displayed an IC₅₀ value of 0.98 μm and could serve as exquisite starting point for hit-to-lead profiling.