Advances in the design and application of highly efficient conjugated polymers and small molecules over the past years have enabled the rapid progress in the development of organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology as a promising alternative to conventional solar cells. Among the numerous OPV materials, benzodithiophene (BDT)-based polymers and small molecules have come to the fore in achieving outstanding power conversion efficiency (PCE) and breaking 10% efficiency barrier in the single junction OPV devices. Remarkably, the OPV device featured by BDT-based polymer has recently demonstrated an impressive PCE of 11.21%, indicating the great potential of this class of materials in commercial photovoltaic applications. In this review, we offered an overview of the organic photovoltaic materials based on BDT from the aspects of backbones, functional groups, alkyl chains, and device performance, trying to provide a guideline about the structure-performance relationship. We believe more exciting BDT-based photovol...

Molecular Design of Benzodithiophene-Based Organic Photovoltaic Materials.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture using solid sorbents has been recognized as a very promising technology that has attracted intense attention from both academic and industrial fields in the last decade. It is astonishing that around 2000 papers have been published from 2011 to 2014 alone, which is less than three years after our first review paper in this journal on solid CO2 sorbents was published. In this short period, much progress has been made and the major research focus has more or less changed. Therefore, we feel that it is necessary to give a timely update on solid CO2 capture materials, although we still have to keep some important literature results published in the past years so as to keep the good continuity. We believe this work will benefit researchers working in both academic and industrial areas. In this paper, we still organize the CO2 sorbents according to their working temperatures by classifying them as such: (1) low-temperature ( 400 °C). Since the sorption capacity, kinetics, recycling stability and cost are important parameters when evaluating a sorbent, these features will be carefully considered and discussed. In addition, due to the huge amounts of cost-effective CO2 sorbents demanded and the importance of waste resources, solid CO2 sorbents prepared from waste resources and their performance are reviewed. Finally, the techno-economic assessments of various CO2 sorbents and technologies in real applications are briefly discussed.

Recent advances in solid sorbents for CO2 capture and new development trends

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are a unique class of materials that combine extended π-conjugation with a permanently microporous skeleton. Since their discovery in 2007, CMPs have become established as an important subclass of porous materials. A wide range of synthetic building blocks and network-forming reactions offers an enormous variety of CMPs with different properties and structures. This has allowed CMPs to be developed for gas adsorption and separations, chemical adsorption and encapsulation, heterogeneous catalysis, photoredox catalysis, light emittance, sensing, energy storage, biological applications, and solar fuels production. Here we review the progress of CMP research since its beginnings and offer an outlook for where these materials might be headed in the future. We also compare the prospect for CMPs against the growing range of conjugated crystalline covalent organic frameworks (COFs).

Advances in Conjugated Microporous Polymers.

Morphology Control in Organic Solar Cells

The presence of an excessive concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere needs to be curbed with suitable measures including the reduction of CO2 emissions at stationary point sources such as power plants through carbon capture technologies and subsequent conversion of the captured CO2 into non-polluting clean fuels/chemicals using photo and/or electrocatalytic pathways. Porous materials have attracted much attention for carbon capture and in the recent past; they have witnessed significant advancements in their design and implementation for CO2 capture and conversion. In this context, the emerging trends in major porous adsorbents such as MOFs, zeolites, POPs, porous carbons, and mesoporous materials for CO2 capture and conversion are discussed. Their surface texture and chemistry, and the influence of various other features on their efficiency, selectivity, and recyclability for CO2 capture and conversion are explained and compared thoroughly. The scientific and technical advances on the material structure versus CO2 capture and conversion provide deep insights into designing effective porous materials. The review concludes with a summary, which compiles the key challenges in the field, current trends and critical challenges in the development of porous materials, and future research directions combined with possible solutions for realising the deployment of porous materials in CO2 capture and conversion.

Emerging trends in porous materials for CO2 capture and conversion

Conjugated Porous Polymers for Photocatalysis: The Road From Catalytic Mechanism, Molecular Structure to Advanced Applications

Covalent organic framework (COF) film with highly exposed active sites is considered as the promising flexible self-supported electrode for in-plane micro-supercapacitor (MSC). Superlattice configuration assembled alternately by different nanofilms based on van der Waals force can integrate the advantages of each isolated layer to exhibit unexpected performances as MSC film electrodes, which may be a novel option to ensure energy output. Herein, a mesoporous free-standing A-COF nanofilm (pore size is 3.9 nm, averaged thickness is 4.1 nm) with imine bond linkage and a microporous B-COF nanofilm (pore size is 1.5 nm, averaged thickness is 9.3 nm) with β-keto-enamine-linkages are prepared, and for the first time, we assembly the two lattice matching films into sandwich-type superlattices via layer-by-layer transfer, in which ABA-COF superlattice stacking into a "nano-hourglass" steric configuration that can accelerate the dynamic charge transportation/accumulation and promote the sufficient redox reactions to energy storage. The fabricated flexible MSC-ABA-COF exhibits the highest intrinsic CV of 927.9 F cm-3 at 10 mV s-1 than reported two-dimensional alloy, graphite-like carbon and undoped COF-based MSC devices so far, and shows a bending-resistant energy density of 63.2 mWh cm-3 even after high-angle and repeat arbitrary bending from 0 to 180°. This work provides a feasible way to meet the demand for future miniaturization and wearable electronics. 

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Bending Resistance Covalent Organic Framework Superlattice: “Nano-Hourglass”-Induced Charge Accumulation for Flexible In-Plane Micro-Supercapacitors

A Facile Approach to Improve the Methane Catalytic Performance of Lacoo3 Perovskite

Hollow spherical organic polymer artificial layer enabled stable Li metal anode

Hydrogen is now becoming a great source of efficient and clean energy to cope with the world's energy problem. The electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a non-polluting way to get large quantities of hydrogen. To accelerate the HER, it is very important to develop catalysts with a high HER performance. In this report, a CoS2-porous carbon foam (CoS2-CF-X, X = 1, 2, 3, and 4) catalyst for the HER was obtained using a hydrothermal method. Porous carbon foam provided a vehicle for rapid electron transport for CoS2, which made the prepared catalyst exhibit an excellent catalytic activity of the HER with a small overpotential of 121 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2; meanwhile the Tafel slope is 68 mV dec−1. In addition, the CoS2-CF catalyst displayed an excellent cyclic stability after 4000 cycles.

Shanlin Qiao

Papers

Conjugated Porous Polymers for Photocatalysis: The Road From Catalytic Mechanism, Molecular Structure to Advanced Applications

Bending Resistance Covalent Organic Framework Superlattice: “Nano-Hourglass”-Induced Charge Accumulation for Flexible In-Plane Micro-Supercapacitors

A Facile Approach to Improve the Methane Catalytic Performance of Lacoo3 Perovskite

Hollow spherical organic polymer artificial layer enabled stable Li metal anode

Cobalt disulfide supported on porous carbon foam as a high performance hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst