Sun Yat-sen University

About: Sun Yat-sen University is a education organization based out in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 115149 authors who have published 113763 publications receiving 2286465 citations. The organization is also known as: Zhongshan University & SYSU.

Advanced red phosphors for white light-emitting diodes

Abstract: White light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) with high luminous brightness, low energy consumption, long lifetime and environmental friendliness can be applied in various fields. However, low colour rendering index and high correlated colour temperature have seriously limited the quality of white light, resulting from the deficiency of the red light component in commercial phosphors. New phosphors that can emit suitable red light are needed. The improvement of red emitters has gradually become a hot topic in WLED applications such as good colour rendering lighting and full colour displays. This review summarizes recent achievements concerning red phosphors mainly from three aspects. They are: intensifying absorption bands and reducing lattice defects to increase quantum efficiency; selecting an appropriate coordination environment and altering the lattice symmetry to fine-tune the luminescence spectra; and reducing the nonradiative transition rate and preventing charge imbalance of a luminescence centre to enhance thermal stability.

Interface passivation using ultrathin polymer–fullerene films for high-efficiency perovskite solar cells with negligible hysteresis

Abstract: Interfacial carrier recombination is one of the dominant loss mechanisms in high efficiency perovskite solar cells, and has also been linked to hysteresis and slow transient responses in these cells. Here we demonstrate an ultrathin passivation layer consisting of a PMMA:PCBM mixture that can effectively passivate defects at or near to the perovskite/TiO2 interface, significantly suppressing interfacial recombination. The passivation layer increases the open circuit voltage of mixed-cation perovskite cells by as much as 80 mV, with champion cells achieving Voc ∼ 1.18 V. As a result, we obtain efficient and stable perovskite solar cells with a steady-state PCE of 20.4% and negligible hysteresis over a large range of scan rates. In addition, we show that the passivated cells exhibit very fast current and voltage response times of less than 3 s under cyclic illumination. This new passivation approach addresses one of the key limitations of current perovskite cells, and paves the way to further efficiency gains through interface engineering.

Biodegradable poly(amine- co -ester) terpolymers for targeted gene delivery

Abstract: Many synthetic polycationic vectors for non-viral gene delivery show high efficiency in vitro, but their usually excessive charge density makes them toxic for in vivo applications. Here we describe the synthesis of a series of high molecular weight terpolymers with low charge density, and show that they exhibit efficient gene delivery, some surpassing the efficiency of the commercial transfection reagents Polyethylenimine and Lipofectamine 2000. The terpolymers were synthesized via enzyme-catalyzed copolymerization of lactone with dialkyl diester and amino diol, and their hydrophobicity adjusted by varying the lactone content and by selecting a lactone comonomer of specific ring size. Targeted delivery of the pro-apoptotic TRAIL gene to tumour xenografts by one of the terpolymers results in significant inhibition of tumour growth, with minimal toxicity both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings suggest that the gene delivery ability of the terpolymers stems from their high molecular weight and increased hydrophobicity, which compensates for their low charge density.

Cryo-EM structure of the mature dengue virus at 3.5-A resolution.

Abstract: Regulated by pH, membrane-anchored proteins E and M function during dengue virus maturation and membrane fusion. Our atomic model of the whole virion from cryo-electron microscopy at 3.5-A resolution reveals that in the mature virus at neutral extracellular pH, the N-terminal 20-amino-acid segment of M (involving three pH-sensing histidines) latches and thereby prevents spring-loaded E fusion protein from prematurely exposing its fusion peptide. This M latch is fastened at an earlier stage, during maturation at acidic pH in the trans-Golgi network. At a later stage, to initiate infection in response to acidic pH in the late endosome, M releases the latch and exposes the fusion peptide. Thus, M serves as a multistep chaperone of E to control the conformational changes accompanying maturation and infection. These pH-sensitive interactions could serve as targets for drug discovery.