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To meet the industrial requirements of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells, it is imperative to accelerate the development of cost‐effective materials. Thiophene‐benzene‐thiophene central unit‐based acceptors possess the advantage of low synthetic cost, while their power conversion efficiency (PCE) is relatively low. Here, by incorporating a para‐substituted benzene unit and 1st‐position branched alkoxy chains with large steric hindrance, a completely non‐fused non‐fullerene acceptor, TBT‐26, was designed and synthesized. The narrow band gap of 1.38 eV ensures the effective utilization of sunlight. The favorable phase separation morphology of TBT‐26‐based blend film facilitates the efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport in corresponding OPV cell. Therefore, the TBT‐26‐based small‐area cell achieves an impressive PCE of 17.0 %, which is the highest value of completely non‐fused OPV cells. Additionally, we successfully demonstrated the scalability of this design by fabricating a 28.8 cm2 module with a high PCE of 14.3 %. Overall, our work provides a practical molecular design strategy for developing high‐performance and low‐cost acceptors, paving the way for industrial applications of OPV technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells, with highly tunable light‐response ranges, offer significant potential for use in driving low‐power consumption off‐grid electronics in multi‐scenarios. However, development of photoactive layer materials that can meet simultaneously the requirements of diverse irradiation conditions is a still challenging task. Herein, a low‐cost fully non‐fused acceptor (denoted as GS60) featuring well‐matched absorption spectra with solar, scattered light and artificial light radiation was designed and synthesized. Systematic characterizations revealed that GS60 possessed outstanding photoelectron properties and ideal morphology, which resulted in reduced voltage loss and suppressed charge recombination. By blending with a non‐fused ring polymer PTVT−T, the as‐obtained GS60 based OPV cells achieved a good power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.1 %, a high value for the cells based on non‐fused ring bulk heterojunction. Besides, manufactured large‐area OPV modules based on PTVT−T:GS60 yielded PCEs of 11.2 %, 11.8 %, 12.1 %, 23.1 %, and 20.3 % under irradiation of AM 1.5G, natural light of cloudy weather, natural light in shadow, laser and indoor, respectively. The PTVT−T:GS60 devices exhibited considerable potential in terms of improving photostability and reducing material cost. Overall, this work provides novel insight into the molecular design of low‐cost non‐fused ring acceptors, and extended potential of medium band gap acceptors based OPV cells used in various application scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production is an important strategy to achieve clean energy development. In this report, a novel three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical hollow tubular g-C 3 N 4 /ZnIn 2 S 4 nanosheets (HTCN/ZIS) type-Ⅱ heterojunction photocatalyst was successfully prepared and applied for photocatalytic hydrogen production under visible light irradiation. The experimental results reveal that the optimal proportion of HTCN/ZIS with the remarkable photocatalytic H 2 evolution rate of 20738 μmol h−1 g−1 was obtained. The main reasons for the improvement of hydrogen production activity are as follows: (i) this unique tubular hollow structure can effectively enhances the light capturing ability by the multiple light scattering/reflection of incident light in the inner cavity; (ii) the shorten the phase plane transmission distance could reduce the path of charge transfer; (iii) the surface coated a large number of scaly ZnIn 2 S 4 nanosheets can provide abundant reactive sites. Combining the various characterization tests, the enhanced spatial segregation of charge carriers could owning to the intimately interfacial contact and well-matched band gaps structure between g-C 3 N 4 and ZnIn 2 S 4 through the type-II heterojunction. This work provides a new prospect for the construction of a novel 3D hierarchical type-II heterojunction photocatalyst for highly efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CDs-ZSO composites were prepared by a simple precipitation-calcination method. • The CDs-ZSO composites showed outstanding visible-light photocatalytic activity. • The photocatalytic reaction mechanism and degradation pathway of TC were revealed. It is highly desired to enhance the photocatalytic activity of ZnSnO 3 owing to its potential application prospects in the photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics in water, such as the low cost, non-toxicity, simple preparation, although ZnSnO 3 possesses wide band gap (~3.2 eV). Herein, a novel carbon dots (CDs) modified porous ZnSnO 3 cubic photocatalyst was designed and synthesized using a simple precipitation-calcination method, which was to utilize the up-conversion photoluminescence performance and the ability of electronic transfer of CDs, further broadening the visible light absorption range of the photocatalyst and accelerating the separation of the electron-hole pairs. The experimental results indicate that with the optimal CDs loading (3 wt%), the CDs modified ZnSnO 3 exhibits 21 times higher degradation kinetic towards tetracycline (TC) than pure ZnSnO 3. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of CDs-ZnSnO 3 composites may be attributed to the increased absorption of visible light as well as the improved separation of interface charge carrier. The possible mechanism of antibiotic photodegradation in the CDs-ZnSnO 3 composite photocatalytic system was proposed by active species capture experiment and electron spin resonance (ESR) technique. Furthermore, the possible photodegradation pathway of TC was proposed on the basis of the intermediates detected by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technology. This work provides a feasible strategy for effectively applying ZnSnO 3 -based photocatalyst to photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]