A trio of hot articles on improving the stability of spheres, organic photovoltaic materials and Li-ion batteries

27 Jun 2011

Compositional tunability and high temperature stability of ceria–zirconia hollow spheres: Doping zirconium into CeO₂ hollow spheres can increase the thermal stability of the spheres by around 200 ^OC say researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. Cerium oxide is an important support for metal–nanoparticle based catalysis and it has found widespread use as a support in three-way catalytic converters; however, pure ceria is prone to sintering at modest temperatures (~700 °C). The method described by the US based team creates hollow spheres with appropriate size and porosity for encapsulating noble metal nanoparticles. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C1JM10897B, Advance Article)

Phase behaviour of liquid-crystalline polymer/fullerene organic photovoltaic blends: thermal stability and miscibility: The phase transitions and thermal behaviour of an organic photovoltaic systems comprised of a liquid-crystalline fluorene-based polymer and a fullerene derivative are investigated in this hot article. The thermal stability and phase behaviour are crucial for maintaining the performance of polymer/fullerene solar cells. The team behind the research say that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer decreases the solubility of the fullerene derivative in the polymer phase which offers routes towards improving the photovoltaic performance of non-crystalline organic photovoltaic systems. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C1JM11239B, Advance Article)

Synthesis and electrochemistry of monoclinic Li(Mn_xFe_1−x)BO₃: a combined experimental and computational study: Japanese scientists have synthesised Li(Mn_xFe_1−x)BO₃ and studied its stability in Li-ion batteries. Replacing the (PO₄)³⁻ anion in Li-ion batteries with the smaller and lighter (BO₃)³⁻ could increase the theoretical capacity of the battery. (J. Mater. Chem., 2011, Advance Article DOI:10.1039/C1JM11131K)