R. Diana

ITO-free polymer solar cells with inkjet-printed highly-conductive PEDOT:PSS anode

Actually the most promising polymer solar cell architecture utilizes ITO as transparent conductve anodic electrode. The limited flexibility of ITO and the increasing cost of indium make this kind of electrode not desirable for realizations of low-cost and flexible solar cells. For this reason, it is necessary to develop low-cost, highly flexible and transparent electrodes that can replace the widely used ITO. In this paper, we investigated a new commercial dispersion of PEDOT:PSS suitably modified with dimethyl sulfoxide in solution in order to obtain a highly transparent and conductive manufactured film (HC-PEDOT:PSS) by inkjet printing.

Evaluating the biological properties of synthetic 4-nitrophenyl functionalized benzofuran derivatives with telomeric DNA binding and antiproliferative activities

Four 4-nitrophenyl-functionalized benzofuran (BF1, BF2) and benzodifuran (BDF1, BDF2) compounds were synthesized by a convenient route based on the Craven reaction. All the compounds underwent a detailed chemical-physical characterization to evaluate their structural, thermal and optical properties. An investigation on the therapeutic potential of the reported compounds was performed by analyzing their antiproliferative activity on prostatic tumour cells (PC-3). In both classes of compounds, anticancer potential is in direct correlation with the lipophilicity. From our study it emerged that antiproliferative activity was higher for benzofuran derivatives as compared to benzodifuran systems. Moreover, we report a mechanistic study relative to the most promising molecule, i.e. the apolar benzofuran BF1, that relates the antiproliferative properties found in our investigation to its ability to bind telomeric DNA (proven by CD and fluorescence techniques on tel22 G4 DNA), and highlights its unexpected impact on cell cycle progression.