Article
Chemistry, Physical
Fenghua Zhang, Yujiao Yan, Mandi Li, Tao Lin, Denghui Xu, Xiong Li
Summary: In this study, a nonfullerene acceptor was introduced into the active layer of indoor photovoltaic devices, creating a ternary system specifically designed for indoor light conditions. By optimizing the acceptor ratio, a photovoltaic device suitable for low light intensity and commonly used indoor light sources was prepared, achieving significantly higher efficiency compared to traditional binary devices.
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Guorui He, Ben Mayberry, Manasi Pranav, Mohammad S. Shadabroo, Bowen Sun, Yonglin Cao, Safa Shoaee, Martin Stolterfoht, Dieter Neher, Felix Lang
Summary: Understanding performance limitations in low bandgap organic solar cells is crucial for improving their efficiency. In this study, we investigate ultralow bandgap OSCs and identify inefficient exciton dissociation and charge transfer recombination as major factors contributing to reduced efficiency. By reducing bimolecular and surface recombination, as well as exciton and charge transfer recombination, we show the potential to achieve an efficiency greater than 15% in the PTB7-Th:COTIC-4F system through simulations.
ACS ENERGY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Shin-ichiro Natsuda, Yuji Sakamoto, Taiki Takeyama, Rei Shirouchi, Toshiharu Saito, Yasunari Tamai, Hideo Ohkita
Summary: Understanding the excited-state dynamics of non-fullerene electron acceptors is crucial for improving organic solar cells, as shown in the study of a novel non-fullerene acceptor Y6. The study found that Y6 exhibited biphasic singlet exciton decay kinetics at low excitation fluences, and singlet excitons were more likely to decay via singlet-singlet exciton annihilation at high excitation fluences, leading to ultrafast triplet formation through singlet fission.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Junzhe Zhan, Lei Wang, Ming Zhang, Lei Zhu, Tianyu Hao, Guanqing Zhou, Zichun Zhou, Jiajun Chen, Wenkai Zhong, Chaoqun Qiu, Shifeng Leng, Yecheng Zou, Zhiwen Shi, Haiming Zhu, Wei Feng, Maojie Zhang, Yongfang Li, Yongming Zhang, Feng Liu
Summary: The use of solvent additives to optimize the morphology of the active layer in organic photovoltaics (OPV) for high power conversion efficiency is a common approach. Through experiments and analysis, it was found that adding 1,8-octanedithiol can significantly increase power conversion efficiency and improve thin-film nanostructure formation.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Adane Desta Fenta, Chun-Fu Lu, Abraha Tadese Gidey, Chin-Ti Chen
Summary: The study demonstrates that replacing PC71BM with the nonfullerene electron acceptor IT4F significantly improves the power conversion efficiency of the binary organic photovoltaic devices. In the ternary OPV system with a blending weight ratio of 1:1:0.25, the combination of PFT:IT4F:PC71BM further enhances the PCE. By finely tuning the OPV fabrication process, achieving a high PCE with devices containing a thick BHJ is possible.
ACS APPLIED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Akchheta Karki, Alexander J. Gillett, Richard H. Friend, Thuc-Quyen Nguyen
Summary: The recent progress highlights how pairing new nonfullerene electron acceptors with suitable high-performing polymer electron donors has significantly improved the power conversion efficiencies of single-junction organic solar cells. Studies on the device photophysics of high performing polymer:NFA blends demonstrate the importance of morphology on efficiency, and further challenges need to be addressed in order to achieve PCEs of over 20% in NFA OSCs.
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Qiri Huang, Jianhua Jing, Kai Zhang, Yanwei Chen, Ao Song, Zixian Liu, Fei Huang
Summary: A novel composite hole transport layer (HTL) is developed by combining a small molecule and molybdenum oxide (MoO3) to optimize the efficiency and stability of inverted organic solar cells (OSCs). The composite HTL improves the power conversion efficiency (PCE) to 18.49% and enhances the device stability.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY A
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Qian Li, Rui Wang, Chunfeng Zhang
Summary: Recently, the development of nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) with acceptor-donor-acceptor structures has greatly improved the performance of organic solar cells. The intermolecular electronic interactions between the donating and accepting units lead to intramoiety and interfacial delocalized excitations, which significantly contribute to photocurrent generation. This Perspective discusses the excited-state dynamics responsible for the working mechanism in NFA-based organic solar cells, emphasizing the role of delocalized excitations in charge generation and recombination processes. The intramoiety delocalized excitations in NFAs enable efficient charge separation without the formation of interfacial charge-transfer excitons, reducing interfacial energy loss in planar heterojunctions. Several research directions are suggested to further optimize NFA-based devices by elucidating the performance-limited processes.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Christyowati Primi Sagita, Jun Ho Lee, Seok Woo Lee, Dong Ryeol Whang, Joo Hyun Kim, Dong Wook Chang
Summary: A series of quinoxaline-based polymers containing CN groups were synthesized to investigate the effect of strong electron withdrawing CN groups on the photovoltaic properties. The power conversion efficiencies of the devices significantly improved due to the positive contributions of the CN group and alkylthienyl side chains, confirming the great potential for developing high-performance polymers for photovoltaic applications using electron-withdrawing CN groups.
JOURNAL OF POWER SOURCES
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tao Zhang, Cunbin An, Ye Xu, Pengqing Bi, Zhihao Chen, Jingwen Wang, Ni Yang, Yi Yang, Bowei Xu, Huifeng Yao, Xiaotao Hao, Shaoqing Zhang, Jianhui Hou
Summary: The correlation between molecular structure and photovoltaic performance is investigated using two medium-bandgap nonfullerene acceptors. The study finds that a large electrostatic potential difference is important for achieving high-performance OPV cells.
ADVANCED MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Kejia Zhao, Yuelin Huang, Mohamed E. El-Khouly, Jiaxuan Liu, Bin Zhang, Yingping Zou, Yu Chen
Summary: In this study, solution-processed bulk heterojunction optoelectronic switching devices were successfully fabricated using POFTPE as an electron donor and Y6 as an electron acceptor. The devices showed nonvolatile rewritable memory effects under both dark and light illumination conditions. The performance of the devices varied depending on the incident light wavelength, with different behaviors observed for POFTPE:Y6 and POFTPE:C-60 blends.
BULLETIN OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Hongxing Liu, Tingting Dai, Jialing Zhou, Helin Wang, Qing Guo, Qiang Guo, Erjun Zhou
Summary: Compared with perovskite solar cells and silicon solar cells, excessive voltage loss is hindering the improvement of organic photovoltaic. Non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with acceptor-donor-acceptor'-donor-acceptor (A-DA'D-A) structure and non-halogenated end group (NHEG) have attracted attention for their potential to achieve high open-circuit voltage (V-OC). This review summarizes the recent development of A-DA'D-A type NHEG-NFAs and their impact on optoelectronic properties and photovoltaic performance.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Zeng Chen, Xu Chen, Ziyan Jia, Guanqing Zhou, Jianqiu Xu, Yuexia Wu, Xinxin Xia, Xufeng Li, Xuning Zhang, Chao Deng, Yuan Zhang, Xinhui Lu, Weimin Liu, Chunfeng Zhang, Yang (Michael) Yang, Haiming Zhu
Summary: Nonfullerene acceptor organic solar cells with power conversion efficiency up to 18% show the formation of NFA triplet exciton as a main non-radiative recombination and energy loss channel. Side-chain fluorination in high-efficiency NFA OSCs efficiently inhibits charge recombination to NFA triplet excitons, leading to higher V-OC and PCE. This paves the way for OSCs with lower V-OC loss and efficiency exceeding 20%.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chenyu Han, Huanxiang Jiang, Pengchao Wang, Lu Yu, Jianxiao Wang, Jianhua Han, Wenfei Shen, Nan Zheng, Shuguang Wen, Yonghai Li, Xichang Bao
Summary: The structure of the BHJ is crucial to the efficiency of organic solar cells, with side chain engineering being a feasible way to manipulate BHJ networks. Isomerization of alkyl chains can reduce the acceptor's crystallinity and enhance the BHJ morphology, leading to improved efficiency.
MATERIALS CHEMISTRY FRONTIERS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
E. Salim
Summary: Recent studies have demonstrated that the addition of inorganic metal oxide nanoparticles can enhance the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells. Mixing ZnO and NiO nanoparticles in the photoactive layer significantly improves PCE, attributed to enhanced charge carrier transportation and reduced exciton annihilation. However, excessive addition of ZnO:NiO NPs can lead to a degradation in PCE due to deep-trap states.
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE-MATERIALS IN ELECTRONICS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Amandeep Singh Pannu, Suvankar Sen, Xiaodong (Tony) Wang, Robert Jones, Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, Prashant Sonar
Summary: Organic-inorganic hybrid lead trihalide perovskites have shown promise in various optoelectronic devices. Red-emitting perovskite-based LEDs have been less developed compared to green and blue ones. This study utilizes red-emitting 2D perovskites and carbon dots to create a stable composite material for red-emitting LEDs with improved performance.
Article
Polymer Science
Doan Vu, Wen Liang Tan, Lu He, Alexander Ehm, Dietrich R. T. Zahn, Christopher R. McNeill
Summary: We report the discovery of a third crystalline polymorph of the electron-transporting conjugated polymer P(NDI2OD-T2), called form III, which exhibits an end-on texture. This new polymorph is characterized by the incorporation of two monomer units along the backbone-stacking direction, resulting in a doubling of the unit cell c axis. The formation of form III crystallites is achieved by melt annealing a thin film followed by slow cooling. Analysis using grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and peak simulation confirms the unique packing of this polymorph. This discovery presents an exciting opportunity to study the structure/function relationships of this important semiconducting polymer.
Review
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Amjad Islam, Khurram Usman, Zeeshan Haider, Muhammad Fakhar Alam, Ali Nawaz, Prashant Sonar
Summary: Compared to their inorganic counterparts, organic optoelectronic devices receive attention due to their lower cost, mechanical flexibility, bandgap engineering, and solution processability. Biomass materials have emerged as effective candidates to modify the interfacial properties of organic solar cells, perovskite solar cells, and organic light-emitting diodes, leading to improved efficiency. The use of biomass interlayer materials is still in its early stages, but their nontoxicity, biorelevance, sustainability, proton conductivity, and functional groups have stimulated researchers globally to fabricate novel devices.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Helapiyumi Weerathunga, Thu Trang Do, Hong Duc Pham, Robert Jones, Jennifer MacLeod, TaeYoung Kim, Deepak Dubal
Summary: A freestanding, ultra-flexible, and washable joule heater was developed using a biocompatible poly(styrene-isoprene-styrene) (SIBS) polymer as binder and carbon black (CB) as heating material. The heater exhibited a minimum resistivity and conductivity of 26 m omega cm and 7.4 S cm(-1), respectively. It also demonstrated excellent stability and performance even after mechanical property tests such as bending, repetitive bending, twisting, and washing.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Lucas Q. Flagg, Jonathan W. Onorato, Christine K. Luscombe, Vinayak Bhat, Chad Risko, Ben Levy-Wendt, Michael F. Toney, Christopher R. McNeill, Guillaume Freychet, Mikhail Zhernenkov, Ruipeng Li, Lee J. Richter
Summary: Organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors (OMIECs) have the potential for various new technologies, but their complex behavior inhibits material design. This report presents the use of RXRD to determine the structure of a doped polymer OMIEC. The insights from RXRD provide important information on ion location and doping behavior, contributing to a better understanding of transport in OMIECs.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Guangbiao Xiang, Jiangbin Zhang, Zhongyang Xing, Liangjin Huang, Zhiyong Pan, Hanwei Zhang, Xiaolin Wang, Weihong Hua
Summary: The radiation resistance of rare-earth doped optical fibers is crucial for space-based applications. Doping elements such as Al, P, and B is necessary but can degrade the radiation resistance. Thus, achieving both excellent optical and radiation properties is challenging.
OPTICAL MATERIALS EXPRESS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Junyu Chai, Wenguang Liu, Xiaolin Wang, Qiong Zhou, Jiangbin Zhang, Hanwei Zhang, Pengfei Liu, Yao Lu, Dan Zhang, Zongfu Jiang, Guomin Zhao
Summary: In this study, a detailed investigation of TMI mitigation by pump modulation based on multiple current waveforms in a fiber laser oscillator is carried out. Modulation of various waveforms increases the TMI threshold compared to continuous wave. The adjustment of phase difference between signal channels boosts the average output power of a stabilized beam. The TMI threshold is increased to 270 W under a modulation of pulse wave (duty cycle: 60%) with a phase difference of 440 μs, where the beam quality is 1.45. Adding groups of pump LDs and drivers further improves this threshold, providing a promising approach for beam stabilization of high-power fiber lasers.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Junyu Chai, Wenguang Liu, Yujun Wen, Xiaolin Wang, Kun Xie, Qiong Zhou, Hanwei Zhang, Jiangbin Zhang, Pengfei Liu, Dan Zhang, Yao Lu, Zongfu Jiang, Guomin Zhao
Summary: In recent years, transverse mode instability (TMI) has been widely observed in fiber laser amplifier systems. However, the phenomenon of TMI in fiber laser oscillators has received less attention. This study focuses on the dynamical output properties of a 30-μm-core-diameter ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser oscillator, including its temporal signal and modal characteristics. The TMI occurs at a pumping power of approximately 310 W. The study reveals complex interaction between the fiber laser oscillation and the TMI effect, calling for further understanding of TMI in fiber laser oscillators.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Zhijie Hu, Chao Wang, Yikun Wang, Baiqiao Liu, Shijie Liang, Chengyi Xiao, Christopher R. Mcneill, Weiwei Li
Summary: The invention of near-infrared pedant-based double-cable conjugated polymers has shown significant efficacy in single-component organic solar cells. These polymers exhibit broad absorption spectra and suitable energy levels. Fluorination of the polymers further enhances their performance, leading to decreased voltage losses and increased power conversion efficiencies in SCOSCs.
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Doan Vu, Linjing Tang, Lars Thomsen, Martyn Jevric, Mats R. Andersson, Christopher R. McNeill
Summary: In this study, the influence of molecular packing and orientation of conjugated polymer chains in thin films on the charge transport properties and device performance of polymer-based optoelectronic devices was extensively investigated. The effects of various processing conditions on the thin-film microstructure were studied using grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering. It was found that the recently discovered third crystalline form of a well-studied electron transporting polymer evolved directly from the face-on oriented form upon melting under specific conditions.
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Energy & Fuels
Yahui Tang, Wen Liang Tan, Zhuping Fei, Martin Heeney, Christopher R. Mcneill
Summary: In order to understand the limitations of open-circuit voltage in organic solar cells, the energy levels of neat donor and acceptor samples are often characterized, but this may not reflect the energy levels at the donor:acceptor interface in blends. Organic semiconductors, especially non-fullerene acceptors, are sensitive to microstructural changes in thin films. This study investigates the differences in molecular packing between neat and blend films using temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements. The results show that the interfacial energy levels differ for different systems, highlighting the importance of considering microstructure-dependent differences when studying energy losses in non-fullerene acceptor organic solar cells.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Martina Rimmele, Zhuoran Qiao, Julianna Panidi, Francesco Furlan, Chulyeon Lee, Wen Liang Tan, Christopher R. McNeill, Youngkyoo Kim, Nicola Gasparini, Martin Heeney
Summary: The dramatic improvement of the PCE of organic photovoltaic devices has been driven by the development of new polymer donor materials and non-fullerene acceptors. A new approach was reported to introduce various solubilizing groups into a benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole acceptor comonomer, allowing for the preparation of a library of donor polymers for rapid screening of properties and performance. The donor polymer FO6-T emerged as the optimal material, exhibiting good solubility and achieving high PCE, making it suitable for large-scale applications.
MATERIALS HORIZONS
(2023)
Review
Chemistry, Physical
Prachi Ghoderao, Sanjay Sahare, Shern-Long Lee, Prashant Sonar
Summary: Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) is a powerful technique that allows for the observation and analysis of nanoscale materials and biological molecules through the use of sharp probes that scan the sample surface. This method, which includes scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), provides valuable insights into the properties and behavior of these materials at a molecular level. This review highlights the applications of SPM in biomolecule imaging and the study of physiological processes, as well as the challenges and potential solutions in biological sample preparation. It also discusses the recent advancements in STM and AFM applications on biomolecules, such as DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates, and their potential applications in fields like drug delivery and biosensors.
Article
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Gurudutt Bhat, Marcin Kielar, Pankaj Sah, Ajay K. Pandey, Prashant Sonar
Summary: A new type of organic photodetector is proposed, which extends its absorption spectrum to the near-infrared region by adjusting the composition of the active layer, and significant progress has been made in terms of high energy efficiency and fast response.
ADVANCED ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Dongdong Xia, Shengxi Zhou, Wen Liang Tan, Safakath Karuthedath, Chengyi Xiao, Chaowei Zhao, Frederic Laquai, Christopher R. McNeill, Weiwei Li
Summary: In this work, the preferential end-on orientation was obtained for the first time in a conjugated molecular dyad. The molecular orientation was shifted by introducing a fused-ring structure, resulting in higher charge carrier mobilities and better power conversion efficiency in organic solar cells.