Zhu, Xiaoqian; Guo, Bing; Fang, Jin; Zhai, Tianshu; Wang, Yanan; Li, Guangwei; Zhang, Jianqi; Wei, Zhixiang; Duhm, Steffen; Guo, Xia; Zhang, Maojie; Li, Yongfang
Surface modification of ZnO electron transport layers with glycine for efficient inverted non-fullerene polymer solar cells
Interfacial engineering is crucial to improve the photovoltaic performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this study, we demonstrate efficient inverted non-fullerene PSCs with ZnO modified by nontoxic glycine (Gly) as the electron transport layer (ETL). With the modification of Gly, work function of the ETL interlayer was decreased from…
Cast-and-Use Super Black Coating Based on Polymer-Derived Hierarchical Porous Carbon Spheres
Guo, Jing; Li, Dongdong; Zhao, Han; Zou, Weizhi; Yang, Zhusheng; Qian, Zhenchao; Yang, Shijia; Yang, Meng; Zhao, Ning; Xu, Jian
Super black materials with extremely low reflectance and high absorption of incident light are crucial in various applications with strict optical requirements. However, the existing super black materials suffer from technical complexity in practical use whereas the underlying physics of their ultralow reflectance is still unclear. Herein, hierarchical porous carbon…
Rheological modifiers based on supramolecular block copolymers: From weak associations to interconnected micelles
Goldansaz, Hadi; Jangizehi, Amir; Nikravan, Goolia; Verkinderen, Olivier; Goderis, Bart; Ghaffarian, Seyed Reza; van Ruymbeke, Evelyne; Ahmadi, Mostafa
The rheological spectra of poly(n-butyl acrylate) in the presence of a series of P(nBA-b-HEMA) rheology modifiers show a two-step relaxation process originating from the PnBA matrix and the self-assemblies. The HEMA segments are further grafted with strong, hydrogen bonding UPy groups, which both magnifies and slows down the relaxation of…
Highly Ordered Semiconducting Polymer Arrays for Sensitive Photodetectors
Wei, Xiao; Gao, Hanfei; Feng, Jiangang; Pi, Yueyang; Zhang, Bo; Zhai, Yu; Wen, Wen; He, Mingqian; Matthews, James R.; Wang, Hongxiang; Li, Yang; Jiang, Shimei; Jiang, Lei; Wu, Yuchen
Semiconducting conjugated polymers possess attractive optoelectronic properties and low-cost solution processability and are inherently mechanically flexible. However, the device performance is susceptible to the fabrication methods because of the relatively weak intermolecular interaction of the polymers and their inherent conformational and energetic disorder. An efficient fabrication technique
Large Crystalline Domains and an Enhanced Exciton Diffusion Length Enable Efficient Organic Solar Cells
Zhang, Yiwei; Sajjad, Muhammad T.; Blaszczyk, Oskar; Parnell, Andrew J.; Ruseckas, Arvydas; Serrano, Luis A.; Cooke, Graeme; Samuel, Ifor D. W.
We studied crystallinity and exciton harvesting in bulk heterojunctions of the semiconducting polymer PffBT4T-2OD and electron acceptor PC71BM that are used to make highly efficient organic solar cells. Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering shows that the size of crystalline domains of PffBT4T-2OD increases to ?18 nm in photovoltaic blends upon…
Overcoming the energy loss in asymmetrical non-fullerene acceptor-based polymer solar cells by halogenation of polymer donors
Fan, Qunping; Liu, Tao; Gao, Wei; Xiao, Yiqun; Wu, Jingnan; Su, Wenyan; Guo, Xia; Lu, Xinhui; Yang, Chuluo; Yan, He; Zhang, Maojie; Li, Yongfang
To achieve efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs), it is important to overcome the energy loss (Eloss) from the optical bandgap to the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the device by properly matching donor/acceptor (D/A) photovoltaic materials. Here, we develop efficient PSCs based on the absorption complementary pairs of halogenated polymer donors…
The Influence of Structure and Morphology on Ion Permeation Behaviour in Commercial Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses
Saez-Martinez, Virginia; Mann, Aisling; Lydon, Fiona; Molock, Frank; Layton, Siân A.; Toolan, Daniel T. W.; Howse, Jonathan R.; Topham, Paul D.; Tighe, Brian J.
The importance of the microstructure on the permeability of silicone hydrogels is widely appreciated but is poorly understood and minimally investigated. In contrast with most conventional hydrogels, the water content and water structuring within silicone hydrogels cannot be solely used to predict their permeability. To ensure comfort and eye health,…
OrderOrder Phase Transitions Induced by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Triblock Copolymer Thin Films
Abate, Anabella A.; Vu, Giang Thi; Piqueras, Cristian M.; del Barrio, María Cecilia; Gómez, Leopoldo R.; Catalini, Gabriel; Schmid, Friederike; Vega, Daniel A.
We study the influence of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) on the phase behavior of a cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-b-polystyrene triblock copolymer thin film. Solvent annealing with scCO2 can produce patterns with long-range order but these structures become unstable for thin films with small thicknesses. These results are in good agreement with self-consistent…
Highly Crystalline Near-Infrared Acceptor Enabling Simultaneous Efficiency and Photostability Boosting in High-Performance Ternary Organic Solar Cells
Yin, Hang; Zhang, Chujun; Hu, Hanlin; Karuthedath, Safakath; Gao, Yajun; Tang, Hua; Yan, Cenqi; Cui, Li; Fong, Patrick W. K.; Zhang, Zhuoqiong; Gao, Yaxin; Yang, Junliang; Xiao, Zuo; Ding, Liming; Laquai, Frédéric; So, Shu Kong; Li, Gang
The near-infrared (NIR) absorbing fused-ring electron acceptor, COi8DFIC, has demonstrated very good photovoltaic performance when combined with PTB7-Th as a donor in binary organic solar cells (OSCs). In this work, the NIR acceptor was added to state-of-the-art PBDBT-2F:IT4F-based solar cells as a third component, leading to (i) an efficiency increase…
Ambient synthesis of nanomaterials by in situ heterogeneous metal/ligand reactions
S. Chang, Boyce; Thomas, Brijith; Chen, Jiahao; D. Tevis, Ian; Karanja, Paul; Çınar, Simge; Venkatesh, Amrit; J. Rossini, Aaron; M. Thuo, Martin
Coordination polymers are ideal synthons in creating high aspect ratio nanostructures, however, conventional synthetic methods are often restricted to batch-wise and costly processes. Herein, we demonstrate a non-traditional, frugal approach to synthesize 1D coordination polymers by in situ etching of zerovalent metal particle precursors. This procedure is denoted as the…