Lee, Bongjoon; Onbulak, Sebla; Xu, Yuewen; Topolkaraev, Vasily; McEneany, Ryan; Bates, Frank; Hillmyer, Marc
Investigation of Micromechanical Behavior and Voiding of Polyethylene Terephthalate/Polyethylene-stat-methyl Acrylate Blends during Tensile Deformation
Micromechanical deformation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/ethylene-stat-methyl acrylate copolymer blends was investigated for various MA contents and molar masses of p(E-s-MA). The copolymers were synthesized by ring-opening metathesis polymerization and subsequent hydrogenation. Varying the MA content and molar mass of the copolymer alters the interfacial adhesion between the
Mechanism of stress induced crystallization of polyethylene
Yakovlev, Sergey; Fiscus, David; Brant, Pat; Butler, Jeff; Bucknall, David G.; Downing, Kenneth H.
When polymer melt is subjected to stress, molecular chains become aligned along the elongation direction. However, when polyethylene film crystallizes under stress, molecular chains frequently align perpendicular to the elongation direction. In this paper we investigate why this happens. Evaluating metallocene LLDPE film we show that under the stress lamellae…
High-performance polyurethane nanocomposites based on UPy-modified cellulose nanocrystals
Tian, Donglin; Wang, Fenfen; Yang, Zhijun; Niu, Xiling; Wu, Qiang; Sun, Pingchuan
Densely H-bonding assemblies are the key strategy found by nature to enhance the rupture strength of natural polymers without sacrificing their toughness, such as spider silk, while it still remains a great challenge using such intriguing strategy to prepare high-performance synthesized polymer or biopolymer enhanced polymer nanocomposites. To address this…
Simply planarizing nonfused perylene diimide based acceptors toward promising non-fullerene solar cells
Bian, Gao-Feng; Zhao, Feng; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Sheng, Chun-Qi; Lu, Xinhui; Du, Hui; Zhang, Cheng; Qu, Zhi-Rong; Chen, Hongzheng; Wan, Jun-Hua
This work focuses on developing high-efficiency perylene diimide (PDI)-based small molecular nonfullerene acceptors with a simple synthetic strategy. We reported a new electron acceptor, Py-e-PDI, obtained via cross-coupling four PDI units with a planar pyrene core through ethynyl groups. Although the ring-fusion synthetic procedure was omitted, the large planar core…
Single-Junction Organic Solar Cell with over 15% Efficiency Using Fused-Ring Acceptor with Electron-Deficient Core
Yuan, Jun; Zhang, Yunqiang; Zhou, Liuyang; Zhang, Guichuan; Yip, Hin-Lap; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Lu, Xinhui; Zhu, Can; Peng, Hongjian; Johnson, Paul A.; Leclerc, Mario; Cao, Yong; Ulanski, Jacek; Li, Yongfang; Zou, Yingping
Summary Recently, non-fullerene n-type organic semiconductors have attracted significant attention as acceptors in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their great potential to realize high-power conversion efficiencies. The rational design of the central fused ring unit of these acceptor molecules is crucial to maximize device performance. Here, we report a new…
Charge carrier transport and nanomorphology control for efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells
Hu, Hanlin; Deng, Wanyuan; Qin, Minchao; Yin, Hang; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Fong, Patrick W. K.; Ren, Zhiwei; Liang, Qiong; Cui, Li; Wu, Hongbin; Lu, Xinhui; Zhang, Weimin; McCulloch, Iain; Li, Gang
Single junction organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) have exceeded 15% power conversion efficiency (PCE) with the help of fused ring based low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). As a major type of NFA, the indacenodithiophene derivative NFA (IDTBR) has been shown to have superior OPV stability with outstanding VOC, but the efficiency is…
Fused thienobenzene-thienothiophene electron acceptors for organic solar cells
Xu, Ye; Jiang, Haotian; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Zhu, Jingshuai; Wang, Jiayu; Lu, Xinhui; Zhan, Xiaowei; Lin, Yuze
Small molecule ladder-type heteroarenes IHBT-2F is designed and synthesized with strong electron-donating and molecular packing properties, where the central unit, fused thienobenzene-thienothiphene (IHBT), is attached with the strong electron-deficient 2-(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (2FIC) as the end group. The counterpart IDBT-2F with…
Two-dimensional inverted planar perovskite solar cells with efficiency over 15% via solvent and interface engineering
Lian, Xiaomei; Chen, Jiehuan; Zhang, Yingzhu; Tian, Shuoxun; Qin, Minchao; Li, Jun; Andersen, Thomas Rieks; Wu, Gang; Lu, Xinhui; Chen, Hongzheng
High short-circuit current (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) are both required for two-dimensional (2D) perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE). In this work, solvent engineering is combined with interface engineering to fabricate 2D PVSCs with enhanced Jsc and Voc. Mixing formamide with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was found…
Effect of Drawing on the Electrical, Thermoelectrical, and Mechanical Properties of Wet-Spun PEDOT:PSS Fibers
Sarabia-Riquelme, Ruben; Shahi, Maryam; Brill, Joseph W.; Weisenberger, Matthew C.
New electrically conducting and mechanically robust fibers and yarns are needed as building blocks for emerging textile devices. In this work, we describe a continuous wet-spinning process for the fabrication of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) fibers with high electrical conductivity, excellent mechanical properties, and moderate thermoelectric performance by…
Structure and self-reinforcing mechanism of biaxially oriented polyethylene pipes produced by solid phase die drawing
Kong, Chen; Wang, Yujie; Ye, Lin; Zhao, Xiaowen
Biaxially oriented polyethylene (PE) pipes were prepared through solid phase die drawing technology. Drawing speed presented a prominent effect on the hoop draw ratio (DRhoop) and axial draw ratio (DRaxial) of the pipes. For pipe with DRhoop/DRaxial of 2.465/1.182, the tensile strength was improved significantly along hoop direction as well…