Photocatalytic synthesis and photovoltaic application of Ag-TiO2 nanorod composites.

A photocatalytic strategy has been developed to synthesize colloidal Ag-TiO2 nanorod composites in which each TiO2 nanorod contains a single Ag nanoparticle on its surface. In this rational synthesis, photoexcitation of TiO2 nanorods under UV illumination produces electrons that reduce Ag(I) precursor and deposit multiple small Ag nanoparticles on the surface of TiO2 nanorods. Prolonged UV irradiation induces an interesting ripening process, which dissolves the smaller nanoparticles by photogenerated oxidative species and then redeposits Ag onto one larger and more stable particle attached to each TiO2 nanorod through the reduction of photoexcited electrons. The size of the Ag nanoparticles can be precisely controlled by varying the irradiation time and the amount of alcohol additive. The Ag-TiO2 nanorod composites were used as electron transport layers in the fabrication of organic solar cells and showed notable enhancement in power conversion efficiency (6.92%) than pure TiO2 nanorods (5.81%), as well as higher external quantum efficiency due to improved charge separation and transfer by the presence of Ag nanoparticles.

Utilizing insulating nanoparticles as the spacer in laminated flexible polymer solar cells for improved mechanical stability.

Roll-to-roll lamination is one promising technique to produce large-area organic electronic devices such as solar cells with a large through output. One challenge in this process is the frequent electric point shorting of the cathode and anode by the excess or concentrated applied stress from many possible sources. In this paper, we report a method to avoid electric point shorting by incorporating insulating and hard barium titanate (BaTiO(3)) nanoparticles (NPs) into the active layer to work as a spacer. It has been demonstrated that the incorporated BaTiO(3) NPs in poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-c-61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) bulk heterojunction solar cells cause no deleterious effect to the power conversion process of this type of solar cell. The resulting laminated devices with NPs in the active layer display the same efficiency as the devices without NPs, while the laminated devices with NPs can sustain a ten times higher lamination stress of over 6 MPa. The flexible polymer solar cell device with incorporated NPs shows a much smaller survivable curvature radius of 4 mm, while a regular flexible device can only sustain a bending curvature radius of 8 mm before fracture.

Negative differential resistance and carrier transport of electrically bistable devices based on poly(N-vinylcarbazole)-silver sulfide composites.

An electrically bistable device has been fabricated based on poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK)-silver sulfide (Ag2S) composite films using a simple spin-coating method. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the as-fabricated devices exhibit a typical electrical bistability and negative differential resistance (NDR) effect. The NDR effect can be tuned by varying the positive charging voltage and the charging time. The maximum current ratio between the high-conducting state (ON state) and low-conducting state (OFF state) can reach up to 104. The carrier transport mechanisms in the OFF and ON states are described by using different models on the basis of the experimental result.

Solution-processed fullerene-based organic Schottky junction devices for large-open-circuit-voltage organic solar cells.

A solution-processed fullerene-based organic Schottky junction photovoltaic device is fabricated to produce a large open circuit voltage, 0.85-0.95 V, which is higher than that of most organic bulk-heterojunction devices. A power conversion efficiency of 5% is achieved in fullerene-derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methylester-based Schottky junction devices.