Strong enhanced efficiency of natural alginate for polymer solar cells through modification of the ZnO cathode buffer layer.

Sodium alginate (SA), as a natural marine biopolymer, possesses many merits such as super-easy accessibility from the ocean, low cost, nontoxicity, and no synthesis for practical application. For the chemical structure, SA has enough lone electron pairs of oxygen atoms in the backbone and short branched chains, which is expected to passivate oxygen vacancy on the surface of the ZnO cathode buffer layer to improve the photovoltaic performance. Herein, it was applied to modify the surface trap of the ZnO layer in fullerene and non-fullerene polymer solar cells (PSCs). The defects were successfully reduced, and the trap-assisted recombination decreased. In a PTB7-Th:PC71BM system, power conversion efficiency (PCE) was improved from 8.06% to 9.36%. In the PM6:IT-4F system, PCE was enhanced from 12.13% to 13.08%. The addition of SA did not destroy the stability of the device. Overall, this work demonstrates the potential for preparing devices with long-time stability and industrial manufacture of PSCs by using biological materials in the future.

Organic Eu3+-complex-anchored porous diatomite channels enable UV protection and down conversion in hybrid material.

The organic Eu3+-complex [Eu(TTA)3Phen] has been incorporated into the channels of surface-modified frustules from diatoms as a key material to absorb and convert UV-photons to visible luminescence. Systematic investigation results indicate that the organic Eu3+-complex encapsulated in the functionalized diatomite channels exhibits enhanced luminescence and longer lifetime, owning to the Eu(TTA)3Phen complex interacting with its surrounding silylating agents. The organic Eu3+-complex-anchored porous diatomite hybrid luminescent material was compounded with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by using a mini-twin screw extruder to prepare a self-supporting film of the hybrid material. Besides, the UV absorption properties of the composite films were investigated. These films will potentially be related to the UV protection of photovoltaic devices.

High-Efficiency Ternary Polymer Solar Cells with a Gradient-Blended Structure Fabricated by Sequential Deposition.

Acquiring the ideal blend morphology of the active layer to optimize charge separation and collection is a constant goal of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this paper, the ternary strategy and the sequential deposition process were combined to make sufficient use of the solar spectrum, optimize the energy-level structure, regulate the vertical phase separation morphology, and ultimately enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of the PSCs. Specifically, the donor and acceptor illustrated a gradient-blended distribution in the sequential deposition-processed films, thus resulting in facilitated carrier characteristics in the gradient-blended devices. Consequently, the PSCs based on D18-Cl/Y6:ZY-4Cl have achieved a device efficiency of over 18% with the synergetic improvement of open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current density (JSC), and fill factor (FF). Therefore, this work reveals a facile approach to fabricating PSCs with improved performance and stability.

Excellent Electroluminescent Property of Eu3+-Induced Polystyrene-co-poly(acrylic acid) Aggregates (EIPAs) in Polymeric Light-Emitting Diodes.

Eu3+-induced polystyrene-co-poly(acrylic acid) aggregates (EIPAs) were synthesized using a self-assembly approach, and their structures and photophysical characteristics were examined to achieve effective monochromatic red emission in polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). By adjusting the monomer ratio in RAFT polymerization, the size of Eu3+-induced block copolymer nanoaggregates can be regulated, thereby modulating the luminescence intensity. High-performance bilayer polymer light-emitting devices were fabricated using poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) and 2-(tert-butylphenyl)-5-biphenylyl-1,3,4-oxadiazole (PBD) as the host matrix, with EIPAs as the guest dopant. The devices exhibited narrow red emission at 615 nm with a full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of 15 nm across doping concentrations of 1, 3, 5, and 10 wt %. At a doping concentration of 3 wt %, the device achieved a maximum brightness of 1864.48 cd/m2 at 193.82 mA/cm2 and an external quantum efficiency of 3.20% at a current density of 3.5 mA/cm2. These results indicate that incorporating polystyrene-co-poly(acrylic acid) with Eu3+ complexes enhances the excitation and emission intensity, as well as the structural stability of the emitting layer in PLEDs, thereby improving the device performance.

Multiple underlying images tuned by Mn-doped Zn-Cu-In-S quantum dots.

In this study, ZnS capped Cu-In-S (ZCIS) quantum dots doped with Mn ions are synthesized by a thermal injection method, with luminescence covering almost the entire visible area. The large Stokes shift effectively inhibits the self-absorption effect under luminescence, and the quantum yield of ZCIS quantum dots increased from 38% to 50% after ZnS capping and further to 69% after doping with Mn. First, red-, yellow-, and blue-emitting quantum dots were synthesized and then, polychromatic ensembles were obtained by mixing the trichromatic quantum dots in a different ratio. Using the home-built inkjet printer, multilayered and multicolor mixed patterns were obtained for information pattern storage and multilayer pattern recognition and reading.

Using Dual Microresonant Cavity and Plasmonic Effects to Enhance the Photovoltaic Efficiency of Flexible Polymer Solar Cells.

Fabricating polymer solar cells (PSCs) on flexible polymer substrates, instead of on hard glass, is attractive for implementing the advantage and uniqueness of the PSCs represented by mechanically rollable and light-weight natures. However, simultaneously achieving reliable robustness and high-power conversion efficiency (PCE) in such flexible PSCs is still technically challenging due to poor light harvesting of thin photoactive polymers. In this work, we report a facile, effective strategy for improving the light-harvesting performance of flexible PSCs without sacrificing rollability. Very high transparent (93.67% in 400-800 nm) and low sheet resistance (~10 Ω sq-1) ZnO/Ag(O)/ZnO electrodes were implemented as the flexible substrates. In systematically comparison with ZnO/Ag/ZnO electrodes, small amount of oxygen induced continuous metallic films with lower thickness, which resulted in higher transmittance and lower sheet resistance. To increase the light absorption of thin active layer (maintain the high rollability of active layer), a unique platform simultaneously utilizing both a transparent electrode configuration based on an ultrathin oxygen-doped Ag, Ag(O), and film and plasmonic Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles were designed for fully leveraging the advantages of duel microresonant cavity and plasmonic effects to enhance light absorbance in photoactive polymers. A combination of the ZnO/Ag(O)/ZnO electrode and Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles significantly increased the short-current density of PSCs to 17.98 mA cm-2 with enhancing the photoluminescence of PTB7-Th film. The flexible PSC using the optimized configuration provided an average PCE of 8.04% for flexible PSCs, which was increased by 36.27% compared to that of the PSC merely using a conventional transparent indium tin oxide electrode.

Hybrid ZnO Electron Transport Layer by Down Conversion Complexes for Dual Improvements of Photovoltaic and Stable Performances in Polymer Solar Cells.

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) have shown excellent photovoltaic performance, however, extending the spectral response range to the ultraviolet (UV) region and enhancing the UV light stability remain two challenges to overcome in the development of PSCs. Lanthanide down-conversion materials can absorb the UV light and re-emit it at the visible region that matches well with the absorption of the active layer material PTB7-Th (poly[[2,6'-4,8-di(5-ethylhexylthienyl)benzo[1,2-b;3,3-b]dithiophene][3-fluoro-2[(2-ethylhexyl)carbony]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl]]) and PBDB-T-2F, thus helping to enhance the photovoltaic performance and UV light stability of PSCs. In this research, a down-conversion material Eu(TTA)3phen (ETP) is introduced into the cathode transport layer (ZnO) in PSCs to manipulate its nanostructure morphology for its application in hyperfine structure of PSCs. The device based on the ZnO/ETP electron transport layer can obtain power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 9.22% (PTB7-Th-PC71BM ([6,6]-phenylC71-butyric acid methyl ester) device) and 13.12% (PBDB-T-2F-IT-4F device), respectively. Besides, in the research on PTB7-Th-PC71BM device, the stability of the device based on ZnO/ETP layer is prolonged by 70% compared with the ZnO device. The results suggest that the ZnO/ETP layer plays the role of enhanced photovoltaic performance and prolonged device stability, as well as reducing photo-loss and UV degradation for PSCs.

Strongly enhanced efficiency of polymer solar cells through unzipped SWNT hybridization in the hole transport layer.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have good conductivity, but their size can't match the heterojunction nanostructure in polymer solar cells (PSCs). To improve the photovoltaic performance of PSCs, herein, a faciley fabricated composite hole transport layer composed of unzipped single-walled carbon nanotubes (uSWNTs) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is effectively applied for PSC devices. Compared with the pure PEDOT:PSS hole transport layer (HTL) without uSWNTs, the uSWNTs/PEDOT:PSS layer shows more effective performance as the hole transportation layer. Optimizing the uSWNT concentration in PEDOT:PSS results in fabrication of the PSC devices with uSWNTs/PEDOT:PSS hole transport layers that exhibit greatly improved average power conversion efficiency (PCE), from 13.72% to 14.60%, and greatly enhanced current density and fill factor, which can be ascribed to the increased conductivity and hole transport efficiency. Our approach also supports simple solution-processing techniques and the insensitivity of the performance to thickness, which promises that the faciley fabricated uSWNTs/PEDOT:PSS layer has more potential to be applicable to the roll-to-roll process of PSC fabrication with extremely low cost.

Ln3+-Induced Diblock Copolymeric Aggregates for Fully Flexible Tunable White-Light Materials.

In this research contribution, nano-aggregates have been fabricated by introducing lanthanide (Ln3+) ions into solutions of amphiphilic diblock copolymers of polystyrene-b-poly (acrylic acid) (PS-b-PAA). The coordination of acrylic acid segments to lanthanide cations induces diblock copolymer (BCPs) self-assembly in order to design stable white luminescent hybrid nanoparticles with fine uniform particle size. The introduction of Ln3+ ions (Eu3+ and Tb3+) bestows the micelles, precisely white light, upon excitation of 342 nm. Lanthanide coordination cross-linking of poly (acrylic acid) segments, or blocks, endows the micelles higher thermal stability than that of BCPs micelles without cross-linking. As the most important key point of this work, the regular and stable nano-particles with high emission quality can make fully flexible electroluminescent devices with self-formation or uncoordinated into polymer hosts. Instead of inorganic luminescent nanoparticles with hard cores, this method can potentially apply for fully flexible white-light emitting diodes (FFWLEDs).

Classification, Synthesis, and Application of Luminescent Silica Nanoparticles: a Review.

Luminescent materials are of worldwide interest because of their unique optical properties. Silica, which is transparent to light, is an ideal matrix for luminescent materials. Luminescent silica nanoparticles (LSNs) have broad applications because of their enhanced chemical and thermal stability. Silica spheres of various sizes could be synthesized by different methods to satisfy specific requirements. Diverse luminescent dyes have potential for different applications. Subject to many factors such as quenchers, their performance was not quite satisfying. This review thus discusses the development of LSNs including their classification, synthesis, and application. It is the highlight that how silica improves the properties of luminescent dye and what role silica plays in the system. Further, their applications in biology, display, and sensors are also described.

Recent advances in synthetic methods and applications of silver nanostructures.

As the advanced functional materials, silver nanoparticles are potentially useful in various fields such as photoelectric, bio-sensing, catalysis, antibacterial and other fields, which are mainly based on their various properties. However, the properties of silver nanoparticles are usually determined by their size, shape, and surrounding medium, which can be modulated by various synthesis methods. In this review, the fabrication methods for synthesizing silver nanoparticles of different shapes and specific size are illustrated in detail. Besides, the corresponding properties and applications of silver nanoparticles are also discussed in this paper.

Nitrogen-Mediated Growth of Silver Nanocrystals to Form UltraThin, High-Purity Silver-Film Electrodes with Broad band Transparency for Solar Cells.

Controlling the shape and crystallography of nanocrystals during the early growth stages of a noble metal layer is important because of its correlation with the final layer morphology and optoelectrical features, but this task is unattainable in vapor deposition processes dominated by artificially uncontrollable thermodynamic free energies. We report on experimental evidence for the controllable evolution of Ag nanocrystals as induced by the addition of nitrogen, presumed to be nonresidual in the Ag lattice given its strong float-out behavior. This atypical formation of energetically stable Ag nanocrystals with significantly improved wetting abilities on a chemically heterogeneous substrate promotes the development of an atomically flat, ultrathin, high-purity Ag layer with a thickness of only 5 nm. This facilitates the fabrication of Ag thin-film electrodes exhibiting highly enhanced optical transparency over a broad spectral range in the visible and near-infrared spectral range. An Ag thin-film electrode with a ZnO/Ag/ZnO configuration exhibits an average transmittance of about 95% in the spectral range of 400-800 nm with a maximum transmittance of over 98% at 580 nm, which is comparable with the best transparency values so far reported for transparent electrodes. This degree of optical transparency provides an excellent chance to improve the photon absorption of photovoltaic devices employing an Ag thin film as their window electrode. This is clearly confirmed by the superior performance of a flexible organic solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 8.0%, which is far superior to that of the same solar cell using a conventional amorphous indium tin oxide electrode (6.4%).

Ultrathin Silver Film Electrodes with Ultralow Optical and Electrical Losses for Flexible Organic Photovoltaics.

Improving the wetting ability of Ag on chemically heterogeneous oxides is technically important to fabricate ultrathin, continuous films that would facilitate the minimization of optical and electrical losses to develop qualified transparent Ag film electrodes in the state-of-the-art optoelectronic devices. This goal has yet to be attained, however, because conventional techniques to improve wetting of Ag based on heterogeneous metallic wetting layers are restricted by serious optical losses from wetting layers. Herein, we report on a simple and effective technique based on the partial oxidation of Ag nanoclusters in the early stages of Ag growth. This promotes the rapid evolution of the subsequently deposited pure Ag into a completely continuous layer on the ZnO substrate, as verified by experimental and numerical evidence. The improvement in the Ag wetting ability allows the development of a highly transparent, ultrathin (6 nm) Ag continuous film, exhibiting an average optical transmittance of 94% in the spectral range 400-800 nm and a sheet resistance of 12.5 Ω sq-1, which would be well-suited for application to an efficient front window electrode for flexible solar cell devices fabricated on polymer substrates.

Strong Enhancement of Photoelectric Conversion Efficiency of Co-hybridized Polymer Solar Cell by Silver Nanoplates and Core-Shell Nanoparticles.

A new way was meticulously designed to utilize the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect and the light scattering effect of silver nanoplate (Ag-nPl) and core-shell Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles (Ag@SiO2-NPs) to enhance the photovoltaic performances of polymer solar cells (PSCs). To prevent direct contact between silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) and photoactive materials which will cause electrons quenching, bare Ag-nPl were spin-coated on indium tin oxide and silica capsulated Ag-NPs were incorporated to a PBDTTT-C-T:PC71BM active layer. As a result, the devices incorporated with Ag-nPl and Ag@SiO2-NPs showed great enhancements. With the dual effects of Ag-nPl and Ag@SiO2-NPs in devices, all wavelength sensitization in the visible range was realized; therefore, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs showed a great enhancement of 14.0% to 8.46%, with an increased short-circuit current density of 17.23 mA·cm-2. The improved photovoltaic performances of the devices were ascribed to the LSPR effect and the light scattering effect of metallic nanoparticles. Apart from optical effects, the charge collection efficiency of PSCs was improved after the incorporation of Ag-nPl.

Unsubstituted Benzodithiophene-Based Conjugated Polymers for High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors and Organic Solar Cells.

Unsubstituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) was used to construct a high-performance conjugated polymer with 5,6-difluoro-4,7-bis[4-(2-octyldodecyl)thiophene-2-yl]benzo[c][1,2,5] thiadiazole (DTFFBT), named PBDT-DTFFBT. The polymer shows the low-lying highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level (-5.40 eV) and a broad absorption spectra with strong vibronic absorption peak. Pure polymer films exhibit good crystallinity and edge-on orientation, partially attributed to the BDT units without any side chains, and as a result, the corresponding thin-film transistor showed excellent hole mobility over 1 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). Interestingly, a well-distributed nanofibrillar polymer aggregation with face-on orientation was obviously formed when blending with PC71BM, which was in favor of the charge transportation. Consequently, the bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells based on the blends showed high power conversion efficiency of 9.29% with large short-current density (14.56 mA cm(-2)) and high fill factor (0.751) without any process additives or thermal annealing.

Eu(3+)-induced aggregates of diblock copolymers and their photoluminescent property.

A general protocol to prepare photoluminescent polymeric aggregates with multiple morphological structures was proposed in this article. The amphiphilic diblock copolymer, polystyrene-block-poly (acrylic acid) (PS-b-PAA) which acted as the polymer ligand, was synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Eu(3+) ions were selected as the cross-linkers to coordinate with the carboxyl groups along PAA segments of the diblock copolymer, resulting in cross-linked PAA networks as the core. At the same time, PS coronas still kept their solubility to the solvent phase, preventing the precipitation of the complex. The obtained aggregates dispersed well in dimethyl formamide (DMF) instead of precipitation occurred in complex systems between non-block copolymers and lanthanide ions. It is the first time that the aggregates with rich morphological structures, including ordinary micelles, rod-wrapped micelles, sun-shaped micelles, vesicles and large compound micelles (LCMs), were obtained by adjusting the molar ratio or the concentration of Eu(3+) ions and diblock copolymer. Importantly, the aggregates have enhanced photoluminescent properties via the coordination between Eu(3+) and diblock copolymer at their optimal ratio. The obtained aggregates are convenient for further processing, such as spin-coating and casting. This strategy can also be applied to other coordination systems between diblock copolymers and lanthanide ions.