| 1. |
- Elfwing, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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DNA Based Hybrid Material for Interface Engineering in Polymer Solar Cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1944-8244 .- 1944-8252. ; 10:11, s. 9579-9586
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new solution processable electron transport material (ETM) is introduced for use in photovoltaic devices, which consists of a metallic conjugated polyelectrolyte, poly(4-(2,3-dihydrothieno[3,4-b]-[1,4]dioxin-2-yl-methoxy)-1-butanesulfonic acid (PEDOT-S), and surfactant-functionalized deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) (named DNA:CTMA:PEDOT-S). This ETM is demonstrated to effectively work for bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices (OPV) based on different electron acceptor materials. The fill factor, the open circuit voltage, and the overall power conversion efficiency of the solar cells with a DNA:CTMA:PEDOT-S modified cathode are comparable to those of devices with a traditional lithium fluoride/aluminum cathode. The new electron transport layer has high optical transmittance, desired work function and selective electron transport. A dipole effect induced by the use of the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTMA) is responsible for lowering the electrode work function. The DNA:CTMA complex works as an optical absorption dilutor, while PEDOT-S provides the conducting pathway for electron transport, and allows thicker layer to be used, enabling printing. This materials design opens a new pathway to harness and optimize the electronic and optical properties of printable interface materials.
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| 2. |
- Gedefaw, Desta, et al.
(författare)
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Design, Synthesis and Computational Study of Fluorinated Quinoxaline-Oligothiophene-based Conjugated Polymers with Broad Spectral Coverage
- 2018
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Ingår i: ChemPhysChem. - : Wiley. - 1439-4235 .- 1439-7641. ; 19:24, s. 3393-3400
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymers typically show two absorption peaks in the visible region, flanking a valley region of limited absorptivity. One strategy for more panchromatic light harvesting is to incorporate side-groups orthogonal to the polymer backbone, which enable 2D pi conjugation and can give rise to additional absorption peaks. Here we design and synthesize two D-A polymers which both carry a fluorinated quinoxaline acceptor unit, but while P1 includes a benzodithiophene donor moiety with thiophene side-groups (2D-BDT), the P2 polymer lacks 2D conjugation in its simpler pentathiophene donor segment. The P1 polymer consequently shows an atypical absorption profile with more panchromatic absorption with no apparent valley in the spectrum. In order to understand the structure-electronic relations, the optical and electrochemical properties were predicted using a previously developed computational approach. The predicted optical properties show very good agreement with the experimental results. Solar cells made from P1 show a short-circuit current more than twice as large as P2, attributed to its enhanced spectral coverage. However, poor fill factors limit the preliminary power conversion efficiencies to 3.3 % for P1 and 1.0 % for P2 as blended with PCBM[70] in a 1 : 1.5 (w/w) ratio.
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| 3. |
- Jasiunas, Rokas, et al.
(författare)
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Dead Ends Limit Charge Carrier Extraction from All-Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Advanced Electronic Materials. - : WILEY. - 2199-160X. ; 4:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Extraction of photocreated charge carriers from a prototypical all-polymer organic solar cell is investigated by combining transient photocurrent and time-delayed collection field experiments with numerical simulations. It is found that extraction is significantly hampered by charges getting trapped in spatial traps that are tentatively attributed to dead ends in the intermixed polymer networkin photovoltaic devices based on the same donor polymer and a fullerene acceptor this effect is much weaker. The slow-down in charge extraction leads to enhanced recombination and associated performance losses. These effects are observed in addition to the dispersive behavior that is characteristic of charge motion in energetically disordered media. Upon annealing the effects of spatial traps diminish, rationalizing the doubling in device power conversion efficiency after annealing.
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| 4. |
- Karuthedath, Safakath, et al.
(författare)
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Thermal annealing reduces geminate recombination in TQ1:N2200 all-polymer solar cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 6:17, s. 7428-7438
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- combination of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic measurements is used to investigate the photophysics of the all-polymer bulk heterojunction system TQ1:N2200. Upon thermal annealing a doubling of the external quantum efficiency and an improved fill factor (FF) is observed, resulting in an increase in the power conversion efficiency. Carrier extraction is similar for both blends, as demonstrated by time-resolved electric-field-induced second harmonic generation experiments in conjunction with transient photocurrent studies, spanning the ps-mu s time range. Complementary transient absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that the different quantum efficiencies originate from differences in charge carrier separation and recombination at the polymer-polymer interface: in as-spun samples similar to 35% of the charges are bound in interfacial charge-transfer states and recombine geminately, while this pool is reduced to similar to 7% in thermally-annealed samples, resulting in higher short-circuit currents. Time-delayed collection field experiments demonstrate a field-dependent charge generation process in as-spun samples, which reduces the FF. In contrast, field-dependence of charge generation is weak in annealed films. While both devices exhibit significant non-geminate recombination competing with charge extraction, causing low FFs, our results demonstrate that the donor/acceptor interface in all-polymer solar cells can be favourably altered to enhance charge separation, without compromising charge transport and extraction.
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| 5. |
- Puttisong, Yuttapoom, et al.
(författare)
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Charge Generation via Relaxed Charge-Transfer States in Organic Photovoltaics by an Energy-Disorder-Driven Entropy Gain
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 122:24, s. 12640-12646
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In organic photovoltaics, efficient charge generation relies on our ability to convert excitons into free charges. Efficient charge separation from "energetic excitons" has been understood to be governed by delocalization effects promoted by molecular aggregation. A remaining puzzle is, however, the mechanism underlying charge generation via relaxed interfacial charge-transfer (CT) excitons that also exhibit an internal quantum efficiency close to unity. Here, we provide evidence for efficient charge generation via CT state absorption over a temperature range of 50-300 K, despite an intrinsically strong Coulomb binding energy of about 400 meV that cannot be modified by fullerene aggregation. We explain our observation by entropy-driven charge separation, with a key contribution from energy disorder. The energy disorder reduces the charge generation barrier by substantially gaining the entropy as electron hole distance increases, resulting in efficient CT exciton dissociation. Our results underline an emerging consideration of energy disorder in thermodynamic stability of charge pairs and highlight the energy disorder as a dominant factor for generating charges via the CT state. A discussion for a trade-off in harvesting charges from relaxed CT excitons is also provided.
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| 6. |
- Xia, Yuxin, 1986-
(författare)
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Polymer/polymer blends in organic photovoltaic and photodiode devices
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Organic photovoltaics devices (OPV) have attracted attentions of scientist for their potential as inexpensive, lightweight, flexible and suitable for roll-to-roll production. In recent years, considerable attention has been focused on new acceptor materials, either polymeric or small molecules, to replace the once dominating fullerene derivatives. The emergence of numerous new non-fullerene materials has driven power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 17%, attracting more and more interests of commercialization.Polymer acceptors with more morphology stability, more absorption and more desired energy levels has been intensively studied and show great potential for large area and low-cost production in the future. OPV at this moment is not yet competitive with inorganic solar cells in PCE but is more attractive in flexibility, low weight and semitransparency. In this thesis, some basic knowledges of OPV is introduced in the first few chapters, while the next chapters are focusing on polymer-polymer blends and investigating novel structures and techniques for large scale production of solar cells and photodetectors aiming at maximizing these advantages to compete with inorganic counterpart.Thermal annealing effects on polymer-polymer solar cells based is studied. Annealed devices show doubled power conversion efficiency compared to non-annealed devices. Based on the morphology—mobility examination, we conclude that the better charge transport is achieved by higher order and better interconnected networks of the bulk heterojunction in the annealed active layers. The annealing improves charge transport and extends the conjugation length of the polymers, which do help charge generation and meanwhile reduce recombination. The blend of an amorphous polymer and a semi-crystalline polymer can thus be modified by thermal annealing to double the power conversion efficiency.A novel concept of all-polymer organic photovoltaics device is demonstrated in this thesis where all the layers are made out of polymers. We use PEDOT:PSS as semitransparent anode and polyethyleneimine modified PEDOT:PSS as semitransparent cathode, both of which are slot-die printed on polyethylene terephthalate(PET). Active layers are deposited on cathode and anode surfaces by spin coating separately. These layers are then joined through a roll-to-roll compatible lamination process. This forms a semitransparent and flexible solar cell. By laminating a thin layer acceptor polymer to a thick polymer-polymer blend, we can further improve the performance by reducing traps comparing to laminating blend to blend.Flexible and semitransparent all-polymer photodiodes with different geometries can be fabricated through lamination. By choosing high band gap polymers and appropriate combination of two or more polymers, organic photodiode with low noise and high specific detectivity can be obtained. Comparison between bilayer and bulk heterojunction devices gives better understanding of the origin of noise and provides ways to improve the performance of photodiodes as detector.Noise level is a critical parameter for photodetectors. The difficulties of measuring the noise of photodetectors make some researchers prefer the estimated shot noise as the dominating one and ignore the thermal noise and 1/f noise. The latter two terms are sometimes several orders higher than the former, noting the importance of experimentally measuring noise.The use of semi-transparent photovoltaic devices causes an inevitable loss of photocurrent, as light transmitted has not been absorbed. This trivial effect also leads to a loss of photovoltage, an effect partially due to the lower photocurrent but also due to the geometry of the semitransparent photovoltaic device. We here demonstrate and evaluate this photovoltage loss in semi-transparent organic photovoltaic devices, compared with non-transparent solar cells of the same material. Semi-transparent solar cells in addition introduce photovoltage loss when formed by lamination. We document and analyze these effects for a number of polymer blends in the form of bulk heterojunctions.
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| 7. |
- Xia, Yuxin, et al.
(författare)
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Semitransparent all-polymer solar cells through lamination
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 6:42, s. 21186-21192
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this work, we demonstrate all-polymer solar cells where all the layers are made from polymers. We use PEDOT:PSS as the semitransparent anode and polyethyleneimine modified PEDOT:PSS as the semitransparent cathode, both of which are slot-die printed on polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Active layers are deposited on the cathode and anode surfaces by spin coating separately. These layers are then joined through a roll-to-roll compatible lamination process. This results in a semitransparent and flexible solar cell. We have used two polymer-polymer systems and several combinations, and the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) obtained is 2.3% with a mean transparency amp;gt;35% within the visible light range. By laminating a thin layer acceptor polymer to a thick polymer-polymer blend, we can improve the performance by reducing recombination, compared to laminating blend to blend, which is verified by the trap-limited charge transport, CELIV and electroluminescence.
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| 8. |
- Xie, Shenkun, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of Nonradiative Losses at Charge Transfer States and Energetic Disorder on the Open-Circuit Voltage in Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 28:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The considerable improvement on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) for emerging nonfullerene polymer solar cells is still limited by considerable voltage losses that have become one of the most significant obstacles in further boosting desired photovoltaic performance. Here, a comprehensive study is reported to understand the impacts of charge transport, energetic disorder, and charge transfer states (CTS) on the losses in open-circuit voltage (V-oc) based on three high performing bulk heterojunction solar cells with the best PCE exceeding 11%. It is found that the champion poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b]dithiophene)-co-(1,3-di(5-thiophene-2-yl)-5,7-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c]dithiophene-4,8-dione))] (PBDB-T):IT-M solar cell (PCE = 11.5%) is associated with the least disorder. The determined energetic disorder in part reconciles the difference in V-oc between the solar cells. A reduction is observed in the nonradiative losses (V-nonrad) coupled with the increase of energy of CTS for the PBDB-T:IT-M device, which may be related to the improved balance in carrier mobilities, and partially can explain the gain in V-oc. The determined radiative limit for V-oc combined with the V-nonrad generates an excellent agreement for the V-oc with the experimental values. The results suggest that minimizing the energetic disorder related to transport and CTS is critical for the mitigation of V-oc losses and improvements on the device performance.
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| 9. |
- Xu, Xiaofeng, et al.
(författare)
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Large-Area, Semitransparent, and Flexible All-Polymer Photodetectors
- 2018
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Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 28:48
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photodetectors, converting optical signals from specific wavelengths to electrical signals, have many applications on photoimaging, optical communication, and environmental monitoring. Solution-processed organic photodetectors (OPDs) based on organic materials emerge promise especially for wearable electronics and smart buildings. In this work, new all-polymer photodetectors (all-PPDs) are developed based on bulk-heterojunction active layers which incorporate a donor polymer and an acceptor polymer. The inverted all-PPDs exhibit outstanding external quantum efficiency over 70%, low dark current density (J(d)) of 1.1 x 10(-8) A cm(-2), and high detectivity (D*) over 3.0 x 10(12) Jones with planar response over the entire visible range. It is one of the best-performing all-PPDs reported so far and is also comparable with many organic and inorganic photodetectors. By using lamination technique, large-area, semitransparent, flexible, and "fully" polymeric photodetectors are successfully fabricated for the first time, with D* over 10(11) Jones for double-side light detection. The results highlight the great potential for producing high-performance all-PPDs by taking advantages of various device architecture and solution-processing techniques.
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