High-efficiency solution-processed Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 thin-film solar cells prepared from binary and ternary nanoparticles.

A new solution-based method to fabricate Cu(2)ZnSn(S,Se)(4) (CZTSSe) thin films is presented. Binary and ternary chalcogenide nanoparticles were synthesized and used as precursors to form CZTSSe thin films. The composition of the CZTSSe films can be easily controlled by adjusting the ratio of the nanoparticles used. The effect of compositional adjustment on device performance is illustrated. Laboratory-scale photovoltaic cells with 8.5% total-area efficiency (or 9.6% active-area efficiency) were demonstrated without anti-reflective coatings. Material characterization data revealed the formation of a bilayer microstructure during thermal processing and suggested a path forward on device improvement.

Screen-printable silver pastes with metallic nano-zinc and nano-zinc alloys for crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells.

Silver metallization pastes for crystalline silicon PV cells containing nanosized metallic zinc were found to be superior to commercial pastes containing micrometer-sized metallic zinc and micrometer sized zinc oxide in terms of efficiency and firing window. Efficiency performance decreases as the size of the particles increases: nano-Zn > 3.6 µm Zn > 4.4 µm Zn. Advanced electron microscopy techniques were used to investigate the interfacial microstructure between the front-side contact and the Si emitter of nanosized zinc additive based cells fired at temperatures from below to above optimal. These microstructural observations confirmed the possibility of a tunneling mechanism of current flow (a "nano-Ag colloid assisted tunneling" model) in the absence of Ag crystallites. Contact resistance maps were used to guide sampling, leading to a better understanding of the relationship between microstructure and contact resistance. Low contact resistance and higher cell efficiency, especially at under- and overfiring temperature conditions, are due to more uniform silicon nitride etching obtained through the use of nanosized metallic zinc additives.

A rearrangement of 1,1-linked four-membered rings to bicyclic bridgehead five-membered rings: a phosphorus turn.

Novel rearrangements of 2,3,2',3'-tetra-tert-butyl-4,4'-bis-trimethylsilanyloxy-1,2,1',2'-tetrahydro-[1,1']biphosphetyl (7) to 1,2,5,6-tetra-tert-butyl-3,7-bis-trimethylsilanyloxy-1H,5H-[1,2]diphospholo-[1,2-a][1,2]diphosphole (9) and of 3,4,3,4-tetra-tert-butyl-[1,1']biphosphetanyl-2,2'-dione (10) to 2,3,6,7-tetra-tert-butyl-tetrahydro-[1,2]diphospholo[1,2-a][1,2]diphosphole-1,5-dione (12) were observed during sublimation at 150 degrees C in 0.1 mm vacuum. The C-P-C internal angles of the four-membered rings, which reflect steric strain in (7), were 71.9(2) degrees and 77.9(1) degrees; the C-P-P internal angles of the five-membered rings of 9 were 90.88(6) degrees and 93.02(6) degrees after rearrangement. Reaction of 7 with metallic caesium provided the caesium salt of 3,4-di-tert-butyl-3,4-dihydro-phosphet-2-ol (15), which is the first example of a 2lambda-3-phospha-1-enolate being incorporated into four-membered ring. Due to its large size, the caesium cation has a rare coordination mode with both the phosphorus and oxygen atoms of the 2lambda-3-phospha-1-enolate, forming infinite polymeric chains in the solid state of 15. Two tert-butyl groups in the vicinal positions of compounds 7, 9, 10, 12 and 15 dictate the gauche conformations in compounds 7, 9, 10, 12 and 15, enforcing this stereoselectivity around the C-C-C portion of the rings in the enlargement reaction.

A stable enol in small ring systems: clear differentiation between penta- and tri-valency of phosphorus atoms.

The first stable enols in 1,2-dihydrophosphetes and were synthesized and structurally characterized with intermolecular hydrogen bonds to phosphoryl groups in 10-membered dimeric structures; in contrast, trivalent analogue exists in keto-form, where such stabilization by hydrogen bonds is not feasible.

A tetra-substituted chrysene: orientation of multiple electrophilic substitution and use of a tetra-substituted chrysene as a blue emitter for OLEDs.

The first tetra-substituted non-fused chrysene, 3,6,9,12-tetrakis(4-tert-butylphenyl)chrysene with blue electroluminescence at 450 nm, and with a radiance of 500 cd m(-2), was synthesized by a two-step procedure: direct bromination of chrysene in trimethyl phosphate, followed by palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of tetrabromochrysene and tert-butylphenylboronic acid .

Highly sterically hindered olefins: a case of E- and Z-di-tert-butyl alpha,beta-unsaturated acids.

Use of a superbase in the Favorskii rearrangement of 12 resulted in the synthesis of highly sterically hindered olefins, (E)-2- tert-butyl-4,4-dimethyl-pent-2-enoic acid (4) and (Z)-2- tert-butyl-4,4-dimethyl-pent-2-enoic acid (3).

A stabilized beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine: an elusive zwitterion.

A beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine stabilized by two tert-butyl groups at the phosphonium part of the betaine and two trifluoromethyl groups at the carbon adjoined to the oxa part of the betaine was isolated and structurally characterized. Additional stabilization results from the solvation of the betaine by a parent phosphonium salt, as in 4, or by protonation with methanol, as in 10. According to X-ray analysis, the betaine exhibits a sterically strained "gauche" conformeric form, with torsion angles in the P-C-C-O moiety of 32.2 degrees for 4 and 28.1 degrees for 10. The P...O separations of 3.121 A for 4 and 3.086 A for 10 are just under the sum of the O and P van der Waals radii (3.32 A). The fast H/D exchange of alpha hydrogen atoms to the phosphonium center was observed in the solution of 10 in deuterium oxide and MeOH-d4. The beta-oxaphosphoniumbetaine has long been suspected as an intermediate in the Wittig reaction, but this is the first time a stabilized derivative has been isolated.

Synthesis, structural characterization and the first electroluminescent properties of tris- and bis-cycloiridiated complexes of sterically hindered electron-poor 2-(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-4-trifluoromethylpyridine.

An application of the new sterically hindered electron-poor 2-(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-4-trifluoromethylpyridine [HC--N] (1) in the one-step high temperature cyclometalation by Ir(III)Cl3 in the presence of Ag(I)OC(O)CF3 resulted in the synthesis of tris-cyclometalated complexes [C--N]2Ir[C--C] (3) and [C--N]3Ir (5). A neutral silver cluster with a repeating unit of hexa-silver groups in an infinite chain of (2) was isolated from the above reaction as well. When this cyclometalation was carried out in trimethylphosphate at lower temperature, bis-cyclometalated derivatives [C--N]2Ir(mu-Cl)2Ir[CN]2 (6), [C--N]2Ir[eta2-(O(C((t)Bu))2CH] (7), and [C--N]2Ir(mu-O-P(OMe)2-O)2Ir[C--N]2 (8) were synthesized. According to X-ray analyses complex (3), while trivalent, contains four cyclometalated single Ir-C bonds. One of the Ir-C bonds, next to the nitrogen atom of the CC pyridinium ligand, was found to be the shortest to date (1.977(4) angstroms) for a single bond between iridium and carbon atoms. The coordination of the C--C ligand in (3) to iridium has a decidedly interesting bonding pattern and can be explained by various formulations. The first one is considering this ligand as a monoanionic chelating ligand, in which the second coordination site arises from a carbene or azomethine ylide. Overall the best single picture may be a dianionic ligand making two normal Ir-C bonds, in which the ligand just happens to contain a pyridinium function that compensates for one negative charge on the iridium. LEDs constructed with compounds (7) and (8) give blue-green emission with peak electroluminescent efficiency of 15 and 2 cd A(-1), respectively. An LED constructed with compound (5) gives a yellowish emission with peak electroluminescent efficiency of 5.5 cd A(-1).

Novel eta1-N,eta2-C,C-binding mode between pyridinyl-functionalized cyclopentadienyl ligands and iridium.

The reaction between 2-(2,3,4,5-tetramethyl-cyclopenta-1,3-dienyl)-pyridine 1 and IrCl3 was performed in an attempt to synthesize a cyclometalated system with decreased pi conjugation in the ligand. An unexpected reduction and rearrangement of bis-pyridinyl-cyclopentadienyl cyclometalated Ir(III) intermediate 2 took place yielding bis-pyridinyl-fulvene Ir(I) complex 4, which exhibits a novel bis-eta1-N,eta2-C,C-binding mode between the pyridinyl-functionalized fulvene ligand and iridium. The iridium atom in 4 is not sandwiched between two cyclopentadienyl moieties; rather, the two cyclopentadienyl groups adopt a pi-pi stacking arrangement with a centroid-centroid distance of 3.494 A. The Cl/P(wedge)O ligand-exchange reaction between 4 and 2-[(diphenylphosphanyl)-methyl]-1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-propan-2-ol 5 led to loss of one pyridinyl-functionalized fulvene ligand and produced complex 6, in which the remaining pyridinyl-functionalized fulvene ligand exhibits the mono-eta1-N,eta2-C,C-binding mode.