Improving the Efficiency and Stability of MAPbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells by Dipeptide Molecules.

Passivating the electronic defects of metal halide perovskite is regarded as an effective way to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PVSCs). Here, a series of dipeptide molecules with abundant ─C═O, ─O─ and ─NH functional groups as defects passivators for perovskite films are employed. These dipeptide molecules are utilized to treat the surface of prototype methyl ammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) films and the corresponding PVSCs exhibit enhanced photovoltaic performance and ambient stability, which can be ascribed to: 1) the ─C═O and ─O─ can interact with the undercoordinated Pb2+ ions and the ─NH groups can form hydrogen bonds with the I- ions, passivating the defects in perovskite film and reducing charge recombination in PVSCs; 2) the long alkyl chain of dipeptide molecules increases the hydrophobicity of the perovskite surface and thus enhance the stability of PVSCs. The passivated MAPbI3-based PVSCs exhibit a champion PCE of 20.3% and retain 60% of the initial PCE after 1000 h. It is believed that the defects passivation engineering using polypeptide moleculars can be applied in other perovskite compositions for high device efficiency and stability.

Enhanced Self-Assembly of Crystalline, Large-Area, and Periodicity-Tunable TiO2 Nanotube Arrays on Various Substrates.

Due to their superior physical properties, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube arrays are one of the most investigated nanostructure systems in materials science until now. However, it is still a great challenge to achieve damage-free techniques to realize controllable, cost-effective, and high-performance TiO2 nanotube arrays on both rigid and flexible substrates for different technological applications. In this work, we demonstrate a unique strategy to achieve self-assemble crystalline, large-area, and regular TiO2 nanotube arrays on various substrates via hybrid combination of conventional semiconductor processes. Besides the usual applications of TiO2 as carrier transport layers in thin-film electronic devices, we demonstrate that the periodic TiO2 nanotube arrays can show the effect of optical grating with large-area uniformity. Specifically, the fabricated nanotube geometries, such as the tube height, pitch, diameter, and wall thickness, as well as the crystallinity can be reliably controlled by varying the processing conditions. More importantly, utilizing these nanotube arrays in perovskite solar cells can further enhance the optical absorption, leading to improved power conversion efficiency. In contrast to other typical template-assisted fabrication approaches, we employ a soft template here, which would enable the construction of nanotube arrays without any significant damage associated with template removal. Furthermore, without the thermal restriction of underlying substrates, these crystalline nanotube arrays can be transferred to mechanically flexible substrates by a simple one-step method, which can expedite these nanotubes for potential utilization in other application domains.

Probing the Energy Level Alignment and the Correlation with Open-Circuit Voltage in Solution-Processed Polymeric Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaic Devices.

Energy level alignment at the organic donor and acceptor interface is a key to determine the photovoltaic performance in organic solar cells, but direct probing of such energy alignment is still challenging especially for solution-processed bulk heterojunction (BHJ) thin films. Here we report a systematic investigation on probing the energy level alignment with different approaches in five commonly used polymer:[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) BHJ systems. We find that by tuning the weight ratio of polymer to PCBM the electronic features from both polymer and PCBM can be obtained by photoemission spectroscopy. Using this approach, we find that some of the BHJ blends simply follow vacuum level alignment, but others show strong energy level shifting as a result of Fermi level pinning. Independently, by measuring the temperature-dependent open-circuit voltage (VOC), we find that the effective energy gap (Eeff), the energy difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital of the polymer donor (EHOMO-D) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of the PCBM acceptor (ELUMO-A), obtained by photoemission spectroscopy in all polymer:PCBM blends has an excellent agreement with the extrapolated VOC at 0 K. Consequently, the photovoltage loss of various organic BHJ photovoltaic devices at room temperature is in a range of 0.3-0.6 V. It is believed that the demonstrated direct measurement approach of the energy level alignment in solution-processed organic BHJ will bring deeper insight into the origin of the VOC and the corresponding photovoltage loss mechanism in organic photovoltaic cells.

Decomposition of Organometal Halide Perovskite Films on Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles.

Solution processed zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) with excellent electron transport properties and a low-temperature process is a viable candidate to replace titanium dioxide (TiO2) as electron transport layer to develop high-efficiency perovskite solar cells on flexible substrates. However, the number of reported high-performance perovskite solar cells using ZnO-NPs is still limited. Here we report a detailed investigation on the chemistry and crystal growth of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite on ZnO-NP thin films. We find that the perovskite films would severely decompose into PbI2 upon thermal annealing on the bare ZnO-NP surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that the hydroxide groups on the ZnO-NP surface accelerate the decomposition of the perovskite films. To reduce the decomposition, we introduce a buffer layer in between the ZnO-NPs and perovskite layers. We find that a commonly used buffer layer with small molecule [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) can slow down but cannot completely avoid the decomposition. On the other hand, a polymeric buffer layer using poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) can effectively separate the ZnO-NPs and perovskite, which allows larger crystal formation with thermal annealing. The power conversion efficiencies of perovskite photovoltaic cells are significantly increased from 6.4% to 10.2% by replacing PC61BM with PEI as the buffer layer.

Controllable Synthesis of Bandgap-Tunable CuSx Se(1-x) Nanoplate Alloys.

Composition engineering is an important approach for modulating the physical properties of alloyed semiconductors. In this work, ternary CuS(x)Se(1-x) nanoplates over the entire composition range of 0≤x≤1 have been controllably synthesized by means of a simple aqueous solution method at low temperature (90 °C). Reaction of Cu(2+) cations with polysulfide/-selenide ((S(n)Se(m))(2-)) anions rather than independent S(n)(2-) and Se(m)(2-) anions is responsible for the low-temperature and rapid synthesis of CuS(x)Se(1-x) alloys, and leads to higher S/Se ratios in the alloys than that in reactants owing to different dissociation energies of the Se-Se and the S-S bonds. The lattice parameters 'a' and 'c' of the hexagonal CuS(x)Se(1-x) alloys decrease linearly, whereas the direct bandgaps increase quadratically along with the S content. Direct bandgaps of the alloys can be tuned over a wide range from 1.64 to 2.19 eV. Raman peaks of the S-Se stretching mode are observed, thus further confirming formation of the alloyed CuS(x)Se(1-x) phase.

Energy-band engineering for tunable memory characteristics through controlled doping of reduced graphene oxide.

Tunable memory characteristics are used in multioperational mode circuits where memory cells with various functionalities are needed in one combined device. It is always a challenge to obtain control over threshold voltage for multimode operation. On this regard, we use a strategy of shifting the work function of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in a controlled manner through doping gold chloride (AuCl3) and obtained a gradient increase of rGO work function. By inserting doped rGO as floating gate, a controlled threshold voltage (Vth) shift has been achieved in both p- and n-type low voltage flexible memory devices with large memory window (up to 4 times for p-type and 8 times for n-type memory devices) in comparison with pristine rGO floating gate memory devices. By proper energy band engineering, we demonstrated a flexible floating gate memory device with larger memory window and controlled threshold voltage shifts.

A versatile triphenylamine/fluoranthene-based derivative as a nondoped green-emitting, hole-transporting interlayer for electroluminescent devices.

A new triphenylamine-bridged fluoranthene derivative, 4-(7,10-diphenylfluoranthen-8-yl)-N-[4-(7,10-diphenylfluoranthen-8-yl)phenyl]-N-phenylaniline (BDPFPA), with a high glass transition temperature of 220 °C has been synthesized and characterized. BDPFPA is a highly fluorescent and versatile material that can be used as a nondoped green emitter and as a hole transporter. BDPFPA was used in a standard trilayer device as the emitting layer, which showed a low turn-on voltage (<3 V) and a high efficiency of 11.6 cd A(-1). The device also shows little efficiency roll-off at high brightness. For example, the efficiency can still be maintained at 11.4 cd A(-1) (5.4 lm W(-1)) at a brightness of 10,000 cd m(-2). These results are among the best reported for nondoped fluorescent green organic light-emitting diodes. A simple bilayer device, in which BDPFPA serves as a hole-transporting layer, has a maximum power efficiency of 3.3 lm W(-1) and the performance is nearly 40 % higher than that of an N,N'-bis(1-naphthyl)-N,N'- diphenyl-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (NPB)-based standard device.

Highly active and enhanced photocatalytic silicon nanowire arrays.

Nanoporous and nonporous three-dimensional silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWAs) prepared with metal-assisted chemical etching method were investigated as photocatalysts in dye photodegradation systematically. In comparison with nonporous SiNWAs, nanoporous SiNWAs have higher surface area, larger pore volume, stronger light absorption and better photocatalytic activity. After the HF-treatment, the photocatalytic activity of all kinds of SiNWAs increased significantly and the nanoporous SiNWAs showed excellent stability. The photocatalytic activity of different types of SiNWAs with hydrogen surface termination can be recovered by HF treatment. This study also reveal that the hydrogen terminated surfaces on silicon nanowires (SiNWs) enhance the performance of SiNWAs by increasing their photocatalytic activity.

[Studies on the chemical constituents of Lithocarpus polystachyus].

OBJECTIVE: To study the chemical constituents from Lithocarpus polystachyus. METHODS: Compounds were isolated and purified with silica gel, and there structures were identified by chemical property and spectral data. RESULTS: Nine compounds were isolated as phloridzin (I), phloretin (II), dihydrochalcone-2'-beta-D-glucopyranoside (III), daucossterol (IV), beta-sitosterol (V), quercetin (VI), luteolin (VII), quercitrin (VI), oleanolic acid (IX). CONCLUSION: Compounds II, IV - IX are isolated from this plant for the first time.