In spite of the successful enhancement of the power‐conversion efficiency (PCE) in organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells by surface plasmon resonance (SPR), the incorporation of several tens of nanometer‐sized (25–50 nm) metal nanoparticles (NPs) has some limitations to further enhancing the PCE due to concerns related to possibly transferring nonradiative energy and disturbing the interface morphology. Instead of tens of nanometer‐sized metal NPs, here, dodecanethiol stabilized Au nanoclusters (Au:SR, R = the tail of thiolate) with sub‐nm‐sized Au38 cores are incorporated on inverted BHJ solar cells. Although metal NPs less than 5 nm in size do not show any scattering or electric field enhancement of incident light by SPR effects, the incorporation of emissive Au:SR nanoclusters provides effects that are quite similar to those of tens of nanometer‐sized plasmonic metal NPs. Due to effective energy transfer, based on the protoplasmonic fluorescence of Au:SR, the highest performing solar cells fabricated with Au:SR clusters yield a PCE of 9.15%; this value represents an ≈20% increase in the efficiency compared to solar cells without Au:SR nanoclusters.
We prepared nanostructured carbon fiber surfaces using chemical vapor deposition in which Ni nanoparticles were used as carbon nanostructure growth catalysts. The surface of the nanostructured carbon fiber was covered by a thin polydimethylsiloxane film. This surface showed superhydrophobic behavior with a water contact angle close to 170 °C, and its superhydrophobicity was sustained in a wide pH range (1-13).
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