A C70-carbon nanotube complex for bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Lau, Xinbo C.; Wang, Zhiqian; Mitra, Somenath

doi:10.1063/1.4847376

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Lau et al prepared a composite material made up of CNT with C 70 and evaluated its performance for heterojunction solar cells. [236] The power conversion efficiency of the CNT-C 70 composite exhibited 1.69 times higher efficiency when compared with the pure C 70 . Although PCBMbased devices are widely used for solar cells, we believe that functionalization of fullerene C 60 or C 70 with other organic moieties could also be interesting for enhancing the stability and the performance of the device.…”

Section: Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 94%

Self‐Assembled Fullerene Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications

Baskar

Benzigar

Talapaneni

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

100

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Functionalized fullerene nanostructures are a distinct class of materials that exhibit the combined properties of both fullerene and nanostructures including excellent optoelectronic features, modified band edges, high electron affinity, fast charge transfer capabilities, and tunable structural and textural properties. These fascinating properties allow for their utilization in many applications such as polymer solar cells, photovoltaics, photocatalysis, photodynamic therapy, electrocatalysis, environmental remediation, and drug and gene delivery. Numerous synthesis methods and anchoring groups are employed for functionalized fullerenes with nanostructures by using convergent bottom-up and top-down strategies. The supramolecular self-assembly and functionalization of fullerenes through robust chemistry approaches such as surface oxidation, grafting, polymer coating, doping of metals/nonmetal heteroatoms, noncovalent modification with 2D materials and nanoparticle attachment result in achieving fine control over its surface and bulk properties, including increased solubility, wettability, electron transport, acid-base properties, adsorption, electronic conductivity, and light absorption. This review analyzes the salient developments in the fabrication of nanostructured fullerenes and their functionalized derivatives for many applications including adsorption, catalysis, sensors, energy storage, solar cells, drug delivery, magnetic and superconducting devices. The contents of this review will allow the readers to cherish exciting possibilities and opportunities in field of functionalized nanofullerenes.

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Section: Batteriesmentioning

confidence: 94%

Self‐Assembled Fullerene Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications

Baskar

Benzigar

Talapaneni

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

100

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“…There is considerable interest in using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as active components in photovoltaic (PV) applications. , This stems from their strong light absorption in visible and near-infrared (NIR) as well as their outstanding transport characteristics . When individualized, SWNTs exhibit sharp visible and NIR absorptions that could be ultimately used to develop spectrally narrow photodetectors. , To harvest such potential, the following approaches have been investigated: (a) mixtures of small diameter ( d t lesser than 1 nm) sem -SWNTs with fullerenes (i.e., C 60 , − C 70 , , C 84 , and their derivatives such as PCBM (phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester), etc.) acting as hole and electron acceptors, respectively; (b) mixtures of π-conjugated polymers (such as regioregular polythiophenes) and sem -SWNTs, where the nanotubes serve as electrons acceptors; , and (c) hybrid approaches, where both C 60 and SWNTs are used in combination with conjugated polymers, affording enlarged spectral absorption (from visible to the NIR) …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fullerene-Assisted Photoinduced Charge Transfer of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes through a Flavin Helix

et al. 2016

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One of the greatest challenges with single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) photovoltaics and nanostructured devices is maintaining the nanotubes in their pristine state (i.e., devoid of aggregation and inhomogeneous doping) so that their unique spectroscopic and transport characteristics are preserved. To this effect, we report on the synthesis and self-assembly of a C60-functionalized flavin (FC60), composed of PCBM and isoalloxazine moieties attached on either ends of a linear, C-12 aliphatic spacer. Small amounts of FC60 (up to 3 molar %) were shown to coassembly with an organic soluble derivative of flavin (FC12) around SWNTs and impart effective dispersion and individualization. A key annealing step was necessary to perfect the isoalloxazine helix and expel the C60 moiety away from the nanotubes. Steady-state and transient absorption spectroscopy illustrate that 1% or higher incorporation of FC60 allows for an effective photoinduced charge transfer quenching of the encased SWNTs through the seamless helical encase. This is enabled via the direct π-π overlap between the graphene sidewalls, isoalloxazine helix, and the C60 cage that facilitates SWNT exciton dissociation and electron transfer to the PCBM moiety. Atomistic molecular simulations indicate that the stability of the complex originates from enhanced van der Waals interactions of the flexible spacer wrapped around the fullerene that brings the C60 in π-π overlap with the isoalloxazine helix. The remarkable spectral purity (in terms of narrow E(S)ii line widths) for the resulting ground-state complex signals a new class of highly organized supramolecular nanotube architecture with profound importance for advanced nanostructured devices.

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“…Semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) are efficient light absorbers in the visible-NIR range. Exciton dynamics, photocurrent generation, and transport of both excitons and charges have recently been intensively studied. − These studies, along with the reports of high carrier mobilities in SWCNTs, have resulted in their being used for efficiency enhancement of planar as well as bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. − In addition, thin films of SWCNTs have been used as transparent anodes, and s-SWCNTs have been used as an active donor material for charge carrier generation and transport with efficiencies close to 3% being recently reported. − Fullerenes are the typically used acceptors in these devices. Polyfluorene polymer wrappings are generally employed to isolate single chirality nanotubes for such solar cell studies. − Typically, (7,5) SWCNTs are selectively wrapped using poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-2,7-diyl) (PFO) polymer and the polymer used for separating (6,5) SWCNTs is 9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl and bipyridine copolymer (PFO-BPy). , Solar cells with thin films of such single chirality SWCNTs have reached efficiencies close to 1% .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Role of the Sorting Polymer in Carbon Nanotube-Based Minority Carrier Devices

et al. 2016

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A prerequisite for carbon nanotube-based optoelectronic devices is the ability to sort them into a pure semiconductor phase. One of the most common sorting routes is enabled through using specific wrapping polymers. Here we show that subtle changes in the polymer structure can have a dramatic influence on the figures of merit of a carbon nanotube-based photovoltaic device. By comparing two commonly used polyfluorenes (PFO and PFO-BPy) for wrapping (7,5) and (6,5) chirality SWCNTs, we demonstrate that they have contrasting effects on the device efficiency. We attribute this to the differences in their ability to efficiently transfer charge. Although PFO may act as an efficient interfacial layer at the anode, PFO-BPy, having the additional pyridine side groups, forms a high resistance layer degrading the device efficiency. By comparing PFO|C and C-only devices, we found that presence of a PFO layer at low optical densities resulted in the increase of all three solar cell parameters, giving nearly an order of magnitude higher efficiency over that of C-only devices. In addition, with a relatively higher contribution to photocurrent from the PFO-C interface, an open circuit voltage of 0.55 V was obtained for PFO-(7,5)-C devices. On the other hand, PFO-BPy does not affect the open circuit voltage but drastically reduces the short circuit current density. These results indicate that the charge transport properties and energy levels of the sorting polymers have to be taken into account to fully understand their effect on carbon nanotube-based solar cells.

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A C70-carbon nanotube complex for bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Self‐Assembled Fullerene Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications

Self‐Assembled Fullerene Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications

Fullerene-Assisted Photoinduced Charge Transfer of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes through a Flavin Helix

Critical Role of the Sorting Polymer in Carbon Nanotube-Based Minority Carrier Devices

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