Enhancement of the Photoresponse in Organic Field‐Effect Transistors by Incorporating Thin DNA Layers

Zhang, Yuan; Wang, Mingfeng; Collins, Samuel D.; Zhou, Huiqiong; Phan, Hung; Proctor, Christopher M.; Mikhailovsky, Alexander; Wudl, Fred; Nguyen, Thuc‐Quyen

doi:10.1002/ange.201306763

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…[249] DNA was shown to exhibit, i) excellent thermal stabilities up to 140 °C in its solid form, [250] and ii) easy tunability via chemical and physical treatments. [251] Indeed, DNA has successfully been used in optoelectronics, [46,[252][253][254][255][256][257] especially as anionic template of gold nanowires, [258] gate dielectric, [259] hole-transport layer and electron blocking layers due to the favorable energy levels (HOMO: −5.2 eV; LUMO: −1.1 eV) to inject charges. [254] Despite its successful application in optoelectronics, it has received by far less attention in the PV field.…”

Section: Dnamentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

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conditions. This makes difficult to further reduce the cost of electricity production. [7,8] Furthermore, although solar energy is a renewable source, it does not mean that any kind of photovoltaics (PV) is sustainable. For instance, silicon is an essential material in electronics and solar industries and, up to date, is irreplaceable. Despite its abundancy in Earth's crust, it is for the vast majority (80%) present as ferrosilicon, whose purification is expensive and highly pollutant. The production of 1 ton of silicon requires 6 tons of raw materials, almost 3 tons of Quartz, 1.5 tons of reducing agents, 1.5 tons of wood and 13 000 kWh of energy. [9,10] Therefore, in 2014 the EU commission included silicon metal in the critical raw material (CRM) list. [11] In this context, the third generation PV has reborn, offering cost-effective and efficient CRM-free devices with a lower reliance on the incident angle of light and integration in smart-end applications, like flexible and wearable devices, [12][13][14] fully transparent solar cells and windows, [15,16] and biocompatible devices. [17][18][19] The leading third generation SCs are organic solar cells (OSCs), [20][21][22] perovskite solar cells (PSCs), [23][24][25][26][27] and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). [28][29][30] Despite their versatile applications and high performances, sustainability still represents a major issue toward becoming an ideal energy technology in the mid-long term future. Among others, fullerene-based materials are toxic, [31] indium tin oxide (ITO) is brittle, chemically unstable, and expensive due to limited indium sources on Earth's crust. [32,33] Cobalt is also listed as CRM, [11] while cadmium, selenium, lead and ruthenium are toxic materials. [34,35] With regard to flexible devices, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the standard substrate; though its environmental footprint is critical and its nonbiodegradable properties lead to harmful effects in living organisms. [36] This has fueled a strong cooperation among the fields of engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics to discover new strategies for cost-effectiveness preparation and implementation of bio-derived materials in highly performing PVs.In general, this cooperation constitutes a part of the emerging and multidisciplinary field of biophotonics, [37] which involves biomedical optics, [38] living light, [39][40][41] biomimetic, biomaterials and bioengineered compounds, as well as fabrication/implementation methods applied to optoelectronics [42] and photonics, [43] among others. For instance, artificial lightning and biology have been recently merged with the implementation of cellulose, chitosan, silk, and fluorescent proteins as Accomplishing sustainability in optoelectronics, in general, and photovoltaics (PV), in particular, represents a crucial milestone in green photonics. Third generation PV technologies, such as organic solar cells (OSCs), perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have reached a mature age and are slowly making thei...

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Section: Dnamentioning

confidence: 99%

Merging Biology and Photovoltaics: How Nature Helps Sun‐Catching

Cavinato

Fresta

Ferrara

et al. 2021

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…In fact the STM currents depend not only on the electronic density of states but also on the average barrier height, which in first approximation is given by the average work function of sample and tip and is thus lowered with the incorporation of DNA. 31 Transferring this behavior to our DNA-based solar cells, rather than calling upon enhanced exciton dissociation as in the photoresponse of OTFTs, 6 we note the improved tunneling and rectification (>10 3 ) induced by DNA in our devices and that, starting from the value of the work function of clean ITO of ∼4.7 eV, 19 an equivalent lowering brings it much closer to the electron affinity of PC 70 BM, which is ∼4.0−4.3 eV 20,21 and much further away from that of the opposite hole-collecting MoO 3 /Ag contact (∼5.1 eV). As demonstrated when employing different conventional EELs, 8 an equivalent better alignment of this magnitude and large difference between the hole-and electronextracting contacts is able to promote a considerable enhancement in the V OC and PCE of polymer solar cells (as well as rectification).…”

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confidence: 78%

“…2,3 Integrated in these, it has been shown to improve the performance of organic lightemitting diodes (OLEDs) 4,5 and thin film transistors (OTFTs). 6,7 However, its electron extraction capabilities in solar cells have not yet been reported. Apart from the two outer conducting electrodes, polymer photovoltaic (PV) devices consist of a blend layer of donor and acceptor semiconductors (10 2 nm thick) in which photon absorption and charge separation occur, sandwiched between two charge-extracting layers (one for holes and the opposite for electrons).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The strong changes in the STS spectra are further proof that DNA affects the sample's electronic structure and are also consistent with a significant lowering of the work function (i.e., tunneling barrier) after the deposition of DNA on the electrodes. This lowering has been evaluated using Kelvin probe measurements by Zhang et al on metallic substrates 6,7 to be as much as 0.3−0.55 eV. 6,7 It is likely that a similar effect occurs when DNA is deposited on ITO.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This lowering has been evaluated using Kelvin probe measurements by Zhang et al on metallic substrates 6,7 to be as much as 0.3−0.55 eV. 6,7 It is likely that a similar effect occurs when DNA is deposited on ITO. In fact the STM currents depend not only on the electronic density of states but also on the average barrier height, which in first approximation is given by the average work function of sample and tip and is thus lowered with the incorporation of DNA.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Solar Cells Incorporating Water/Alcohol-Soluble Electron-Extracting DNA Nanolayers

et al. 2016

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Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was successfully incorporated as a nanolayer between the bottom indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrode and the photoabsorbing film in a polymer solar cell. Upon film optimization and analyses with scanning tunneling spectroscopy/currents, we demonstrate that a 1−6 nm thick DNA stratum functions as an effective electron-extracting layer, leading to strong improvements in rectifying behavior (by 2 orders of magnitude with rectifying ratios reached larger than 10 3 ) and in photovoltaic parameters like the open-circuit voltage (V OC from 0.39 to 0.73 V) and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs from ∼2 to ∼5%). The results show that DNA is a very ductile nanomaterial for electronic purposes, paving the way for future exploration in photovoltaic devices combining its electron-extracting properties with its functional and self-assembly behavior. Furthermore, solar cell devices were completely processed at room temperature, and DNA was cast from ecofriendly solvents such as water and alcohol.

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