Photoluminescence Quenching and Enhanced Optical Conductivity of P3HT-Derived Ho3+-Doped ZnO Nanostructures

Kabongo, Guy L.; Mbule, Pontsho; Mhlongo, G.H.; Mothudi, B.M.; Hillie, K.T.; Dhlamini, M.S.

doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1630-3

Cited by 35 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 75 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The blends (Figure S8 and S9, Supporting Information) exhibit slightly different spectra with two bands at 640 and 710 nm, respectively, when exciting at 550 nm, which predominantly excites the P3HT donor polymer. We assign these two peaks to the fluorescence of P3HT semicrystalline regions, precisely the 0‐0 and 0‐1 transitions of H‐aggregates in P3HT domains . We hypothesize that the 0‐0 transition is more prominent in the blend compared with pristine P3HT films due to reduced reabsorption.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

P3HT Molecular Weight Determines the Performance of P3HT:O‐IDTBR Solar Cells

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Large‐scale production of organic solar modules requires low‐cost and reliable materials with reproducible batch‐to‐batch properties. In case of polymers, their (photo)physical properties depend strongly on the polymers’ molecular weight (MW). Herein, the impact of the MW of the donor polymer poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) on the photophysics is studied in blends with a recently developed rhodanine‐endcapped indacenodithiophene nonfullerene acceptor (IDTBR), a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) system that potentially fulfills the aforementioned criteria for large‐scale production. It is found that the power conversion efficiency (PCE) increases when the weight‐average MW is increased from 17 kDa (PCE: 4.0%) to 34 kDa (PCE: 6.6%), whereas a further increase in MW leads to a reduced PCE of 4.4%. It is demonstrated that the charge generation efficiency, as estimated from time‐delayed collection field experiments, varies with the P3HT MW and is the reason for the differences in photocurrent and device performance. These findings provide insight into the fundamental photophysical reasons of the MW dependence of the PCE, which is taken into account when using polymer‐based nonfullerene acceptor blends in solar cell devices and modules.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 84%

P3HT Molecular Weight Determines the Performance of P3HT:O‐IDTBR Solar Cells

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Pristine PBDB-T used as a donor shows Raman modes at 1,427, 1,452, 1,487, and 1,540 cm −1 , which are assigned to the C α =C β symmetric stretching mode, antisymmetric stretch mode of C α =C β , skeletal stretching mode of C β -C β and antisymmetric C α -S-C α ring skeleton that depict distortion of the in-plane vibrations of the thiophene ring of PBDB-T (Gao et al, 2018). Other less intense peaks are at 1,075, 1,231, and 1,598 cm −1 and may be assigned to the stretching mode of C β -C alkyl , C-H bending mode, and antisymmetric stretch mode of C α =C β , respectively (Kabongo et al, 2016). Upon blending with acceptor materials, there is no noticeable shift in peak position regardless of whether ITIC-Th (nonfullerene) nor PC 71 BM (fullerene) is used.…”

Section: Raman Spectroscopymentioning

confidence: 96%

Comparative Investigation of Fullerene PC71BM and Non-fullerene ITIC-Th Acceptors Blended With P3HT or PBDB-T Donor Polymers for PV Applications

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fundamentally, organic solar cells (OSCs) with a bulk-heterojunction active layer are made of at least two electronically dissimilar molecules, in which photoabsorption in one (donor) generates Frenkel excitons. The formation of free charge carriers emerge after exciton dissociation at the donor:acceptor interface. In the past decade, most of the progress in enhanced device performance has been steered by the rapid development of novel donor and acceptor materials and on device engineering. Among these donor materials, regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) produced better performance despite the mismatch of its absorption coefficient with the solar emission spectrum. Comparatively the donor PBDB-T exhibits an outstanding absorption coefficient with a deeper-lying highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level. Previously most of the efficient acceptors were based on fullerene molecules characterized by limited photoabsorption and stability. In contrast, the recently developed non-fullerene OSCs have a tunable absorption spectrum and exhibit improved stability. In this work, we explore the fundamental sources of the differences in the device performance for different blend compositions made of fullerene derivative (PC71BM) and non-fullerene (ITIC-Th) when paired with the polymer donors P3HT and PBDB-T. The characteristic changes of the optical properties of these blends and their roles in device performance are also investigated. We also studied charge generation where PBDB-T:PC71BM showed the highest maximum exciton generation rate (Gmax) of 3.22 × 1028 s–1 while P3HT: ITIC-Th gave the lowest (0.96 × 1028 s–1). Also noted, PC71BM based counterparts gave better charge transfer capabilities as seen from the lower PL quenching and higher charge carrier dissociation plus collection probability P(E,T) derived from a plot of Jph/Jsat ratio under short-circuit conditions against the effective voltages.

show abstract

“…Such charge separation decreases the radiative recombination. The heterogeneous charge transfer and PL quenching has been observed in a variety of organic or inorganic semiconductor systems applied for optoelectronics and solar energy conversion systems [36,37]. We investigated the optoelectronic properties of the biomaterials in our current study.…”

Section: Electronic Interaction Verificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Band Gap Investigation of Biomaterials: A Comprehensive Material Approach for Biocompatibility of Medical Electronic Devices

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past ten years, tissue engineering has witnessed significant technological and scientific advancements. Progress in both stem cell science and additive manufacturing have established new horizons in research and are poised to bring improvements in healthcare closer to reality. However, more sophisticated indications such as the scale-up fabrication of biological structures (e.g., human tissues and organs) still require standardization. To that end, biocompatible electronics may be helpful in the biofabrication process. Here, we report the results of our systematic exploration to seek biocompatible/degradable functional electronic materials that could be used for electronic device fabrications. We investigated the electronic properties of various biomaterials in terms of energy diagrams, and the energy band gaps of such materials were obtained using optical absorption spectroscopy. The main component of an electronic device is manufactured with semiconductor materials (i.e., Eg between 1 to 2.5 eV). Most biomaterials showed an optical absorption edge greater than 2.5 eV. For example, fibrinogen, glycerol, and gelatin showed values of 3.54, 3.02, and 3.0 eV, respectively. Meanwhile, a few materials used in the tissue engineering field were found to be semiconductors, such as the phenol red in cell culture media (1.96 eV energy band gap). The data from this research may be used to fabricate biocompatible/degradable electronic devices for medical applications.

show abstract

Photoluminescence Quenching and Enhanced Optical Conductivity of P3HT-Derived Ho3+-Doped ZnO Nanostructures

Cited by 35 publications

References 75 publications

P3HT Molecular Weight Determines the Performance of P3HT:O‐IDTBR Solar Cells

P3HT Molecular Weight Determines the Performance of P3HT:O‐IDTBR Solar Cells

Comparative Investigation of Fullerene PC71BM and Non-fullerene ITIC-Th Acceptors Blended With P3HT or PBDB-T Donor Polymers for PV Applications

Energy Band Gap Investigation of Biomaterials: A Comprehensive Material Approach for Biocompatibility of Medical Electronic Devices

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About