Effect Of Solvent Additives Research Articles

Synergistic effect of solvent addition and temperature treatment on conductivity enhancement of MWCNTs: PEDOT:PSS composite ink for electrodes in all printed solid-state micro-supercapacitors

All solid-state micro-supercapacitors (S-MSCs) are pivotal for modern wearables as they offer rapid energy storage and release, with seamless integration into small, lightweight wearables. Developing all printed S-MSCs is a cost-effective alternative to traditional S-MSCs and can potentially revolutionize wearable energy storage technologies. This manuscript presents an innovative, substrate-friendly approach to enhance the conductivity and electrochemical performance of screen-printed electrodes for S-MSCs using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs): PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate)) composite ink. By incorporating various polar solvents into the ink formulation and optimizing printing and drying parameters, a four-fold increase in conductivity (5.5 × 103 S/m) was achieved. The synergy of polar solvent addition and temperature treatment on the dielectric screening, preferential solvation, and partial segregation of PSS were identified as the principal reason behind this enhancement. The optimally formulated ink was employed to create supercapacitor electrodes, demonstrating hybrid capacitive behavior with both liquid and gel electrolytes. An impressive 97.5 % decrease in charge transfer resistance (RCT) and a corresponding increase in areal capacitance and energy density were observed for these supercapacitors due to the segregation of PEDOT and PSS achieved by the synergistic effect. All printed S-MSCs were also fabricated with an impressive areal capacitance of 9.82 mF/cm2 @ 60 µA/cm2 and areal energy density of 1.964 µWh/cm2 at an areal power density of 63 µW/cm2. The fabricated S-MSCs exhibited impeccable capacitance retention of 99.7 % after 6,000 operation cycles and impressive stability upto 10,000 bending cycles, making them promising energy storage solutions for flexible and wearable devices.

Tri‐metallic quantum dot under the influence of solvent additive for improved performance of polymer solar cells

AbstractCdTeSe colloidal quantum dot (QD) was used to enhance photon capture in thin film polymer solar cells (TFPSC). The QDs were synthesized in aqueous media from two different precursors. Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer blends composed of P3HT and PCBM were used as an absorber layer of the solar cell to investigate the effect of QDs. Different concentrations of QDs were used in the polymer matrix, which significantly impacted the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the doped devices. More device performance growth was recorded by employing a small amount of solvent additives to disperse the QDs and increase the polymer's crystallinity in the medium. Hence, the addition of 1, Chloronaphthalene (CN) solvent additive in the QD‐doped bulk heterojunction film further enhanced the overall performance of the TFPSC due to improved film morphology that has significantly influenced the charge transport processes. Consequently, the PCE of the solar cell increased by nearly 50% compared to the pristine TFPSC due to the effect of solvent additives.

Revealing conflicting effects of solvent additives on morphology and performance of non-fullerene organic photovoltaics under different illuminance conditions

The use of solvent additives is effective for controlling the morphology and efficiency of non-fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaics (OPVs) under both indoor and outdoor conditions. In this study, we examined the effects of solvent additives on the morphology and photovoltaic operation of non-fullerene OPVs under different illuminance conditions. Solvent additives (e.g., 1,8-diiodooctane) improved molecular packing and charge transport in non-fullerene BHJ layers, increasing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) under 1-sun illumination. However, incorporating the solvent additives promoted the formation of a crystallization-induced roughened surface and an isolated-non-fullerene domain in the intermixing region. These unexpected morphological features increased the degree of trap-assisted charge recombination and leakage current, significantly reducing the PCE of non-fullerene OPVs at low light levels corresponding to indoor lighting. Understanding the effect of solvent additives inspires us to further control the morphological features of the non-fullerene OPVs by fine-tuning the solvent-additive concentration beyond the globally accepted level. This was effective for optimizing the indoor PCE of non-fullerene OPVs (21.71%), which exceeded that of the conventionally accepted reference (18.02%). This study provides guidelines for understanding the critical roles of solvent additives and optimizing the morphology of non-fullerene BHJs for high-performance indoor OPV applications.

Analysis of proteins by agarose native gel electrophoresis in the presence of solvent additives.

Solvent additives, including NaCl, arginine hydrochloride (ArgHCl), glycine and sucrose, are used to enhance protein stability or reduce protein aggregation. Here, we studied the effects of these additives on proteins using agarose native gel electrophoresis. Since these additives are used at relatively high concentration, we first confirmed that they do not interfere with the performance of the native gel electrophoresis. Agarose native gel electrophoresis showed that aggregation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) induced by heating was slightly reduced by NaCl and ArgHCl. On the contrary, glycine and sucrose had marginal effects. ArgHCl and NaCl promoted heat aggregation of monoclonal antibody (mAb), while glycine and sucrose stabilized the native mAb. Arginine methyl ester inhibited heat aggregation of lysozyme and, to a much lesser extent, BSA. These results show that agarose native gel electrophoresis can be used to analyze the effects of solvent additives on proteins subjected to heat stresses. SYPRO Orange that stains only unfolded proteins confirmed unfolded structures of soluble aggregates.

Solvent-Additive Coordination Effect on Lead-Iodide Precursor for Enlarging Grain Size of Perovskite Film

A uniform and large grain perovskite helps directly enhance the device performance. Solvent additives can be introduced to obtain a uniform and large grain perovskite. To investigate the effect of solvent additives on the perovskite grain growth and photovoltaic performance, we fabricated perovskite films and solar cells prepared with solvent additives in terms of the Gutmann’s donor number (DN). The perovskite solar cell with dimethyl sulfide, which has the highest DN, exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 21.2% with a short-circuit current density of 24.0 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 1.1 V, and a fill factor of 80.2%.

Experimental Study of the Effect of Solvent Addition and Temperature on Two-Phase Bitumen/Water Relative Permeability

Summary The expanding solvent-steam-assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD) is a newly proposed thermal recovery technique showing promising efficiency in terms of a smaller steam-to-oil ratio and greater production rate to recover heavy oils and bitumen from oil-bearing formations, where a solvent is coinjected with the steam in the SAGD process. Numerical simulation of the ES-SAGD process requires reliable relative permeability data. The number of reported measurements of relative permeability involving bitumen systems is limited in the literature, mostly because of the experimental difficulties involved in such measurements. The relative permeability data sets for Canadian bitumen, in the presence of solvents, are simply not available in the open literature. The fluid-flow behavior of bitumen/water systems in the presence of solvent is an important matter that must be assessed before the implementation of any ES-SAGD process; therefore, the objective of the current study is to evaluate the impact of a light hydrocarbon solvent (n-hexane) on bitumen/water relative permeability under SAGD conditions. For this purpose, two-phase bitumen/water relative-permeability measurements were conducted in sandpacks over a wide range of temperatures from 70°C to 220°C using Athabasca bitumen, deionized water, and a light hydrocarbon solvent. A well-instrumented experimental setup was developed to perform the relative permeability measurements with the capability of applying confining pressure on the sand and measuring the pore-pressure profile with several intermediate pressure taps. Isothermal oil-displacement tests were carried out with solvent premixed with bitumen. The history-matching approach and Johnson-Bossler-Naumann (JBN) method were used to translate the oil displacement data into the relative-permeability curves. The results obtained with a solvent from this study and without any solvent reported in our previous study are compared to assess the solvent's impact on relative permeability. In addition, the steady-state relative permeability was measured to assess the reliability of unsteady-state relative permeability. The interfacial tension (IFT) and contact-angle measurements using the same fluids were carried out to determine the fluid/fluid interaction and wettability state of the system under high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) conditions. The results of the present study confirmed that the two-phase diluted bitumen/water relative permeability is sensitive to temperature, especially in terms of the endpoint relative permeability to bitumen and water. Furthermore, adding normal hexane (below the asphaltene precipitation threshold) not only improves the displacement efficiency of water flooding because of the significant decrease in oil viscosity but also modifies the wettability and IFT of this system. At the same temperature, the two-phase oil/water relative permeability for bitumen/water systems is significantly different when the oil is diluted with the solvent. Also, the impact of solvent is more pronounced at lower temperatures. Furthermore, the consistency between the steady-state and unsteady-state relative permeability data proved that the effect of viscous fingering was small enough.

Effects of solvent additives on the morphology and transport property of a perylene diimide dimer film in perovskite solar cells for improved performance

Perylene diimide derivatives (PDIs) are a kind of very promising non-fullerene electron transport material for organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PerSCs), owing to their excellent photoelectric properties and low-cost synthesis. However, their tendency to form aggregates strongly influences the film morphology and transport properties. Herein, we provided a simple way to tune the morphology and transport properties of PDIs by solvent additive engineering. A series of solvent additives (1,8-diiodooctane, 1-chloronaphthalene, 1-phenylnaphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene) was investigated for their role in the morphology and transport property of PDI dimer (Bis-PDI-T-EG) film as well as on the photovoltaic performance of PerSCs. Among these four solvent additives, 1-methylnaphthalene (MN) was found one of the best additive that possesses good adjusting ability to control both morphological and electrical properties of Bis-PDI-T-EG film. The fabricated PerSCs with optimized Bis-PDI-T-EG + 0.05 v/v% MN electron transport layer (ETL) displayed the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.96%. The performance of PerSCs was further improved by adding 0.05 wt% graphene together with 0.05 v/v% MN, and the maximum PCE of 15.11% was achieved.

Lyotropic liquid crystal phase behavior of a cationic amphiphile in aqueous and non-stoichiometric protic ionic liquid mixtures.

Protic ionic liquids (PILs) are the largest and most tailorable known class of non-aqueous solvents which possess the ability to support amphiphile self-assembly. However, little is known about the effect of solvent additives on this ability. In this study, the lyotropic liquid crystal phase (LLCP) behavior of the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was investigated in the model PILs of ethylammonium nitrate (EAN) and ethanolammonium nitrate (EtAN), and derived multi-component solvent systems containing them to determine phase formation and diversity with changing solvent composition. The solvent systems were composed of water, nitric acid and ethylamine (or ethanolamine), with 26 unique compositions for each PIL covering the apparent pH and ionicity ranges of 0-13.5 and 0-11 M, respectively. The LLCPs were studied using cross polarized optical microscopy (CPOM) and small and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS). Partial phase diagrams were constructed for CTAB concentrations of 50 wt% and 70 wt% in the temperature range of 25 °C to 75 °C to characterise the effect of surfactant concentration and temperature on the LLCPs in each solvent environment. Normal micellar (L1), hexagonal (H1) and bicontinuous cubic (V1) phases were identified at both surfactant concentrations, and from temperatures as low as 35 °C, with large variations dependent on the solvent composition. The thermal stability and diversity of phases were greater and broader in solvent compositions with excess precursor amines present compared to those in the neat PILs. In acid-rich solvent combinations, the same phase diversity was found, though with reduced onset temperatures of phase formation; however, some structural changes were observed which were attributed to oxidation/decomposition of CTAB in a nitric acid environment. This study showed that the ability of PIL solutions to support amphiphile self-assembly can readily be tuned, and that the ability of PILs to promote amphiphile self-assembly is robust, even with other solvent species present.

Ultrafast spectroscopic investigation of the effect of solvent additives on charge photogeneration and recombination dynamics in non-fullerene organic photovoltaic blends

The effects of DIO and CN additives on the neat and PBDB-TF:IT-4F blend film morphologies and the related ultrafast photophysical processes are studied.

Effect of Solvent Additives on the Morphology and Device Performance of Printed Nonfullerene Acceptor Based Organic Solar Cells.

Printing of active layers of high-efficiency organic solar cells and morphology control by processing with varying solvent additive concentrations are important to realize real-world use of bulk-heterojunction photovoltaics as it enables both up-scaling and optimization of the device performance. In this work, active layers of the conjugated polymer with benzodithiophene units PBDB-T-SF and the nonfullerene small molecule acceptor IT-4F are printed using meniscus guided slot-die coating. 1,8-Diiodooctane (DIO) is added to optimize the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The effect on the inner nanostructure and surface morphology of the material is studied for different solvent additive concentrations with grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS), grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Optical properties are studied with photoluminescence (PL), UV/vis absorption spectroscopy, and external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements and correlated to the corresponding PCEs. The addition of 0.25 vol % DIO enhances the average PCE from 3.5 to 7.9%, whereas at higher concentrations the positive effect is less pronounced. A solar cell performance of 8.95% is obtained for the best printed device processed with an optimum solvent additive concentration. Thus, with the large-scale preparation method printing similarly well working solar cells can be realized as with the spin-coating method.

In-Operando Study of the Effects of Solvent Additives on the Stability of Organic Solar Cells Based on PTB7-Th:PC71BM

Degradation of organic solar cells is among the fundamental problems that hinder their successful breakthrough. We probe in-operando the degradation behavior of organic solar cells based on the high-efficiency low-bandgap benzodithiophene copolymer PTB7-Th and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). The influence of the solvent additives 1,8-diiodooctane and o-chlorobenzaldehyde on the degradation mechanism is studied with in situ grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering during operation. Changes in the IV characteristics are correlated for the first time in situ with changes in the morphology showing that the use of a solvent additive causes a change in device degradation.

Protein Solvent Interaction: Transition of Protein-solvent Interaction Concept from Basic Research into Solvent Manipulation of Chromatography.

Previously, we have reviewed in this journal (Arakawa, T., Kita, Y., Curr. Protein Pept. Sci., 15, 608-620, 2014) the interaction of arginine with proteins and various applications of this solvent additive in the area of protein formulations and downstream processes. In this special issue, we expand the concept of protein-solvent interaction into the analysis of the effects of solvent additives on various column chromatography, including mixed-mode chromatography. Earlier in our research, we have studied the interactions of such a variety of solvent additives as sugars, salts, amino acids, polymers and organic solvents with a variety of proteins, which resulted in mechanistic understanding on their protein stabilization and precipitation effects, the latter known as Hofmeister series. While such a study was then a pure academic research, rapid development of genetic engineering technologies and resultant biotechnologies made it a valuable knowledge in fully utilizing solvent additives in manipulation of protein solution, including column chromatography.

Experimental investigation of combined electromagnetic heating and solvent-assisted gravity drainage for heavy oil recovery

Electromagnetic (EM) heating holds a significant potential for recovering heavy oil and bitumen since it can reduce carbon emission and avoid excessive water usage, and is applicable for water hostile reservoirs. Combining solvent injection with EM heating might further reduce the energy intensity of the process. The merits of using solvent in EM heating include diluting heavy oil and thereby increasing its mobility, serving as a heat carrier by reinforcing heat convection in porous media and facilitating gravity drainage by forming a vapor chamber. In this study, we design a new experimental setup that can be used to examine the performance of combined EM heating and solvent-assisted gravity drainage for heavy oil recovery. With such experimental setup, we conduct a series of laboratory experiments to investigate the performances and mechanisms of combined EM heating and solvent-assisted gravity drainage for heavy oil recovery.During experiments, sand pack samples contained in Buchner filter funnel are placed in a microwave oven. Solvent injection can be initiated together with EM heating to simulate this hybrid process. Temperatures of the sand pack and oil recoveries are simultaneously recorded. We investigate the effects of influential factors on the process performances, including EM heating power, initial water saturation, solvent types (n-hexane and n-octane), and combination strategies of EM heating and solvent injection (simultaneous or alternate means). Experimental results show that combined EM heating and solvent-assisted gravity drainage could effectively enhance heavy oil recovery; the recovery factors of EM heating only, alternate EM heating and n-hexane injection, and alternate EM heating and n-octane injection are 12.37%, 61.18%, and, 83.59%, respectively. Moderate initial water saturation increases the heating speed and provides a higher oil recovery. The effect of solvent addition, affected by the solvent concentration in heavy oil, varies at different EM heating powers. Alternate EM heating and solvent injection is more cost effective due to the lower energy consumption and higher oil recovery compared to the simultaneous EM heating and solvent injection. A lowered asphaltene fraction in recovered oil has also been found in this hybrid process.

Effect of Solvent Additives on the Solution Aggregation of Phenyl-C61–Butyl Acid Methyl Ester (PCBM)

High-boiling-point solvent additives, employed during the solution processing of active-layer formulations, impact the efficiency of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells by influencing the morphological/topological features of the multicomponent thin film. Here, we aim at a better understanding of how these additives change the aggregation landscape in the casting solution prior to film deposition via a multiscale computational study of the aggregation phenomena of phenyl-C61-butyric-acid methyl ester (PCBM) in various solutions. The energetic landscape of PCBM-solvent/solvent-additive intermolecular interactions is evaluated at the electronic-structure level through symmetry-adapted perturbation theory to determine the nature and strength of noncovalent forces important to aggregation. Molecular dynamics simulations highlight how the choice of solvent and solvent additives control the formation of molecular aggregates. Our results indicate that high-boiling point solvent additives change the eff...

Effect of solvent additives on bulk heterojunction morphology of organic photovoltaics and their impact on device performance

ABSTRACTMorphology of the active layer in an organic photovoltaic (OPV) device is known to have a significant impact on the device performance. It is, however, difficult to characterize nanoscale morphologies in detail, especially at the ensemble level. Herein, we report the utilization of small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to investigate variations in the nanoscale morphologies of the active layer of poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl):[6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) bulk heterojunction OPV depending on the composition of casting solvent. Both the power law and the poly hard sphere model were utilized to characterize the state of the donor and acceptor components, respectively, from the obtained SANS data. Furthermore, the relationship between the nanoscale morphology and device performance is outlined. It was found that the use of 2‐chlorophenol, a poor solvent for P3HT and, at the same time, a very good solvent for PCBM, leads to nanomorphology featuring ordered, highly crystalline P3HT and small (15.2 nm) PCBM domains. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 128–134

Extraction of EPA/DHA from 18/12EE Fish Oil Using AgNO3(aq): Composition, Yield, and Effects of Solvent Addition on Interfacial Tension and Flow Pattern in Mini-Fluidic Systems

Solvent extraction of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) ethyl esters (Et) from 18/12EE fish oil was performed with an aqueous silver nitrate solution in a mini-fluidic reactor framework. The resulting extraction was compared within conventional stirred-tank reactors, with practical extraction yields of EPA-Et and DHA-Et approaching 60 to 70 wt %. Equilibrium was reached in less than 36 s at 10 °C, despite stratified flow being observed rather than previously reported slug-flow profiles in idealized fluid pairs at these scales. The deviation in flow pattern was attributed to a measured order of magnitude reduction in the interfacial tension between fish oils and AgNO3 solution relative to idealized solvent mixtures using hexane/heptane as a carrier for purified EPA/DHA. The impact of solvent addition to fish oils on interfacial tension with silver nitrate solutions was subsequently explored through spinning drop tensiometry, suggesting that the heterogeneous nature of raw fish oils will yield sign...

Effects of solvent addition and ultrasound waves on viscosity reduction of residue fuel oil

In this work, the influence of temperature, solvent concentration and ultrasonic irradiation time on viscosity reduction of residue fuel oil (RFO) are studied. The main feature of this research is using ultrasonic irradiation at low frequency of 24kHz and power of 280W, for viscosity reduction and quality enhancement of RFO. Kinematic viscosity of RFO was found to decrease from 4940 cSt to 2679 cSt due to application of ultrasonic irradiation for 5min at initial temperature of 20°C. Results showed that combination of ultrasonic irradiation with solvent led to intensified decrease of viscosity and API gravity promotion. The maximum reduction of viscosity (at 133cSt) occurred in ultrasonic irradiation time of 5min, temperature of 50°C and acetonitrile loading of 5% by volume. API gravity, distillation and FT-IR analyses revealed that ultrasonic waves have an effective role in cracking and lightening of the examined heavy fuel oil. The measured results including 336 data points of eighty-four samples were analyzed by the feed-forward back propagation of artificial neural network (ANN). The relative importance percent of input variables was calculated and it was found that ultrasonic irradiation time and acetonitrile concentration has maximum and minimum relative importance in viscosity reduction, respectively.

Effects of solvent additives on trap‐assisted recombination in P3HT:ICBA based polymer solar cells

In this work, the effects of solvent additives on the trapping and recombination of carriers in polymer solar cells based on the blend of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and indene‐C60‐bisadduct (ICBA) are investigated by measuring the ideality factor and transient photocurrent. The addition of a few percent of 4‐bromoanisole (BrAni) and 1‐chloronaphthalene (CN) can give rise to the preferable morphology with well‐ordered interpenetrating networks, which is beneficial for charge transport. Efficiency enhancement of polymer solar cells with solvent additives originates from the decreased defects and suppressed trap‐assisted recombination at the interface between the donor and acceptor materials.

Effect of solvent addition on bitumen–air bubble attachment in process water

Bitumen–air bubble attachment is an essential element for bitumen recovery from oil sands by flotation. Effect of solvent addition to bitumen on bitumen–air bubble attachment in an industrial process water was investigated by determining the minimum time required to achieve the bitumen–air bubble attachment, known as induction time. Proper addition of solvent to bitumen significantly reduced the induction time of bitumen–air bubble attachment, more so for naphtha than for toluene and reaching optimal at 10wt% solvent added to bitumen. The measurement of bubble coalescence time and total organic carbon content in the resulting process water revealed a critical role in bitumen–air bubble attachment of air bubble interfacial properties controlled primarily by surfactants in the process water and water chemistry. Increasing the solvent addition to bitumen led to an increased migration of natural surfactants to the bitumen–water interface. At a given solvent dosage, more surfactants adsorbed at toluene–diluted bitumen–water interface than at naphtha–diluted bitumen–water interface. Interestingly, zeta potentials of diluted bitumen droplets in the process water exhibited a maximum at about 10wt% of solvent addition to bitumen for both toluene and naphtha. At an identical dosage of solvent, toluene–diluted bitumen in the tailings water possesses a more negative zeta potential than naphtha–diluted bitumen. Finally, a possible adsorption mechanism of ions and surfactants accumulating at the diluted bitumen–water interface under the impact of solvent addition is proposed.

The Crystallization of PEDOT:PSS Polymeric Electrodes Probed In Situ during Printing.

The evolution of nanomorphology in printed polymeric electrodes is investigated by in situ grazing-incidence wideangle X-ray scattering (in situ GIWAXS). The effect of solvent additives on the PEDOT:PSS film-formation process is analyzed. In situ and static GIWAXS measurements show how co-solvent additives influence conducting polymers in terms of interchain coupling, molecular orientation, and crystallite size. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.