Promising Candidate For Solar Energy Conversion Research Articles

Delocalisation enables efficient charge generation in organic photovoltaics, even with little to no energetic offset.

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are promising candidates for solar-energy conversion, with device efficiencies continuing to increase. However, the precise mechanism of how charges separate in OPVs is not well understood because low dielectric constants produce a strong attraction between the charges, which they must overcome to separate. Separation has been thought to require energetic offsets at donor-acceptor interfaces, but recent materials have enabled efficient charge generation with small offsets, or with none at all in neat materials. Here, we extend delocalised kinetic Monte Carlo (dKMC) to develop a three-dimensional model of charge generation that includes disorder, delocalisation, and polaron formation in every step from photoexcitation to charge separation. Our simulations show that delocalisation dramatically increases charge-generation efficiency, partly by enabling excitons to dissociate in the bulk. Therefore, charge generation can be efficient even in devices with little to no energetic offset, including neat materials. Our findings demonstrate that the underlying quantum-mechanical effect that improves the charge-separation kinetics is faster and longer-distance hops between delocalised states, mediated by hybridised states of exciton and charge-transfer character.

Hydrogen-Bonded Polymer-Porphyrin Assemblies in Water: Supramolecular Structures for Light Energy Conversion.

In this study, a new type of functional, self-assembled nanostructure formed from porphyrins and polyamidoamine dendrimers based on hydrogen bonding in an aqueous solution is presented. As the aggregates formed are promising candidates for solar-energy conversion, their photocatalytic activity is tested using the model reaction of methyl viologen reduction. The self-assembled structures show significantly increased activity as compared to unassociated porphyrins. Details of interaction forces driving the supramolecular structure formation and regulating catalytic efficiency are fundamentally discussed.

Thickness-dependent carrier transport and optically enhanced transconductance gain in III-VI multilayer InSe

Multilayer InSe with a thickness above ∼20 nm, is a direct semiconductor with a peak absorption wavelength approaching λ = 1000 nm, which is a promising candidate for solar-energy conversion and 2D optoelectronics devices. We present herein the experimental observations of thickness-dependent conductivity and photoconductive-responsivity spectrum in multilayer InSe as well as optically enhanced transconductance gain in the multilayer InSe metal-semiconductor-field-effect transistor (MESFET) illuminated by a halogen lamp. The voltage-current (V-I) measurement result shows multilayer InSe belongs to a p-type semiconductor, which can form a p-channel FET device. Thickness (t) dependent conductivity (σ) of multilayer InSe reveals about six-order variation from 5076 (Ω-cm)−1 (t = 5 nm) to 2.56 × 10−3 (Ω-cm)−1 (t = 184 μm, bulk) following a relationship of σ ∝ t−1.38. The highest conductivity in a thin InSe (e.g. t = 5 nm) is due to the increase of carrier density when the thickness is decreased. The photoresponsivity spectrum of a Ag-InSe-Ag multilayer photoconductor demonstrates a prominent peak absorption at 1.1 ∼ 1.3 eV, matches well with the direct-free-exciton energy of the InSe. A multilayer p-InSe MESFET was tested by V-I measurement. The transconductance was measured and determined to be The gm value will enhance about three times when the MESFET was placed under the illumination of a tungsten halogen lamp of a lower power density ∼0.5 mW · cm−2. All the experimental results demonstrate multilayer InSe a promising 2D material available for microelectronics and optoelectronics applications.