2 research outputs found
Highly Stretchable and Highly Conductive PEDOT:PSS/Ionic Liquid Composite Transparent Electrodes for Solution-Processed Stretchable Electronics
Stretchable conductive materials
have received great attention
owing to their potential for realizing next-generation stretchable
electronics. However, the simultaneous achievement of excellent mechanical
stretchability and high electrical conductivity as well as cost-effective
fabrication has been a significant challenge. Here, we report a highly
stretchable and highly conducting polymer that was obtained by incorporating
an ionic liquid. When 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetracyanoborate
(EMIM TCB) was added to an aqueous conducting polymer solution of
poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS),
it was found that EMIM TCB acts not only as a secondary dopant but
also as a plasticizer for PEDOT:PSS, resulting in a high conductivity
of >1000 S cm<sup>–1</sup> with stable performance at tensile
strains up to 50% and even up to 180% in combination with the prestrained
substrate technique. Consequently, by exploiting the additional benefits
of high transparency and solution-processability of PEDOT:PSS, we
were able to fabricate a highly stretchable, semitransparent, and
wholly solution-processed alternating current electroluminescent device
with unimpaired performance at 50% strain by using PEDOT:PSS/EMIM
TCB composite films as both bottom and top electrodes
Long-Term Stable Recombination Layer for Tandem Polymer Solar Cells Using Self-Doped Conducting Polymers
Recently, the most efficient tandem
polymer solar cells (PSCs) have used poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)
(PEDOT:PSS) as a p-type component of recombination layer (RL). However,
its undesirable acidic nature, originating from insulating PSS, of
PEDOT:PSS drastically reduces the lifetime of PSCs. Here, we demonstrate
the efficient and stable tandem PSCs by introducing acid-free self-doped
conducting polymer (SCP), combined with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO
NPs), as RL for PEDOT:PSS-free tandem PSCs. Moreover, we introduce
an innovative and versatile nanocomposite system containing photoactive
and p-type conjugated polyelectrolyte (p-CPE) into the tandem fabrication
of an ideal self-organized recombination layer. In our new RL, highly
conductive SCP facilitates charge transport and recombination process,
and p-CPE helps to achieve nearly loss-free charge collection by increasing
effective work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) and SCP. Because
of the synergistic effect of extremely low electrical resistance,
ohmic contact, and pH neutrality, tandem devices with our novel RL
performed well, exhibiting a high power conversion efficiency of 10.2%
and a prolonged lifetime. These findings provide a new insight for
strategic design of RLs using SCPs to achieve efficient and stable
tandem PSCs and enable us to review and extend the usefulness of SCPs
in various electronics research fields