Polyelectrolyte interlayers with a broad processing window for high efficiency inverted organic solar cells towards mass production

Neutral polyelectrolyte interfacial layers in organic solar cells are well-known for their ability to tailor the work function of electrodes, improve charge carrier extraction and maximize open circuit voltage. However, they also suffer from low charge carrier conductivity, and therefore the interlayer must be kept thin, which in turn requires very precise deposition. This prerequisite significantly reduces the robustness of the fabrication process and makes such structures difficult to up-scale for roll-to-roll mass production. Herein, we find that by washing the polyelectrolyte layer with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) after deposition, solar cell efficiency jumps to near optimum levels, no matter what the original thickness of the polyelectrolyte layer. Subsequent characterization of the DMF-washed ZnO/PEI interlayer reveals a changed surface structure, passivated surface trap states, and thus improved transport properties and lower recombination losses. We demonstrate the general applicability of the method to other state-of-the-art material systems, namely P3HT:ICBA, PTB7:PC71BM and PTB7-Th:PC71BM. We find that the more efficient the material system, the larger the improvement in efficiency after DMF washing. Thus, this method represents a general way to relax the fabrication criteria for high efficiency organic solar cells. We anticipate that this method could be of use in other classes of devices such as OTFTs and OLEDs

Passivation agent with dipole moment for surface modification towards efficient and stable perovskite solar cells

Recently, there has been renewed interest in interface engineering as a means to further push the performance of perovskite solar cells closer to the Schockly-Queisser limit. Herein, for the first time we employ a multi-functional 4-chlorobenzoic acid to produce a self-assembled monolayer on a perovskite surface. With this interlayer we observe passivation of perovskite surface defects and a significant suppression of non-radiative charge recombination. Furthermore, at the surface of the interlayer we observe, charge dipoles which tune the energy level alignment, enabling a larger energetic driving force for hole extraction. The perovskite surface becomes more hydrophilic due to the presence of the interlayer. Consequently, we observe an improvement in open-circuit voltage from 1.08 to 1.16 V, a power conversion efficiency improvement from 18% to 21% and an improved stability under ambient conditions. Our work highlights the potential of SAMs to engineer the photo-electronic properties and stability of perovskite interfaces to achieve high-performance light harvesting devices

Combining plasmonic trap filling and optical backscattering for highly efficient third generation solar cells

© The Royal Society of Chemistry. Metal oxide contact layers such as ZnO and TiOx are commonly used in third generation solar cells as they can be solution processed and have a relatively high conductivity. It is well known that by ultraviolet (UV) light-soaking such devices, their overall device efficiency can be boosted. This improvement in efficiency is due to high energy UV light exciting hot carriers which then fill the trap states in the metal oxide film. Unfortunately, UV causes degradation of the active layer and thus must be filtered out if long lifetimes are to be achieved. In this work, we use plasmonically excited metal nano-structures embedded in a ZnO metal oxide layer to generate hot charge carriers from visible light alone, thus removing the need for UV light soaking. Using this approach, the solar cells also exhibit better charge transport/recombination properties as well as enhanced light trapping behavior. We demonstrate that the power conversion efficiency of a low-bandgap thieno[3,4-b]thiophene/benzodithiophene (PTB7) based solar cell can be increased from 7.91% to 9.36%

Molecular Doping Inhibits Charge Trapping in Low-Temperature-Processed ZnO toward Flexible Organic Solar Cells

There has been a growing interest in the development of efficient flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) due to their unique capacity to provide energy sources for flexible electronics. To this end, it is required to design a compatible interlayer with low processing temperature and high electronic quality. In this work, we present that the electronic quality of the ZnO interlayer fabricated from a low-temperature (130 °C) sol–gel method can be significantly improved by doping an organic small molecule, TPT-S. The doped TPT-S, on the one hand, passivates uncoordinated Zn-related defects by forming N–Zn bonds. On the other hand, photoinduced charge transfer from TPT-S to ZnO is confirmed, which further fills up electron-deficient trap states. This renders ZnO improved electron transport capability and reduced charge recombination. By illuminating devices with square light pulses of varying intensities, we also reveal that an unfavorable charge trapping/detrapping process observed in low-temperature-processed devices is significantly inhibited after TPT-S doping. OSCs based on PBDB-T-2F:IT-4F with ZnO:TPT-S being the cathode interlayer yield efficiencies of 12.62 and 11.33% on rigid and flexible substrates, respectively. These observations convey the practicality of such hybrid ZnO in high-performance flexible devices

Objective response rate targets for recurrent glioblastoma clinical trials based on the historic association between objective response rate and median overall survival

Durable objective response rate (ORR) remains a meaningful endpoint in recurrent cancer; however, the target ORR for single-arm recurrent glioblastoma trials has not been based on historic information or tied to patient outcomes. The current study reviewed 68 treatment arms comprising 4793 patients in past trials in recurrent glioblastoma in order to judiciously define target ORRs for use in recurrent glioblastoma trials. ORR was estimated at 6.1% [95% CI 4.23; 8.76%] for cytotoxic chemothera + pies (ORR = 7.59% for lomustine, 7.57% for temozolomide, 0.64% for irinotecan, and 5.32% for other agents), 3.37% for biologic agents, 7.97% for (select) immunotherapies, and 26.8% for anti-angiogenic agents. ORRs were significantly correlated with median overall survival (mOS) across chemotherapy (R2= 0.4078, P &lt; .0001), biologics (R2= 0.4003, P = .0003), and immunotherapy trials (R2= 0.8994, P &lt; .0001), but not anti-angiogenic agents (R2= 0, P = .8937). Pooling data from chemotherapy, biologics, and immunotherapy trials, a meta-analysis indicated a strong correlation between ORR and mOS (R2= 0.3900, P &lt; .0001; mOS [weeks] = 1.4xORR + 24.8). Assuming an ineffective cytotoxic (control) therapy has ORR = 7.6%, the average ORR for lomustine and temozolomide trials, a sample size of ≥40 patients with target ORR&gt;25% is needed to demonstrate statistical significance compared to control with a high level of confidence (P &lt; .01) and adequate power (&gt;80%). Given this historic data and potential biases in patient selection, we recommend that well-controlled, single-arm phase II studies in recurrent glioblastoma should have a target ORR &gt;25% (which translates to a median OS of approximately 15 months) and a sample size of ≥40 patients, in order to convincingly demonstrate antitumor activity. Crucially, this response needs to have sufficient durability, which was not addressed in the current study.</p

Using Ligand Engineering to Produce Efficient and Stable Pb–Sn Perovskite Solar Cells with Antioxidative 2D Capping Layers

Pb–Sn binary halide perovskites are a promising photovoltaic material due to their low toxicity and optical absorption spectrum well matched to the solar spectrum. However, the ready oxidation of Sn2+ to Sn4+ makes the material system currently too unstable to commercialize. Herein, ligand engineering based on antioxidative tyramine (hydrochloride, TACl) is presented for the first time to increase the stability of this material system. Using this strategy, we generate a two-dimensional (2D) capping layer on top of a standard three-dimensional Pb–Sn film. After capping, the surface defects can be passivated and the TACl-based 2D perovskite effectively protected Sn2+ from oxidation, which stabilized the Sn–Pb perovskite composition, avoiding the Pb-based perovskite formation. It is further found that the TACl treatment suppressed the halide segregation and improved the perovskite film photostability. Cell efficiency increases from 16.25 to 18.28% and device lifetime (T80) increases from less than 100 to over 1000 h. Our finding suggests that tuning ligand form/function represents a potentially highly productive direction to explore when trying to produce stable tin-based perovskite devices

Gas Sensors Based on Metal Sulfide Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S Nanowires with Excellent Performance

Metal sulfide Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S nanowires (NWs) covering the entire compositional range prepared by one step solvothermal method were used to fabricate gas sensors. This is the first time for ternary metal sulfide nanostructures to be used in the field of gas sensing. Surprisingly, the sensors based on Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S nanowires were found to exhibit enhanced response to ethanol compared to those of binary CdS and ZnS NWs. Especially for the sensor based on the Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S (x = 0.4) NWs, a large sensor response (<i>s</i> = 12.8) and a quick rise time (2 s) and recovery time (1 s) were observed at 206 °C toward 20 ppm ethanol, showing preferred selectivity. A dynamic equilibrium mechanism of oxygen molecules absorption process and carrier intensity change in the NWs was used to explain the higher response of Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S. The reason for the much quicker response and recovery speed of the Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S NWs than those of the binary ZnS NWs was also discussed. These results demonstrated that the growth of metal sulfide Zn_1–<i>x</i>Cd_<i>x</i>S nanostructures can be utilized to develop gas sensors with high performance

Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance of Tetrazine-Based Small Molecules with Conjugated Side Chains

Two two-dimensional (2D) conjugated tetrazine-based small molecules (SMs), named TBDT­(TTzT)₂ and TBDT­(TTz2T)₂, were newly synthesized for photovoltaic application as donor materials. They employed a molecular backbone of D2-A-D1-A-D2 in which D1 represents an alkylthienyl substituted benzo­[1,2-b:4,5-b′]­dithiophene (BDT) unit, A represents a tetrazine (Tz) unit, and D2 is a bithiophene or terthiophene ending donor unit. These synthesized molecules showed relatively broad light harvesting range and proper energy levels with a fullerene derivative acceptor. Meanwhile, we try to explore how the molecular conjugation influences the opto-electrical properties and photovoltaic performance of the tetrazine-based SM family by making comparison with their non-2D analogues. Experimental results showed that extending main chain conjugated length broadens absorption spectra, whereas side chain conjugation extension leads to larger absorption coefficients, lower highest occupied molecular orbital energy levels, and more favorable blend morphology. The optimized 2D conjugated molecules achieved better device performance with the highest <i>V</i>_oc of 1.03 V and FF of 65.3% after using trace amounts of additive. These results suggested that extending molecular conjugation is a feasible strategy for photovoltaic material design

Bright Perovskite Nanocrystal Films for Efficient Light-Emitting Devices

The high photoluminescence efficiency, high color purity, and easy tunable bandgap make inorganic perovskite nanocrystals very attractive in luminescent display applications. Here, we report a color-saturated, red light-emitting diode (LED) using an inverted organic/inorganic hybrid structure and perovskite nanocrystals. We demonstrated that through a simple post treatment to the perovskite nanocrystals with polyethylenimine, the surface defects of the perovskite nanocrystals could be well passivated, leading to great enhancements on their absolute photoluminescence quantum yield and photoluminescence lifetime. Through using a well-passivated perovskite nanocrystal film and optimizing the charge balance, we achieved an electroluminescence LED with a current efficiency of 3.4 cd A^–1, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 6.3%, which is the highest value reported among perovskite NC LEDs so far