Solution modification of PEDOT:PSS inks for ultrasonic spray coating

PEDOT:PSS is a high-conductivity hole-transporting polymer that is widely used in polymer and perovskite photovoltaic devices, as well as in a host of other antistatic applications. Here we show that modification of PEDOT:PSS inks using ternary solvents and by the addition of small amounts of a high molecular weight polymer make it possible to deposit highly uniform thin films via ultrasonic spray coating. Such films can be deposited using a single pass in the wet phase without the use of surfactants; a process that greatly simplifies their deposition. Using this technique we create films having thickness and roughness comparable to that of spin coated films, whilst properties such as the conductivity and stability can be improved

Optimization of a high work function solution processed vanadium oxide hole-extracting layer for small molecule and polymer organic photovoltaic cells

We report a method of fabricating a high work function, solution processable vanadium oxide (V2Ox(sol)) hole-extracting layer. The atmospheric processing conditions of film preparation have a critical influence on the electronic structure and stoichiometry of the V2Ox(sol), with a direct impact on organic photovoltaic (OPV) cell performance. Combined Kelvin probe (KP) and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) measurements reveal a high work function, n-type character for the thin films, analogous to previously reported thermally evaporated transition metal oxides. Additional states within the band gap of V2Ox(sol) are observed in the UPS spectra and are demonstrated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to be due to the substoichiometric nature of V2Ox(sol). The optimized V2Ox(sol) layer performance is compared directly to bare indium–tin oxide (ITO), poly(ethyleneoxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), and thermally evaporated molybdenum oxide (MoOx) interfaces in both small molecule/fullerene and polymer/fullerene structures. OPV cells incorporating V2Ox(sol) are reported to achieve favorable initial cell performance and cell stability attributes

Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

P3HT-Based Solar Cells: Structural Properties and Photovoltaic Performance

Each year we are bombarded with B.Sc. and Ph.D. applications from students that want to improve the world. They have learned that their future depends on changing the type of fuel we use and that solar energy is our future. The hope and energy of these young people will transform future energy technologies, but it will not happen quickly. Organic photovoltaic devices are easy to sketch, but the materials, processing steps, and ways of measuring the properties of the materials are very complicated. It is not trivial to make a systematic measurement that will change the way other research groups think or practice. In approaching this chapter, we thought about what a new researcher would need to know about organic photovoltaic devices and materials in order to have a good start in the subject. Then, we simplified that to focus on what a new researcher would need to know about poly-3-hexylthiophene:phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester blends (P3HT: PCBM) to make research progress with these materials. This chapter is by no means authoritative or a compendium of all things on P3HT:PCBM. We have selected to explain how the sample fabrication techniques lead to control of morphology and structural features and how these morphological features have specific optical and electronic consequences for organic photovoltaic device applications

What are teens doing with YouTube? Practices, uses and metaphors of the most popular audiovisual platform

This article is part of the outcomes of the Transmedia Literacy research project on teens and transmedia collaborative practices carried out in eight countries between 2015 and 2018. A multi-method approach was used in the study (questionnaires, workshops, media diaries, interviews, observation of online communities) to explore what teens are doing with media. This article presents a map of the uses and practices teens make of YouTube. The metaphors of YouTube that emerged when teens put these uses and practices into discourse are also identified. Five YouTube uses were detected: radiophonic, televisual, social, productive and educative. These uses vary according to the practices performed by teens and how they are related to the logics of the YouTube platform. Moreover, the identified metaphors show the ways teens’ uses are related to their everyday routines and the way they integrate the YouTube platform into various dimensions of their social life, such as their media practices, and the way they acquire knowledge and skills.This work was supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme: [Grant Number 645238