Category

Renewable energy

(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacteristic dimensionCharacterizationCustomer publicationsMaterialPhase analysisRenewable energySAXSSelf-assembled materialTechnique

Preparation of isoporous membranes from low χ block copolymers via co-assembly with H-bond interacting homopolymers

Zhu, Guo-Dong; Yang, Cao-Ying; Yin, Yu-Rong; Yi, Zhuan; Chen, Xian-Hong; Liu, Li-Fen; Gao, Cong-Jie

Self-assembly and non-solvent induced phase separation (SNIPS) was extensively used in the fabrication of isoporous membranes for its compatibility with massive production. However, for the well-defined SNIPS, preparation of isoporous membranes from low χ block copolymers is challenging because self-assembly of these polymers is usually hard to induce. In this…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsFractal dimensionGISAXSGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Simply planarizing nonfused perylene diimide based acceptors toward promising non-fullerene solar cells

Bian, Gao-Feng; Zhao, Feng; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Sheng, Chun-Qi; Lu, Xinhui; Du, Hui; Zhang, Cheng; Qu, Zhi-Rong; Chen, Hongzheng; Wan, Jun-Hua

This work focuses on developing high-efficiency perylene diimide (PDI)-based small molecular nonfullerene acceptors with a simple synthetic strategy. We reported a new electron acceptor, Py-e-PDI, obtained via cross-coupling four PDI units with a planar pyrene core through ethynyl groups. Although the ring-fusion synthetic procedure was omitted, the large planar core…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsFractal dimensionGISAXSGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Single-Junction Organic Solar Cell with over 15% Efficiency Using Fused-Ring Acceptor with Electron-Deficient Core

Yuan, Jun; Zhang, Yunqiang; Zhou, Liuyang; Zhang, Guichuan; Yip, Hin-Lap; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Lu, Xinhui; Zhu, Can; Peng, Hongjian; Johnson, Paul A.; Leclerc, Mario; Cao, Yong; Ulanski, Jacek; Li, Yongfang; Zou, Yingping

Summary Recently, non-fullerene n-type organic semiconductors have attracted significant attention as acceptors in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their great potential to realize high-power conversion efficiencies. The rational design of the central fused ring unit of these acceptor molecules is crucial to maximize device performance. Here, we report a new…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsFractal dimensionGISAXSGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Charge carrier transport and nanomorphology control for efficient non-fullerene organic solar cells

Hu, Hanlin; Deng, Wanyuan; Qin, Minchao; Yin, Hang; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Fong, Patrick W. K.; Ren, Zhiwei; Liang, Qiong; Cui, Li; Wu, Hongbin; Lu, Xinhui; Zhang, Weimin; McCulloch, Iain; Li, Gang

Single junction organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) have exceeded 15% power conversion efficiency (PCE) with the help of fused ring based low-bandgap non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs). As a major type of NFA, the indacenodithiophene derivative NFA (IDTBR) has been shown to have superior OPV stability with outstanding VOC, but the efficiency is…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Fused thienobenzene-thienothiophene electron acceptors for organic solar cells

Xu, Ye; Jiang, Haotian; Lau, Tsz-Ki; Zhu, Jingshuai; Wang, Jiayu; Lu, Xinhui; Zhan, Xiaowei; Lin, Yuze

Small molecule ladder-type heteroarenes IHBT-2F is designed and synthesized with strong electron-donating and molecular packing properties, where the central unit, fused thienobenzene-thienothiphene (IHBT), is attached with the strong electron-deficient 2-(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (2FIC) as the end group. The counterpart IDBT-2F with…
25 November 2019
ApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSInorganic materialMaterialRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Tailoring vertical phase distribution of quasi-two-dimensional perovskite films via surface modification of hole-transporting layer

Liu, Tiefeng; Jiang, Youyu; Qin, Minchao; Liu, Junxue; Sun, Lulu; Qin, Fei; Hu, Lin; Xiong, Sixing; Jiang, Xueshi; Jiang, Fangyuan; Peng, Ping; Jin, Shengye; Lu, Xinhui; Zhou, Yinhua

Vertical phase distribution plays an important role in the quasi-two-dimensional perovskite solar cells. So far, the driving force and how to tailor the vertical distribution of layer numbers have been not discussed. In this work, we report that the vertical distribution of layer numbers in the quasi-two-dimensional perovskite films deposited…
25 November 2019
ApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSInorganic materialMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Two-dimensional inverted planar perovskite solar cells with efficiency over 15% via solvent and interface engineering

Lian, Xiaomei; Chen, Jiehuan; Zhang, Yingzhu; Tian, Shuoxun; Qin, Minchao; Li, Jun; Andersen, Thomas Rieks; Wu, Gang; Lu, Xinhui; Chen, Hongzheng

High short-circuit current (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) are both required for two-dimensional (2D) perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) with high power conversion efficiency (PCE). In this work, solvent engineering is combined with interface engineering to fabricate 2D PVSCs with enhanced Jsc and Voc. Mixing formamide with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was found…
25 November 2019
ApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSInorganic materialMaterialRenewable energySizeSurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Room-Temperature Meniscus Coating of >20% Perovskite Solar Cells: A Film Formation Mechanism Investigation

Hu, Hanlin; Ren, Zhiwei; Fong, Patrick W. K.; Qin, Minchao; Liu, Danjun; Lei, Dangyuan; Lu, Xinhui; Li, Gang

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are ideally fabricated entirely via a scalable solution process at low temperatures to realize the promise of simple manufacturing, low-cost processing, compatibility with flexible substrates, and perovskite-based tandem solar cells. However, high-quality photoactive perovskite thin films under those processing conditions is a challenge. Here, a laminar…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCrystalline fractionCustomer publicationsMaterialPhase analysisRenewable energySAXSTechnique

A designer fast Li-ion conductor Li6.25PS5.25Cl0.75 and its contribution to the polyethylene oxide based electrolyte

Li, Dabing; Cao, Liuyang; Liu, Chaodeng; Cao, Guoqin; Hu, Junhua; Chen, Jingbo; Shao, Guosheng

The composite polymer electrolytes, consisting of a flexible matrix and superb fast ion conductor are promising for large-scale practical application in safer lithium metal batteries. The quantification of polymer structure evolution induced by the inorganic filler was rarely reported. Here, a designer cubic argyrodite Li6PS5X sulfide electrolyte was fabricated by…
25 November 2019
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacteristic dimensionCharacterizationCustomer publicationsMaterialRenewable energySAXSTechnique

Trifluoromethyl and benzyl ether side groups containing novel sulfonated co-poly(ether imide)s: Application in microbial fuel cell

Kumar, Anaparthi Ganesh; Saha, Sayantani; Komber, Hartmut; Tiwari, Bikash Ranjan; Ghangrekar, Makarand M.; Voit, Brigitte; Banerjee, Susanta

A new diamine monomer namely 4,4′-((2′,5′-bis(benzyloxy)-3,3′'-bis(trifluoromethyl)--4,4′'-diyl)bis(oxy))dianiline (TADBE) was prepared. A series of sulfonated co-poly(ether imide)s was synthesized using this diamine as one of the co-monomers along with 4,4′-diaminostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (DSDSA) on reaction with a six-membered dianhydride, 1,4,5,8-naphthalene…
25 November 2019