Category

Surface structure and patterns

ApplicationCharacteristic dimensionCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGISAXSInorganic materialMaterialOrientation analysisPhase analysisRenewable energySAXSSurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Tuning Pore Dimensions of Mesoporous Inorganic Films by Homopolymer Swelling

Reid, Barry; Alvarez-Fernandez, Alberto; Schmidt-Hansberg, Benjamin; Guldin, Stefan

The functionality and applications of mesoporous inorganic films are closely linked to their mesopore dimensions. For material architectures derived from a block copolymer (BCP) micelle coassembly, the pore size is typically manipulated by changing the molecular weight corresponding to the pore-forming block. However, bespoke BCP synthesis is often a costly…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSMaterialOtherRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechnique

Efficient Anti-solvent-free Spin-Coated and Printed Sn-Perovskite Solar Cells with Crystal-Based Precursor Solutions

He, Lintao; Gu, Hao; Liu, Xiaolong; Li, Pengwei; Dang, Yangyang; Liang, Chao; Ono, Luis K.; Qi, Yabing; Tao, Xutang

Tin-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs), with more consummate optical band gaps, lower exciton-binding energies, and higher charge-carrier mobility, have not attracted tremendous research efforts compared with the lead-based ones that have a record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 24.2%. The major challenges for Sn-based research are significantly low open-circuit voltage,…
27 January 2020
ApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGISAXSInorganic materialsMaterialMetalsOtherParticlesSurface structure and patternsTechnique

Ultrathin Homogenous AuNP Monolayers as Tunable Functional Substrates for Surface-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization of Small Biomolecules

Liu, Zhen; Zhang, Peng; Kister, Thomas; Kraus, Tobias; Volmer, Dietrich A.

A series of ultrathin, homogenous gold nanoparticle (AuNP) substrates for surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI-MS) were prepared using a simple air/water interface approach. These SALDI substrates enabled soft ionization and provided significant improvements in terms of signal intensities and reduced background levels in comparison to other AuNP morphologies for…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisPhase analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Regulating the phase separation of ternary organic solar cells via 3D architectured AIE molecules

Adil, Muhammad Abdullah; Zhang, Jianqi; Wang, Yuheng; Yu, Jinde; Yang, Chen; Lu, Guanghao; Wei, Zhixiang

An optimized bulk heterojunction (BHJ) interface, certifying enhanced exciton-splitting, charge separation and recombination inhibition, is vastly desired to obtain high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Herein, the ternary strategy has been employed to effectively modify the phase separation between the J71:ITIC blend by incorporating a 3D aggregation-induced emission (AIE) material,…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSInorganic materialMaterialOrientation analysisPhase analysisPolymer researchSurface structure and patternsTechnique

How Confinement Affects the Nucleation, Crystallization, and Dielectric Relaxation of Poly(butylene succinate) and Poly(butylene adipate) Infiltrated within Nanoporous Alumina Templates

Safari, Maryam; Maiz, Jon; Shi, Guangyu; Juanes, Diana; Liu, Guoming; Wang, Dujin; Mijangos, Carmen; Alegría, Ángel; Müller, Alejandro J.

This work describes the successful melt infiltration of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene adipate) (PBA) within 70 nm diameter anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates. The infiltrated samples were characterized by SEM, Raman, and FTIR spectroscopy. The crystallization behaviors and crystalline structures of both polymers, bulk and confined, were analyzed by…
27 January 2020
ApplicationCharacteristic dimensionCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGISAXSMaterialOrientation analysisOtherOtherPorous materialSurface structure and patternsTechnique

In-Depth Study of Coating Multimodal Porosity Using Ellipsometry Porosimetry in Desorption Scanning Mode

Loizillon, Jérôme; Baumgartner, Bettina; Sinturel, Christophe; Abbarchi, Marco; Lendl, Bernhard; Grosso, David

Ellipsometry porosimetry provides full adsorption/desorption isotherms and is among the most accurate techniques to probe porosity in thin films. Here we address a novel technique based on desorption scanning for a precise assessment of the porosity features revealing the size distribution of interconnections between the various populations of pores in…
27 January 2020
ApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSInorganic materialMaterialOrientation analysisOtherRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

Fine Multi-Phase Alignments in 2D Perovskite Solar Cells with Efficiency over 17% via Slow Post-Annealing

Wu, Guangbao; Li, Xing; Zhou, Jiyu; Zhang, Jianqi; Zhang, Xuning; Leng, Xuanye; Wang, Peijun; Chen, Ming; Zhang, Dongyang; Zhao, Kui; Liu, Shengzhong (Frank); Zhou, Huiqiong; Zhang, Yuan

Layered Ruddlesden–Popper (RP) phase (2D) halide perovskites have attracted tremendous attention due to the wide tunability on their optoelectronic properties and excellent robustness in photovoltaic devices. However, charge extraction/transport and ultimate power conversion efficiency (PCE) in 2D perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are still limited by the non-eliminable quantum well effect.…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGISAXSMaterialPhase analysisPolymer researchSelf-assembled materialSurface structure and patternsTechnique

Transition Pathway between Gyroid and Cylindrical Morphology in Linear Triblock Terpolymer Thin Films

Guliyeva, Aynur; Vayer, Marylène; Warmont, Fabienne; Takano, Atsushi; Matsushita, Yushu; Sinturel, Christophe

A new transition between alternating gyroid (GA) structure and cylindrical morphology was observed in thin films for a poly(isoprene-block-styrene-block-(2-vinylpyridine)) (ISP) triblock terpolymer (I/S/P volume fraction = 0.20:0.66:0.14) exhibiting in bulk a Q214 (space group I4132) morphology. Thin films were organized using solvent vapor annealing (SVA) and characterized by atomic force…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGIWAXSMaterialOrientation analysisRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechnique

Relation Between Charge Transport and the Number of Interconnected Lamellar Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) Crystals

Wang, Binghua; Chen, Jingbo; Shen, Changyu; Reiter, Günter; Zhang, Bin

We have investigated the lateral charge transport in a multilamellar network of crystalline structures of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) embedded in a matrix of small crystallites and amorphous polymers resulting from crystallization at temperatures close to the melting point. Removing the matrix by an appropriate washing process allowed us to observe a…
27 January 2020
(Natural) polymersApplicationCharacteristic dimensionCharacterizationCustomer publicationsGISAXSGIWAXSMaterialRenewable energySurface structure and patternsTechniqueThin films

A top-down strategy identifying molecular phase stabilizers to overcome microstructure instabilities in organic solar cells

Zhang, Chaohong; Heumueller, Thomas; Leon, Salvador; Gruber, Wolfgang; Burlafinger, Klaus; Tang, Xiaofeng; Perea, Jose D.; Wabra, Isabell; Hirsch, Andreas; Unruh, Tobias; Li, Ning; Brabec, Christoph J.

The operational stability of organic solar cells (OSCs) is the essential barrier to commercialization. Compared to thermally-induced degradation, photo-stability of OSCs is far away from being resolved. Here, we demonstrate that the thermal- and photo-degradation of metastable bulk-heterojunction OSCs are governed by the same mechanism. Understanding the fundamental principles behind…
27 January 2020