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Publications
π-Conjugated organic/polymer materials-based solar cells have attracted tremendous research interest in the fields of chemistry, physics, materials science, and energy science. To date, the best-performance polymer solar cells (PSCs) have achieved power conversion efficiencies exceeding 18%, mostly driven by the molecular design and device structure...
We designed and realized highly fluorescent nanostructures composed of Eu3+ complexes under a protein coating. The nanostructured material, confirmed by photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM), includes a bottom fluorescent layer and an upper protein layer. The bottom fluorescent layer includes Eu3+ that is coordinated by 1,10-phenanthroline...
Supramolecular dye structures, which are often ruled by π-π interactions between planar chromophores, crucially determine the optoelectronic properties of layers and interfaces. Here, we present the interfacial assembly of perylene monoanhydride and monoimide that do not feature a planar chromophore but contain chlorine substituents in...
Tip-enhanced infrared (IR) spectra and imaging have been widely used in cutting-edge studies for the in-depth understanding of the composition, structure, and function of interfaces at the nanoscale. However, molecular monolayer sensitivity has only been demonstrated at solid/gas interfaces. In an aqueous environment, reduced sensitivity...
All-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) based on polymerized small molecular acceptors (PSMAs) have made significant progress recently. Here, we synthesize two A-DA'D-A small molecule acceptor based PSMAs of PS-Se with benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole A'-core and PN-Se with benzotriazole A'-core, for the studies of the effect of molecular structure...
Durable hydrophobic materials have attracted considerable interest in the last century. Currently, the most popular strategy to achieve hydrophobic coating durability is through the combination of a perfluoro-compound with a mechanically robust matrix to form a composite for coating protection. The matrix structure is typically...
Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is a popular technique for mapping the surface potential at the nanoscale through measurement of the Coulombic force between an atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip and sample. The lateral resolution of conventional KPFM variants is limited to between ≈35 and...
The power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells delicately depend on the morphology of the light-harvesting bulk heterojunctions (BHJ). Upon deposition from solution, the formation of tailored bicontinuous networks of polymers and fullerenes is often achieved using combinations of solvents and solvent additives. Common wisdom...
Photoactivated atomic force microscopy (pAFM), which integrates light excitation and mechanical detection of the deflections of a cantilever tip, has become a widely used tool for probing nanoscale structures. Raising the illuminating laser power is an obvious way to boost the signal-to-noise ratio of pAFM,...
Multi-material and multilayered micro- and nanostructures are prominently featured in nature and engineering and are recognized by their remarkable properties. Unfortunately, the fabrication of micro- and nanostructured materials through conventional processes is challenging and costly. Herein, we introduce a high-throughput, continuous, and versatile strategy for...
Limitations faced in using fullerene as an acceptor molecule in BHJOSCs directed research toward non-fullerene-based acceptors in BHJOSCs. Polymer donor and small-molecule acceptor combination is successfully explored to develop higher performance BHJOSCs. Various novel small acceptor organic materials are synthesized and fabricated as sBHJOSCs in...
Raman and infrared (IR) spectroscopy are powerful analytical techniques, but have intrinsically low detection sensitivity. There have been three major steps (i) to advance the optical system of the light excitation, collection, and detection since 1920s, (ii) to utilize nanostructure-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and...
Nanowire Architectures Improve Ion Uptake Kinetics in Conjugated Polymer Electrochemical Transistors
Organic electrochemical transistors are believed to face an inherent material design tension between optimizing for ion mobility and for electronic mobility. These devices transduce ion uptake into electrical current, thereby requiring high ion mobility for efficient electrochemical doping and rapid turn-on kinetics and high electronic...
In the twenty-first century, scanning probe microscopy characterization techniques have seen significant progress and are capable of probing complex structures and devices for a variety of near-surface features and phenomena with nanometer scale resolution. With modest customization, we can deploy these techniques for industrial metrology...
ZnO is one of the most used materials in optoelectronic devices, however, owing to the adsorption of oxygen, ZnO photodetectors (PDs) usually possess slow response in photo detection. In this work, we present the photodetectors of ZnO NRs based on sandwiched AZO/Ag NPs/AZO seed layer....
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is an industrial catalytic process that converts a mixture of CO and hydrogen into long-chain hydrocarbons. These products are used as clean transportation fuels and chemical building blocks. The solid catalysts used in the process are complex multi-component systems. Therefore, unambiguously determining...
Since its development, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become an indispensable tool for investigating fundamental and technological applications of polymer materials. The versatility of AFM imaging modes and operating conditions allows for nanoscale characterization of a range of dynamic processes, such as crystallization, phase separation,...
With the development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs), the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic solar cells (OSCs) has been continuously improved and has exceeded 18%. A critical step to realize high-efficiency devices is to control the complex non-equilibrium morphology of the photoactive layer, to match...
Infrared photo-induced force microscopy (IR PiFM) was applied for imaging ultrathin sections of Norway spruce (Picea abies) at 800–1885 cm−1 with varying scanning steps from 0.6 to 30 nm. Cell wall sublayers were visualized in the low-resolution mode based on differences in their chemical composition....
Nanoparticle drug delivery systems are designed to be biocompatible and to control the distribution of poorly soluble drugs. Fluorescent nanoparticle drug carriers have been designed to enable fluorescence tracking. While such particles enable tracking of the carrier, this tracking does not report the local drug...