Control of interface order by inverse quasi-epitaxial growth of squaraine/fullerene thin film photovoltaics.

It has been proposed that interface morphology affects the recombination rate for electrons and holes at donor-acceptor heterojunctions in thin film organic photovoltaic cells. The optimal morphology is one where there is disorder at the heterointerface and order in the bulk of the thin films, maximizing both the short circuit current and open circuit voltage. We show that an amorphous, buried functionalized molecular squaraine donor layer can undergo an "inverted" quasi-epitaxial growth during postdeposition processing, whereby crystallization is seeded by a subsequently deposited self-assembled nanocrystalline acceptor C60 cap layer.

A fullerene-based organic exciton blocking layer with high electron conductivity.

We demonstrate the concentration dependence of C60 absorption in solid solutions of C60 and bathocuprione (BCP), revealing a nonlinear decrease of the C60 charge transfer (CT) state absorption. These blends are utilized to study the photocurrent contribution of the CT in bilayer organic photovoltaics (OPVs); 1:1 blends produce 40% less photocurrent. As exciton blocking electron transporting layers, the blends achieve power conversion efficiencies of 5.

Structural templating of multiple polycrystalline layers in organic photovoltaic cells.

We demonstrate that organic photovoltaic cell performance is influenced by changes in the crystalline orientation of composite layer structures. A 1.5 nm thick self-organized, polycrystalline template layer of 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) orients subsequently deposited layers of a diindenoperylene exciton blocking layer, and the donor, copper phthalocyanine (CuPc).

Nanowire-based delivery of Escherichia coli O157 shiga toxin 1 A subunit into human and bovine cells.

Silica nanowires (NWs) were used to introduce the Shiga toxin type 1 A subunit (StxA1) into cultured bovine and human epithelial cells. We extended technology developed in our laboratories that employs fibronectin (Fn) to induce integrin-mediated uptake of NWs by coating NWs with StxA1 and Fn. The bonding strengths of Fn and StxA1 to the surface of NWs were measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.