Optimal Shell Thickness of Metal@Insulator Nanoparticles for Net Enhancement of Photogenerated Polarons in P3HT Films.

Embedding metal nanoparticles in the active layer of organic solar cells has been explored as a route for improving charge carrier generation, with localized field enhancement as a proposed mechanism. However, embedded metal nanoparticles can also act as charge recombination sites. To suppress such recombination, the metal nanoparticles are commonly coated with a thin insulating shell.

Amorphous ruthenium nanoparticles for enhanced electrochemical water splitting.

This paper demonstrates an optimized fabrication of amorphous Ru nanoparticles through annealing at various temperatures ranging from 150 to 700 °C, which are used as water oxidation catalyst for effective electrochemical water splitting under a low overpotential of less than 300 mV. The amorphous Ru nanoparticles with short-range ordered structure exhibit an optimal and stable electrocatalytic activity after annealing at 250 °C. Interestingly, a small quantity of such Ru nanoparticles in a thin film on fluorine-doped tin oxide glass is also effectively driven by a conventional crystalline silicon solar cell that has excellent capability for harvesting visible light.

Water-based nanoparticulate solar cells using a diketopyrrolopyrrole donor polymer.

Organic photovoltaic devices with either bulk heterojunction (BHJ) or nanoparticulate (NP) active layers have been prepared from a 1 : 2 blend of (poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-naphthalene}) (PDPP-TNT) and the fullerene acceptor, ([6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester) (PC70BM). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to investigate the morphology of the active layers of the two approaches. Mild thermal treatment of the NP film is required to promote initial joining of the NPs in order for the devices to function, however the NP structure is retained.

A benzothiadiazole end capped donor-acceptor based small molecule for organic electronics.

A benzothiadiazole end-capped small molecule 3,6-bis(5-(benzo-[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-2,5-bis(2-butyloctyl)pyrrolo-[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione (BO-DPP-BTZ) using a fused aromatic moiety DPP (at the centre) is designed and synthesized. BO-DPP-BTZ is a donor–acceptor–donor (D–A–D) structure which possesses a band gap of 1.6 eV and exhibits a strong solid state ordering inferred from ~120 nm red shift of the absorption maxima from solution to thin film.

Delayed onset of photochromism in molybdenum oxide films caused by photoinduced defect formation.

We report the photochromic properties of amorphous MoO films deposited by dc sputtering with different O flow rates. The kinetics of film coloration under UV light irradiation is determined using optical transmission spectroscopy. Changes in the absorbance and refractive index were derived from the analysis of transmittance spectra.