Eco-friendly fabrication of organic solar cells: electrostatic stabilization of surfactant-free organic nanoparticle dispersions by illumination.

Earlier reports have discussed the manifold opportunities that arise from the use of eco-friendly organic semiconductor dispersions as inks for printed electronics and, in particular, organic photovoltaics. To date, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) plays an outstanding role since it has been the only organic semiconductor that formed nanoparticle dispersions with sufficient stability and concentration without the use of surfactants. This work elucidates the underlying mechanisms that lead to the formation of intrinsically stable P3HT dispersions and reveals prevailing electrostatic effects to rule the nanoparticle growth.

Molecular Chromophore-DNA Architectures With Fullerenes: Optical Properties and Solar Cells.

Supramolecular chemistry allows the construction of complex molecular architectures and the design of collective photophysical properties. DNA is an attractive template to build such supramolecular architectures due to its helical structure, the defined distances between the bases and the canonical base pairing that results in precise control of the chromophore position. The tailored properties of DNA-templated supramolecules eventually allow their implementation into optoelectronic applications.