A Relationship Between Semiconducting Thin Film's Electronic Structure Heterogeneity and Defect Tolerance.

Analyzing the defect states presence in semiconductors and understanding their impact on charge transport is essential to the solar cells' functionality. In recent years, there has been a focus on the concept of "defect tolerance" observed in perovskite solar cells. The energy-resolved electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ER-EIS) is crucial for measuring the density distribution of defect states in the energy scale from valence to conductance band (or from HOMO to LUMO) and their spatial localization on a thin film.

Control of single-electron charging of metallic nanoparticles onto amorphous silicon surface.

Sequential single-electron charging of iron oxide nanoparticles encapsulated in oleic acid/oleyl amine envelope and deposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique onto Pt electrode covered with undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon film is reported. Single-electron charging (so-called quantized double-layer charging) of nanoparticles is detected by cyclic voltammetry as current peaks and the charging effect can be switched on/off by the electric field in the surface region induced by the excess of negative/positive charged defect states in the amorphous silicon layer. The particular charge states in amorphous silicon are created by the simultaneous application of a suitable bias voltage and illumination before the measurement.

Orientation ordering of nanoparticle Ag/Co cores controlled by electric and magnetic fields.

The effect of electric and magnetic fields on the sandwich structure Pt/hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/stearic acid monolayer/Langmuir-Blodgett film of Ag/Co nanoparticles encapsulated in an organic envelope is studied. This structure is used as a working electrode in an electrochemical cell filled with NaCl solution (1 mM) and equipped with an Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Reversible changes in voltammograms are observed due to treatments (negative or positive bias voltage and simultaneous laser irradiation) applied to the designed structure before measurements.

Ion selectivity of a poly(3-pentylmethoxythiophene) LB-layer modified carbon-fiber microelectrode as a consequence of the second order filtering in voltcoulometry.

Ion selective properties of poly(3-pentylmethoxythiophene) Langmuir-Blodgett film modified carbon-fiber microelectrode are described. The study of the electrode behavior indicates that important features occur if two electrochemical methods, one of them being kinetics sensitive, are used. While in case of the typical steady-state voltammetry the electrode remains sensitive to both the cations and anions, the kinetics-sensitive properties of voltcoulometry based on the second-order filtering scheme disable the observation of anions.

Electrochemistry of a carbon microfiber adsorbed by cobalt nanoparticles.

The adsorption of cobalt nanoparticles on a carbon microfiber surface has been electrochemicaly detected. The redox processes observed in an electrochemical cell filled with redistilled water and equipped with the carbon fiber microelectrode modified by cobalt nanoparticles have been compared to those observed in an aqueous solution of Co2+ cations. The movement of the adsorbed nanoparticles has been demonstrated by the feedback capacitance-potential method.

Monitoring of oxidation steps of ascorbic acid redox reaction by kinetics-sensitive voltcoulometry in unsupported and supported aqueous solutions and real samples.

Aqueous solutions of ascorbic acid in unsupported and supported aqueous solutions and real samples were studied by the kinetics-sensitive double-step voltcoulommetric method with the aim to contribute to a better understanding of its behavior in biological systems. The data obtained from measurements made on analytes prepared in the laboratory, as well as those made on real samples (some commercial orange drinks, flash of the fresh fruits) point to the redox reaction of L-ascorbic acid (L-AH2) being very sensitive to both the presence of dissolved gaseous species (O2, CO2) and the ionic strenght in the analyte. Either the dissolved gaseous species, or the higher ionic strength caused by both the presence of supporting electrolyte and increased total concentration of ascorbic acid, respectively, give birth to the degradation of L-AH2.