Liang Shen

Enhancing stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells with crosslinkable silane-functionalized and doped fullerene

The instability of hybrid perovskite materials due to water and moisture arises as one major challenge to be addressed before any practical application of the demonstrated high efficiency perovskite solar cells. Here we report a facile strategy that can simultaneously enhance the stability and efficiency of p–i–n planar heterojunction-structure perovskite devices. Crosslinkable silane molecules with hydrophobic functional groups are bonded onto fullerene to make the fullerene layer highly water-resistant. Methylammonium iodide is introduced in the fullerene layer for n-doping via anion-induced electron transfer, resulting in dramatically increased conductivity over 100-fold. With crosslinkable silane-functionalized and doped fullerene electron transport layer, the perovskite devices deliver an efficiency of 19.5% with a high fill factor of 80.6%. A crosslinked silane-modified fullerene layer also enhances the water and moisture stability of the non-sealed perovskite devices by retaining nearly 90% of their original efficiencies after 30 days exposure in an ambient environment.

π-Conjugated Lewis Base: Efficient Trap-Passivation and Charge-Extraction for Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells

A π-conjugated Lewis base is introduced into perovskite solar cells, namely, indacenodithiophene end-capped with 1.1-dicyanomethylene-3-indanone (IDIC), as a multifunctional interlayer, which combines efficient trap-passivation and electron-extraction. Perovskite solar cells with IDIC layers yield higher photovoltages and photocurrents, and 45% enhanced efficiency compared with control devices without IDIC.

Toward Highly Sensitive Polymer Photodetectors by Molecular Engineering

Modified 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene is employed as the conjugated side chain in conjugated polymers, which can significantly depress the dark current of the polymer photodetectors with little associated decrease in photovoltaic properties, thus enhanceing the detectivities. This approach can be applied to a variety of conjugated polymers covering a photoresponse range from UV to NIR.

A Self-Powered, Sub-nanosecond-Response Solution-Processed Hybrid Perovskite Photodetector for Time-Resolved Photoluminescence-Lifetime Detection

A self-powered,solution-processed perovskite photodetector with sub-nanosecond response time is presented. Eliminating charge trapping and removing the constraints from the resistance-capacitance constant increases the response speed, which enables them to be applied in a homemade, time-resolved photoluminescence system that successfully resolves the decay process of typical fluorescence and phosphorescent materials with a recombination lifetime from several nanoseconds to microseconds.

Trap Engineering of CdTe Nanoparticle for High Gain, Fast Response, and Low Noise P3HT:CdTe Nanocomposite Photodetectors

Cd(2+) causes deep traps on the surface of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) often leading to a long response time for a photodetector. Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) can be used to selectively passivate the Cd(2+) -related deep traps by forming a Cd-S bond, while maintaining the shallow traps. By tailoring the trap depth of the CdTe QDs, a high gain, fast response, and low noise P3HT:CdTe nanocomposite photodetector is achieved.

A Highly Sensitive Narrowband Nanocomposite Photodetector with Gain.

A narrowband red-light nanocomposite photodetector with gain is presented based on the polymer and fullerene derivative incorporating inorganic quantum dots. The introduced trap-induced hole injection dramatically improves the specific detectivity by 20-fold. A remarkable achievement is obtained with simultaneously increased linear dynamic range to 110 dB and improved noise equivalent power to 5 pW cm(-2).

Integration of perovskite and polymer photoactive layers to produce ultrafast response, ultraviolet-to-near-infrared, sensitive photodetectors

Low-cost organic photodetectors have shown sensitivity levels comparable to those of inorganic photodetectors, but with response speeds generally limited to the megahertz range due to the low mobility of organic semiconductors. Here, we integrated organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite (OIHP) photoactive layers with low-bandgap organic bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) layers to produce a device that combined the advantages of the two types of photodetectors. Integrating methylammonium lead triiodide (CH3NH3PbI3) with a low-bandgap BHJ layer extended the response of perovskite photodetectors to a wavelength of 1000 nanometers without deteriorating the responsivity and specific detectivity of either type of photodetector. The high mobility of charge carriers in CH3NH3PbI3 allowed the constraints of the resistance–capacitance constant to be relieved so that the device response speed could be increased dramatically. A response time of five nanoseconds was measured for incident infrared light from the device with an active area of 0.1 square millimeters, which represents the state-of-the-art performance for organic-based photodetectors.

Improving the sensitivity of a near-infrared nanocomposite photodetector by enhancing trap induced hole injection

We report the enhancement of the photoconductive gain of nanocomposite near-infrared photodetectors by a zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) rich surface at the nanocomposite/cathode interface. An argon plasma etching process was used to remove polymer at the surface of nanocomposite films, which resulted in a ZnO NPs rich surface. The other way is to spin-coat a thin layer of ZnO NPs onto the nanocomposite layer. The ZnO NPs rich surface, which acts as electron traps to induce secondary hole injection under reverse bias, increased hole injection, and thus the external quantum efficiency by 2–3 times. The darkcurrent declined one order of magnitude simultaneously as a result of etching the top nanocomposite layer. The specific detectivity at 800u2009nm was increased by 7.4 times to 1.11u2009×u20091010 Jones due to the simultaneously suppressed noise and enhanced gain.

The operation mechanism of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) dots in high efficiency polymer solar cells

The highly efficient polymer solar cells were realized by doping poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO) dots into active layer. The dependence of doping amount on devices performance was investigated and a high efficiency of 7.15% was obtained at an optimal concentration, accounting for a 22.4% enhancement. The incorporation of PFO dots (Pdots) is conducted to the improvement of Jsc and fill factor mainly due to the enhancement of light absorption and charge transport property. Pdots blended in active layer provides an interface for charge transfer and enables the formation of percolation pathways for electron transport. The introduction of Pdots was proven an effective way to improve optical and electrical properties of solar cells.