Maogang Gong

Polychiral semiconducting carbon nanotube-fullerene solar cells

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have highly desirable attributes for solution-processable thin-film photovoltaics (TFPVs), such as broadband absorption, high carrier mobility, and environmental stability. However, previous TFPVs incorporating photoactive SWCNTs have utilized architectures that have limited current, voltage, and ultimately power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, we report a solar cell geometry that maximizes photocurrent using polychiral SWCNTs while retaining high photovoltage, leading to record-high efficiency SWCNT-fullerene solar cells with average NREL certified and champion PCEs of 2.5% and 3.1%, respectively. Moreover, these cells show significant absorption in the near-infrared portion of the solar spectrum that is currently inaccessible by many leading TFPV technologies.

Broad‐Spectral‐Response Nanocarbon Bulk‐Heterojunction Excitonic Photodetectors

High-performance broad-spectrum nanocarbon bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic photodetectors are reported. These reported photodetectors consist of a semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) and a PC71 BM blended active layer. Magnetic-field effects and the chirality of the s-SWCNTs play an important role in controlling the photoresponse time and photocurrent improvement.

Symmetry-Defying Iron Pyrite (FeS2) Nanocrystals through Oriented Attachment

Iron pyrite (fools gold, FeS2) is a promising earth abundant and environmentally benign semiconductor material that shows promise as a strong and broad absorber for photovoltaics and high energy density cathode material for batteries. However, controlling FeS2 nanocrystal formation (composition, size, shape, stoichiometry, etc.) and defect mitigation still remains a challenge. These problems represent significant limitations in the ability to control electrical, optical and electrochemical properties to exploit pyrites full potential for sustainable energy applications. Here, we report a symmetry-defying oriented attachment FeS2 nanocrystal growth by examining the nanostructure evolution and recrystallization to uncover how the shape, size and defects of FeS2 nanocrystals changes during growth. It is demonstrated that a well-controlled reaction temperature and annealing time results in polycrystal-to-monocrystal formation and defect annihilation, which correlates with the performance of photoresponse devices. This knowledge opens up a new tactic to address pyrites known defect problems.

All-Printable ZnO Quantum Dots/Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures for Ultrasensitive Detection of Ultraviolet Light

In ZnO quantum dot/graphene heterojunction photodetectors, fabricated by printing quantum dots (QDs) directly on the graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) channel, the combination of the strong quantum confinement in ZnO QDs and the high charge mobility in graphene allows extraordinary quantum efficiency (or photoconductive gain) in visible-blind ultraviolet (UV) detection. Key to the high performance is a clean van der Waals interface to facilitate an efficient charge transfer from ZnO QDs to graphene upon UV illumination. Here, we report a robust ZnO QD surface activation process and demonstrate that a transition from zero to extraordinarily high photoresponsivity of 9.9 × 108 A/W and a photoconductive gain of 3.6 × 109 can be obtained in ZnO QDs/GFET heterojunction photodetectors, as the ZnO QDs surface is systematically engineered using this process. The high figure-of-merit UV detectivity D* in exceeding 1 × 1014 Jones represents more than 1 order of magnitude improvement over the best reported previously on ZnO nanostructure-based UV detectors. This result not only sheds light on the critical role of the van der Waals interface in affecting the optoelectronic process in ZnO QDs/GFET heterojunction photodetectors but also demonstrates the viability of printing quantum devices of high performance and low cost.

Multiferroicity of Carbon‐Based Charge‐Transfer Magnets

A new type of carbon charge-transfer magnet, consisting of a fullerene acceptor and single-walled carbon nanotube donor, is demonstrated, which exhibits room temperature ferromagnetism and magnetoelectric (ME) coupling. In addition, external stimuli (electric/magnetic/elastic field) and the concentration of a nanocarbon complex enable the tunabilities of the magnetization and ME coupling due to the control of the charge transfer.

Room Temperature Multiferroicity of Charge Transfer Crystals.

Room temperature multiferroics has been a frontier research field by manipulating spin-driven ferroelectricity or charge-order-driven magnetism. Charge-transfer crystals based on electron donor and acceptor assembly, exhibiting simultaneous spin ordering, are drawing significant interests for the development of all-organic magnetoelectric multiferroics. Here, we report that a remarkable anisotropic magnetization and room temperature multiferroicity can be achieved through assembly of thiophene donor and fullerene acceptor. The crystal motif directs the dimensional and compositional control of charge-transfer networks that could switch magnetization under external stimuli, thereby opening up an attractive class of all-organic nanoferronics.

Phase Transformation-Induced Tetragonal FeCo Nanostructures

Tetragonal FeCo nanostructures are becoming particularly attractive because of their high magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetization achievable without rare-earth elements, . Yet, controlling their metastable structure, size and stoichiometry is a challenging task. In this study, we demonstrate AuCu templated FeCo shell growth followed by thermally induced phase transformation of AuCu core from face-centered cubic to L10 structure, which triggers the FeCo shell to transform from the body-centered cubic structure to a body-centered tetragonal phase. High coercivity, 846 Oe, and saturation magnetization, 221 emu/g, are achieved in this tetragonal FeCo structure. Beyond a critical FeCo shell thickness, confirmed experimentally and by lattice mismatch calculations, the FeCo shell relaxes. The shell thickness and stoichiometry dictate the magnetic characteristics of the tetragonal FeCo shell. This study provides a general route to utilize phase transformation to fabricate high performance metastable nanomagnets, which could open up their green energy applications.

Printable Transfer-Free and Wafer-Size MoS2/Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures for High-Performance Photodetection

Two-dimensional (2D) MoS2/graphene van der Waals heterostructures integrate the superior light-solid interaction in MoS2 and charge mobility in graphene for high-performance optoelectronic devices. Key to the device performance lies in a clean MoS2/graphene interface to facilitate efficient transfer of photogenerated charges. Here, we report a printable and transfer-free process for fabrication of wafer-size MoS2/graphene van der Waals heterostructures obtained using a metal-free-grown graphene, followed by low-temperature growth of MoS2 from the printed thin film of ammonium thiomolybdate on graphene. The photodetectors based on the transfer-free MoS2/graphene heterostructures exhibit extraordinary short photoresponse rise/decay times of 20/30 ms, which are significantly faster than those of the previously reported MoS2/transferred-graphene photodetectors (0.28-1.5 s). In addition, a high photoresponsivity of up to 835 mA/W was observed in the visible spectrum on such transfer-free MoS2/graphene heterostructures, which is much higher than that of the reported photodetectors based on the exfoliated layered MoS2 (0.42 mA/W), the graphene (6.1 mA/W), and transfer-free MoS2/graphene/SiC heterostructures (∼40 mA/W). The enhanced performance is attributed to the clean interface on the transfer-free MoS2/graphene heterostructures. This printable and transfer-free process paves the way for large-scale commercial applications of the emerging 2D heterostructures in optoelectronics and sensors.

Charge-Transfer Induced Magnetic Field Effects of Nano-Carbon Heterojunctions

Room temperature magnetic field effects have not been definitively observed in either single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) or C60 under a small magnetic field due to their weak hyperfine interaction and slight difference of g-factor between positive and negative polarons. Here, we demonstrate charge-transfer induced magnetic field effects in nano-carbon C60-SWCNT bulk heterojunctions at room temperature, where the mechanism of magnetic field effects is verified using excited state transition modeling. By controlling SWCNT concentrations and interfacial interactions, nano-carbon heterojunctions exhibit tunability of charge-transfer density and room temperature magnetoconductance of 2.8% under 100 mT external magnetic field. External stimuli, such as electric field and photoexcitation, also play an important role in controlling the magnetic field effects of nano-carbon heterojunctions, which suggests that these findings could enable the control of optoelectronic properties of nano-carbon heterojunctions.

Wrapping cytochrome c around single-wall carbon nanotube: engineered nanohybrid building blocks for infrared detection at high quantum efficiency

Biomolecule cytochrome c (Cty c), a small molecule of a chain of amino acids with extraordinary electron transport, was helically wrapped around a semiconductive single-wall carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) to form a molecular building block for uncooled infrared detection with two uniquely designed functionalities: exciton dissociation to free charge carriers at the heterojunction formed on the s-SWCNT/Cty c interface and charge transport along the electron conducting chain of Cty c (acceptor) and hole conducting channel through s-SWCNT (donor). Such a design aims at addressing the long-standing challenges in exciton dissociation and charge transport in an SWCNT network, which have bottlenecked development of photonic SWCNT-based infrared detectors. Using these building blocks, uncooled s-SWCNT/Cyt c thin film infrared detectors were synthesized and shown to have extraordinary photoresponsivity up to 0.77 A W−1 due to a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) in exceeding 90%, which represents a more than two orders of magnitude enhancement than the best previously reported on CNT-based infrared detectors with EQE of only 1.72%. From a broad perspective, this work on novel s-SWCNT/Cyt c nanohybrid infrared detectors has developed a successful platform of engineered carbon nanotube/biomolecule building blocks with superior properties for optoelectronic applications.