Qikai Li

Theoretical modelling of carrier transports in molecular semiconductors: molecular design of triphenylamine dimer systems.

Charge transport in molecular systems and biosystems can be different from that in inorganic, rigid semiconductors. The electron-nuclear motion couplings play an important role in the former case. We have developed a theoretical scheme to employ the Marcus electron transfer theory coupled with a direct diabatic dimer model and the Brownian diffusion assumption to predict the carrier mobility for molecular materials. For triphenylamine, a typical molecular transport material, the design strategies regarding the formation a cyclic or a linear dimer are evaluated from theoretical calculations for the carrier mobility. We made a comparison between the mobility and the electrical polarizability. It is found that in the case of triphenylamine dimer, these two quantities have different trends. The fact that the macrocycle possesses higher mobility but lower polarizability than the linear chain is due to the difference in the reorganization energy. The theoretical predicted temperature dependences are analysed within the hopping mechanism. The calculated room-temperature mobilities are in reasonable agreement with experimental values.

Dynamic Monte Carlo Simulation for Highly Efficient Polymer Blend Photovoltaics

We developed a model system for blend polymers with electron-donating and -accepting compounds. It is found that the optimal energy conversion efficiency can be achieved when the feature size is around 10 nm. The first reaction method is used to describe the key processes (e.g., the generation, the diffusion, the dissociation at the interface for the excitons, the drift, the injection from the electrodes, and the collection by the electrodes for the charge carries) in the organic solar cell by the dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. Our simulations indicate that a 5% power conversion efficiency (PCE) is reachable with an optimum combination of charge mobility and morphology. The parameters used in this model study correspond to a blend of novel polymers (bis(thienylenevinylene)-substituted polythiophene and poly(perylene diimide-alt-dithienothiophene)), which features a broad absorption and a high mobility. The I-V curves are well-reproduced by our simulations, and the PCE for the polymer blend can reach up to 2.2%, which is higher than the experimental value (>1%), one of the best available experimental results up to now for the all-polymer solar cells. In addition, the dependency of PCE on the charge mobility and the material structure are also investigated.

Evaluation of Charge Mobility in Organic Materials: From Localized to Delocalized Descriptions at a First‐Principles Level

The carrier mobility for carbon electronic materials is an important parameter for optoelectronics. We report here some recently developed theoretical tools to predict the mobility without any free parameters. Carrier scatterings with phonons and traps are the key factors in evaluating the mobility. We consider three major scattering regimes: i) where the molecular internal vibration severely induces charge self-trapping and, thus, the hopping mechanism dominates; ii) where both intermolecular and intramolecular scatterings come to play roles, so the Holstein-Peierls polaron model is applied; and, iii) where charge is well delocalized with coherence length comparable with acoustic phonon wavelength, so that a deformation potential approach is more appropriate. We develop computational methods at the first-principles level for the three different cases that have extensive potential application in rationalizing material design.

An improved dynamic Monte Carlo model coupled with Poisson equation to simulate the performance of organic photovoltaic devices

We describe a new dynamic Monte Carlo model to simulate the operation of a polymer-blend solar cell; this model provides major improvements with respect to the one we developed earlier [J. Phys. Chem. B 114, 36 (2010)] by incorporating the Poisson equation and a charge thermoactivation mechanism. The advantage of the present approach is its capacity to deal with a nonuniform electrostatic potential that dynamically depends on the charge distribution. In this way, the unbalance in electron and hole mobilities and the space-charge induced potential distribution can be treated explicitly. Simulations reproduce well the experimental I-V curve in the dark and the open-circuit voltage under illumination of a polymer-blend solar cell. The dependence of the photovoltaic performance on the difference in electron and hole mobilities is discussed.

Water Transport and Purification in Nanochannels Controlled by Asymmetric Wettability

Biomimetic asymmetric nanochannels have recently attracted increasing attention from researchers, especially in the aspect of the asymmetric wettability (a hydrophilic-hydrophobic system), which can be utilized to control the wetting behavior of aqueous media and to offer a means for guiding water motion. By using molecular dynamics simulations, a design for a potentially efficient water filter is presented based on (n, n) single-walled carbon nanotubes, where n = 6, 8, 10 and 12, asymmetrically modified with hydrophilic groups (carboxyl, -COOH) at one tip and hydrophobic groups (trifluoromethyl, -CF(3) ) at the other. The reduced water density on the hydrophobic sides of the functionalized nanotubes are observed in both pure water and aqueous electrolyte solution, except for the functionalized (6, 6) tube, due to the change of dipole orientation of the single-file water wire within it. The functionalized (8, 8) tube can significantly maintain the low water density on the hydrophobic side. Both (6, 6) and (8, 8) tubes have relatively high energy barriers at their tips for ion permeation, which can be obtained by calculating the potential of mean force. Such tip functionalization of a nanotube therefore suggests the great possibilities of water transport and filtration, dominated by asymmetric wettability. The functionalized (8, 8) tube could act as a nanofluidic channel for water purification, not only for ion exclusion but also as a stable water column structure.

Ferromagnetic metal to cluster-glass insulator transition induced by A-site disorder in manganites

The magnetotransport behaviors of a series of rare earth manganites with the same A-site cational mean radius and different A-site ionic radii variance A-site disorder are investigated. It is found that the system’s ground state transforms from ferromagnetic metal to cluster-glass insulator with increasing A-site disorder. In the cluster-glass state, the magnetization shows the steplike behavior, indicating the existence of short-range magnetically ordered clusters. The significant effect of the A-site disorder on the electronic phase separation is revealed by detecting the cluster-glass ground state at low temperature.

Gibbs–Curie–Wulff Theorem in Organic Materials: A Case Study on the Relationship between Surface Energy and Crystal Growth

The equilibrium crystal shape and shape evolution of organic crystals are found to follow the Gibbs-Curie-Wulff theorem. Organic crystals are grown by the physical vapor transport technique and exhibit exactly the same shape as predicted by the Gibbs-Curie-Wulff theorem under optimal conditions. This accordance provides concrete proof for the theorem.

Device simulation of low-band gap polymer solar cells: Influence of electron-hole pair dissociation and decay rates on open-circuit voltage

We simulated the performance of recently developed highly efficient bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells with poly [N-9″-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)] as the donor and [6,6]-phenyl C70-butyric acid methyl ester as the acceptor, using a device model. The simulated current-voltage curve is in excellent agreement with the experiment. This enables us to analyze how microscopic processes of excitons and charges govern the device performance. The influence of dissociation rate and decay rate of photoinduced electron-hole pairs on the open-circuit voltage VOC is investigated. It is shown that a high dissociation rate relative to decay rate will lead to enhanced VOC.

Effects of size constraint on water filling process in nanotube

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the potential of mean force (PMF) analysis are used to investigate the structural properties of water molecules near the end of nanotube for the whole process from the initial water filling up to the configuration stabilization inside the carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Numerical simulations showed that when a small-sized nanotube is immersed into the water bath, the size constraint will induce a prevailing orientation for the water molecule to diffuse into the tube and this effect can persist approximately 3.3 angstroms from the end of CNT. As the structure within the CNTs stabilizes, the ambient structural properties can indirectly reflect their corresponding properties inside the nanotube. Our results also showed that there exists a close correlation between the PMF analysis and the results of MD simulations, and the properties at nanometer scale are closely related to the size-constraint effect.

A “clicked” porphyrin cage with high binding affinity towards fullerenes

A cage-structured receptor was synthesized in a facile “clicked” way and showed high affinity for fullerenes and differentiated rates of binding to C60 and C70.