Seyoung Kee

Highly Conductive PEDOT:PSS Nanofibrils Induced by Solution‐Processed Crystallization

The fabrication of electronic devices based on organic materials, known as ’printed electronics’, is an emerging technology due to its unprecedented advantages involving fl exibility, light weight, and portability, which will ultimately lead to future ubiquitous applications. [ 1 ] The solution processability of semiconducting and metallic polymers enables the cost-effective fabrication of optoelectronic devices via high-throughput printing techniques. [ 2 ] These techniques require high-performance fl exible and transparent electrodes (FTEs) fabricated on plastic substrates, but currently, they depend on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated on plastic substrates. However, its intrinsic mechanical brittleness and inferior physical properties arising from lowtemperature ( T ) processing below the melting T of the plastic substrates (i.e., typically below 150 °C) have increased the demand for alternative FTE materials. [ 3 ]

Simplified Tandem Polymer Solar Cells with an Ideal Self‐Organized Recombination Layer

A new tandem architecture for printable photovoltaics using a versatile organic nanocomposite containing photoactive and interfacial materials is demonstrated. The nanocomposite forms an ideal self-organized recombination layer via a spontaneous vertical phase separation, which yields a simplified tandem structure fabricated with only four component layers and a high tandem efficiency of 10.8%.

Highly Stretchable and Highly Conductive PEDOT:PSS/Ionic Liquid Composite Transparent Electrodes for Solution-Processed Stretchable Electronics

Stretchable conductive materials have received great attention owing to their potential for realizing next-generation stretchable electronics. However, the simultaneous achievement of excellent mechanical stretchability and high electrical conductivity as well as cost-effective fabrication has been a significant challenge. Here, we report a highly stretchable and highly conducting polymer that was obtained by incorporating an ionic liquid. When 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetracyanoborate (EMIM TCB) was added to an aqueous conducting polymer solution of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), it was found that EMIM TCB acts not only as a secondary dopant but also as a plasticizer for PEDOT:PSS, resulting in a high conductivity of >1000 S cm-1 with stable performance at tensile strains up to 50% and even up to 180% in combination with the prestrained substrate technique. Consequently, by exploiting the additional benefits of high transparency and solution-processability of PEDOT:PSS, we were able to fabricate a highly stretchable, semitransparent, and wholly solution-processed alternating current electroluminescent device with unimpaired performance at 50% strain by using PEDOT:PSS/EMIM TCB composite films as both bottom and top electrodes.

Controlling Molecular Ordering in Aqueous Conducting Polymers Using Ionic Liquids

The molecular ordering of aqueous conducting polymers is controlled using a rational method. By introducing various ionic liquids, which have designed electrostatic interactions to PEDOT:PSS solutions, the evolution of the molecular ordering of the PEDOT is manipulated. Consequently, highly ordered nanostructures are achieved with a reduced π-π stacking distance of ≈3.38 Å and, thus, a maximum σdc of ≈2100 S cm-1 .

Long-Term Stable Recombination Layer for Tandem Polymer Solar Cells Using Self-Doped Conducting Polymers.

UNLABELLED Recently, the most efficient tandem polymer solar cells (PSCs) have used poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) ( PEDOT PSS) as a p-type component of recombination layer (RL). However, its undesirable acidic nature, originating from insulating PSS, of PEDOT PSS drastically reduces the lifetime of PSCs. Here, we demonstrate the efficient and stable tandem PSCs by introducing acid-free self-doped conducting polymer (SCP), combined with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), as RL for PEDOT PSS-free tandem PSCs. Moreover, we introduce an innovative and versatile nanocomposite system containing photoactive and p-type conjugated polyelectrolyte (p-CPE) into the tandem fabrication of an ideal self-organized recombination layer. In our new RL, highly conductive SCP facilitates charge transport and recombination process, and p-CPE helps to achieve nearly loss-free charge collection by increasing effective work function of indium tin oxide (ITO) and SCP. Because of the synergistic effect of extremely low electrical resistance, ohmic contact, and pH neutrality, tandem devices with our novel RL performed well, exhibiting a high power conversion efficiency of 10.2% and a prolonged lifetime. These findings provide a new insight for strategic design of RLs using SCPs to achieve efficient and stable tandem PSCs and enable us to review and extend the usefulness of SCPs in various electronics research fields.

Highly Deformable and See‐Through Polymer Light‐Emitting Diodes with All‐Conducting‐Polymer Electrodes

Despite the high expectation of deformable and see-through displays for future ubiquitous society, current light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fail to meet the desired mechanical and optical properties, mainly because of the fragile transparent conducting oxides and opaque metal electrodes. Here, by introducing a highly conductive nanofibrillated conducting polymer (CP) as both deformable transparent anode and cathode, ultraflexible and see-through polymer LEDs (PLEDs) are demonstrated. The CP-based PLEDs exhibit outstanding dual-side light-outcoupling performance with a high optical transmittance of 75% at a wavelength of 550 nm and with an excellent mechanical durability of 9% bending strain. Moreover, the CP-based PLEDs fabricated on 4 µm thick plastic foils with all-solution processing have extremely deformable and foldable light-emitting functionality. This approach is expected to open a new avenue for developing wearable and attachable transparent displays.

High-efficiency large-area perovskite photovoltaic modules achieved via electrochemically assembled metal-filamentary nanoelectrodes

We devised an electrochemical patterning process for large-area perovskite photovoltaic modules. Realizing industrial-scale, large-area photovoltaic modules without any considerable performance losses compared with the performance of laboratory-scale, small-area perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has been a challenge for practical applications of PSCs. Highly sophisticated patterning processes for achieving series connections, typically fabricated using printing or laser-scribing techniques, cause unexpected efficiency drops and require complicated manufacturing processes. We successfully fabricated high-efficiency, large-area PSC modules using a new electrochemical patterning process. The intrinsic ion-conducting features of perovskites enabled us to create metal-filamentary nanoelectrodes to facilitate the monolithic serial interconnections of PSC modules. By fabricating planar-type PSC modules through low-temperature annealing and all-solution processing, we demonstrated a notably high module efficiency of 14.0% for a total area of 9.06 cm2 with a high geometric fill factor of 94.1%.