Tate C. Hauger

Rolling Silver Nanowire Electrodes: Simultaneously Addressing Adhesion, Roughness, and Conductivity

Silver nanowire mesh electrodes represent a possible mass-manufacturable route toward transparent and flexible electrodes for plastic-based electronics such as organic photovoltaics (OPVs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), and others. Here we describe a route that is based upon spray-coated silver nanowire meshes on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheets that are treated with a straightforward combination of heat and pressure to generate electrodes that have low sheet resistance, good optical transmission, that are topologically flat, and adhere well to the PET substrate. The silver nanowire meshes were prepared by spray-coating a solution of silver nanowires onto PET, in air at slightly elevated temperatures. The as-prepared silver nanowire electrodes are highly resistive due to the poor contact between the individual silver nanowires. Light pressure applied with a stainless steel rod, rolled over the as-sprayed silver nanowire meshes on PET with a speed of 10 cm s(-1) and a pressure of 50 psi, results in silver nanowire mesh arrays with sheet resistances of less than 20 Ω/□. Bending of these rolled nanowire meshes on PET with different radii of curvature, from 50 to 0.625 mm, showed no degradation of the conductivity of the electrodes, as shown by the constant sheet resistance before and after bending. Repeated bending (100 times) around a rod with a radius of curvature of 1 mm also showed no increase in the sheet resistance, demonstrating good adherence and no signs of delamination of the nanowire mesh array. The diffuse and direct transmittance of the silver nanowires (both rolled and as-sprayed) was measured for wavelengths from 350 to 1200 nm, and the diffuse transmission was similar to that of the PET substrate; the direct transmission decreases by about 7-8%. The silver nanowires were then incorporated into OPV devices with the following architecture: transparent electrode/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC61BM/LiF/Al. While slightly lower in efficiency than the standard indium tin oxide substrate (ITO), the rolled silver nanowire electrodes had a very good device yield, showing that short circuits resulting from the silver nanowire electrodes can be successfully avoided by this rolling approach.

Self-assembly of carboxylated polythiophene nanowires for improved bulk heterojunction morphology in polymer solar cells

Conjugated regioregular poly[3-(5-carboxypentyl) thiophene-2,5-diyl] (P3CPenT), a derivative of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), is introduced as a hole transport layer (HTL) for P3HT:PCBM plastic solar cells (PSCs). P3CPenT, a carboxyl-functionalized polythiophene, is insoluble in solvents typically used in the preparation of photoactive layers such as chloroform, chlorobenzene and dichlorobenzene, allowing successive processing of the photoactive layer without dissolution of the HTL. P3CPenT self-assembles into nanowires in DMSO solution and when cast as a film, reduces concentration gradients of P3HT:PCBM photoactive layers. P3HT:PCBM PSCs incorporating P3CPenT nanowires as the HTL have a higher fill factor (FF, 0.67) and power conversion efficiency (PCE, 3.7%) than devices with conventional PEDOT:PSS HTLs.

Methylammonium Cation Dynamics in Methylammonium Lead Halide Perovskites–A Solid-State NMR Perspective

In light of the intense recent interest in the methylammonium lead halides, CH3NH3PbX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I) as sensitizers for photovoltaic cells, the dynamics of the methylammonium (MA) cation in these perovskite salts has been reinvestigated as a function of temperature via 2H, 14N, and 207Pb NMR spectroscopy. In the cubic phase of all three salts, the MA cation undergoes pseudoisotropic tumbling (picosecond time scale). For example, the correlation time, τ2, for the C-N axis of the iodide salt is 0.85 ± 0.30 ps at 330 K. The dynamics of the MA cation are essentially continuous across the cubic ↔ tetragonal phase transition; however, 2H and 14N NMR line shapes indicate that subtle ordering of the MA cation occurs in the tetragonal phase. The temperature dependence of the cation ordering is rationalized using a six-site model, with two equivalent sites along the c-axis and four equivalent sites either perpendicular or approximately perpendicular to this axis. As the cubic ↔ tetragonal phase transition temperature is approached, the six sites are nearly equally populated. Below the tetragonal ↔ orthorhombic phase transition, 2H NMR line shapes indicate that the C-N axis is essentially frozen.

Understanding the Effects of a High Surface Area Nanostructured Indium Tin Oxide Electrode on Organic Solar Cell Performance

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are a complex assembly of disparate materials, each with a precise function within the device. Typically, the electrodes are flat, and the device is fabricated through a layering approach of the interfacial layers and photoactive materials. This work explores the integration of high surface area transparent electrodes to investigate the possible role(s) a three-dimensional electrode could take within an OSC, with a BHJ composed of a donor-acceptor combination with a high degree of electron and hole mobility mismatch. Nanotree indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes were prepared via glancing angle deposition, structures that were previously demonstrated to be single-crystalline. A thin layer of zinc oxide was deposited on the ITO nanotrees via atomic layer deposition, followed by a self-assembled monolayer of C60-based molecules that was bound to the zinc oxide surface through a carboxylic acid group. Infiltration of these functionalized ITO nanotrees with the photoactive layer, the bulk heterojunction comprising PC71BM and a high hole mobility low band gap polymer (PDPPTT-T-TT), led to families of devices that were analyzed for the effect of nanotree height. When the height was varied from 0 to 50, 75, 100, and 120 nm, statistically significant differences in device performance were noted with the maximum device efficiencies observed with a nanotree height of 75 nm. From analysis of these results, it was found that the intrinsic mobility mismatch between the donor and acceptor phases could be compensated for when the electron collection length was reduced relative to the hole collection length, resulting in more balanced charge extraction and reduced recombination, leading to improved efficiencies. However, as the ITO nanotrees increased in height and branching, the decrease in electron collection length was offset by an increase in hole collection length and potential deleterious electric field redistribution effects, resulting in decreased efficiency.