Zengqi Xie

Tight intermolecular packing through supramolecular interactions in crystals of cyano substituted oligo(para-phenylene vinylene): a key factor for aggregation-induced emission

Strong supramolecular interactions, which induced tight packing and rigid molecules in crystals of cyano substituent oligo(para-phenylene vinylene) (CN-DPDSB), are the key factor for the high luminescence efficiency of its crystals; opposite to its isolated molecules in solution which have very low luminescence efficiency.

Photoconductive Cathode Interlayer for Highly Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells

A highly photoconductive cathode interlayer was achieved by doping a 1 wt % light absorber, such as perylene bisimide, into a ZnO thin film, which absorbs a very small amount of light but shows highly increased conductivity of 4.50 × 10(-3) S/m under sunlight. Photovoltaic devices based on this kind of photoactive cathode interlayer exhibit significantly improved device performance, which is rather insensitive to the thickness of the cathode interlayer over a broad range. Moreover, a power conversion efficiency as high as 10.5% was obtained by incorporation of our photoconductive cathode interlayer with the PTB7-Th:PC71BM active layer, which is one of the best results for single-junction polymer solar cells.

11% Efficient Ternary Organic Solar Cells with High Composition Tolerance via Integrated Near-IR Sensitization and Interface Engineering.

Highly efficient electron extraction is achieved by using a photoconductive cathode interlayer in inverted ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) where a near-IR absorbing porphyrin molecule is used as the sensitizer. The OSCs show improved device performance when the ratio of the two donors varies in a large region and a maximum power conversion efficiency up to 11.03% is demonstrated.

Multicolored-Fluorescence Switching of ICT-Type Organic Solids with Clear Color Difference: Mechanically Controlled Excited State

A donor-acceptor-type fluorophore containing a twisted diphenylacrylonitrile and triphenylamine has been developed by using the Suzuki reaction. The system indicates typical intramolecular charge-transfer properties. Upon mechanical grinding or hydrostatic pressure, the fluorophore reveals a multicolored fluorescence switching. Interestingly, a fluorescence color transition from green to red was clearly observed, and the change of photoluminescent (PL) wavelength gets close to 111 nm. The mechanisms of high-contrast mechanochromic behavior are fully investigated by techniques including powder XRD, PL lifetime, high-pressure PL lifetime, and Raman spectra analysis. The tremendous PL wavelength shift is attributed to gradual transition of excited states from the local excited state to the charge-transfer state.

Progress in small-molecule luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been extensively studied since the first efficient device based on small molecular luminescent materials was reported by Tang. Organic electroluminescent material, one of the centerpieces of OLEDs, has been the focus of studies by many material scientists. To obtain high luminosity and to keep material costs low, a few remarkable design concepts have been developed. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) materials were invented to overcome the common fluorescence-quenching problem, and cross-dipole stacking of fluorescent molecules was shown to be an effective method to get high solid-state luminescence. To exceed the limit of internal quantum efficiency of conventional fluorescent materials, phosphorescent materials were successfully applied in highly efficient electroluminescent devices. Most recently, delayed fluorescent materials via reverse-intersystem crossing (RISC) from triplet to singlet and the “hot exciton” materials based on hybridized local and charge-transfer (HLCT) states were developed to be a new generation of low-cost luminescent materials as efficient as phosphorescent materials. In terms of the device-fabrication process, solution-processible small molecular luminescent materials possess the advantages of high purity (vs. polymers) and low procession cost (vs. vacuum deposition), which are garnering them increasing attention. Herein, we review the progress of the development of small-molecule luminescent materials with different design concepts and features, and also briefly examine future development tendencies of luminescent materials.

Aqueous Solution Processed Photoconductive Cathode Interlayer for High Performance Polymer Solar Cells with Thick Interlayer and Thick Active Layer

An aqueous-solution-processed photoconductive cathode interlayer is developed, in which the photoinduced charge transfer brings multiple advantages such as increased conductivity and electron mobility, as well as reduced work function. Average power conversion efficiency over 10% is achieved even when the thickness of the cathode interlayer and active layer is up to 100 and 300 nm, respectively.

Chiral J‐Aggregates of Atropo‐Enantiomeric Perylene Bisimides and Their Self‐Sorting Behavior

Herein we report on structural, morphological, and optical properties of homochiral and heterochiral J-aggregates that were created by nucleation-elongation assembly of atropo-enantiomerically pure and racemic perylene bisimides (PBIs), respectively. Our detailed studies with conformationally stable biphenoxy-bridged chiral PBIs by UV/Vis absorption, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed structurally as well as spectroscopically quite different kinds of J-aggregates for enantiomerically pure and racemic PBIs. AFM investigations showed that enantiopure PBIs form helical nanowires of unique diameter and large length-to-width ratio by self-recognition, while racemic PBIs provide irregular-sized particles by self-discrimination of the enantiomers at the stage of nucleation. Steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy studies revealed that the photoluminescence efficiency of homochiral J-aggregated nanowires (47±3%) is significantly higher than that of heterochiral J-aggregated particle-like aggregates (12±3%), which is explained in terms of highly ordered molecular stacking in one-dimensional nanowires of homochiral J-aggregates. Our present results demonstrate the high impact of homochirality on the construction of well-defined nanostructures with unique optical properties.

An organogelator design without solubilizing side chains by backbone contortion of a perylene bisimide pigment

Here we report a perylene bisimide (PBI) based gelator molecule that contains neither a long alkyl chain nor any other solubilizing group which are considered to be essential moieties of organogelators. Instead, the solubility of the newly designed PBI gelator 4a is imparted by a contorted aromatic core. Its self-assembly into highly fluorescent one-dimensional nanostructures is directed by H-bonding, affording extremely low critical gelation concentrations (CGCs) below 0.1 wt%.

Perylene Bisimide as a Promising Zinc Oxide Surface Modifier: Enhanced Interfacial Combination for Highly Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells

We report the application of a perylene bisimide (PBI-H) as zinc oxide (ZnO) surface modifier to afford an organic-inorganic co-interlayer for highly efficient inverted organic photovoltaics (i-OPV). By thermal annealing, a N-Zn chemical bond formed between PBI-H and ZnO, inducing close organic-inorganic combination. In addition, this co-interlayer shows decreased work function and increased electron transportation and conductivity, which are benefits for the cathode to enhance charge extraction efficiency and decrease recombination losses. As a result a highly efficient i-OPV was achieved with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.43% based on this co-interlayer with PTB7:PC71BM as the active layer, which shows over 35% enhancement compared to that of the device without the PBI-H layer. Moreover, this co-interlayer was widely applicable for i-OPVs based on various material systems, such as P3HT:PC61BM and PTB7-Th:PC71BM, resulting in PCE as high as 4.78% and 10.31%, respectively.

Substantial performance improvement in inverted polymer light-emitting diodes via surface plasmon resonance induced electrode quenching control.

Inverted-type polymer light-emitting diodes with Au nanoparticles modified ITO cathode has exhibited improved brightness from 5900 to 15,000 cd m(-2) (1.5-fold enhancement) and enhanced luminous efficiency from 4.4 to 10.5 cd A(-1) (1.4-fold enhancement), when greenish emissive polymer-P-PPV was applied as active layer. Both the experimental and theoretical results show that it is mainly attributed to effective overlapping between local surface plasmon resonance induced by Au nanopartices and excitons quenching region at ZnO/P-PPV interface, which makes originally electrode-quenched excitons emissive and increases excitons efficiency.