Replicating the tactile sensing mechanisms, conformity, and feel of real skin is essential for next- generation human-machine interfaces. However, producing tissue-like multilayered geometries and integrating them as e-skin systems requires simplifying and standardizing their manufacture. Here, we present a scalable and cost-effective cure-on-demand strategy for 3D printing nanocomposite silicone rubbers and integrating them into complex soft structures with 1200 % enhanced pressure-strain sensitivity. By utilizing a controlled in-situ mixing of catalyst-cured silicones and shear-driven alignment of carbon nanofibers (CNF), we construct percolated networks with conductivities up to 130 S m(-1) layer-by-layer. We investigate the influence of ink composition, printing parameters, geometrical design, and material density on the mechanical properties, stretchability, sensitivity, and antimicrobial activity of 3D printed piezoresistive sensors and build skin-like interfaces that detect minimal deformations like human physiological signs. This customizable, biocompatible, and robust e-skin holds promise for cost-effective integration in rehabilitation medicine, smart robotics applications, and extended reality (XR) interactive experiences.

In organic semiconductors, a donor/acceptor heterojunction is typically required for efficient dissociation of excitons. Using transient absorption spectroscopy to study the dynamics of excited states in non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs), it is shown that NFAs can generate charges without a donor/acceptor interface. This is due to the fact that dielectric solvation provides a driving force sufficient to dissociate the excited state and form the charge-transfer (CT) state. The CT state is further dissociated into free charges at interfaces between polycrystalline regions in neat NFAs. For IEICO-4F, incorporating just 9 wt% donor polymer PTB7-Th in neat films greatly boosts charge generation, enhancing efficient exciton separation into free charges. This property is utilized to fabricate donor-dilute organic photovoltaics (OPV) delivering a power conversion efficiency of 8.3% in the case of opaque devices with a metal top-electrode and an active layer average visible transmittance (AVT) of 75%. It is shown that the intrinsic charge generation in low-bandgap NFAs contributes to the overall photocurrent generation. IEICO-4F-based OPVs with limited PTB7-Th content have high thermal resilience demonstrating little drop in performance over 700 h. PTB7-Th:IEICO-4F semitransparent OPVs are leveraged to fabricate an 8-series connected semitransparent module, demonstrating light-utilization efficiency of 2.2% alongside an AVT of 63%.

N‐type organic small molecules (SMs) are attracting attention in the organic electronics field, due to their easy purification procedures with high yield. However, only a few reports show SMs that perform well in both organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) and organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, the synthesis and characterization of an n‐type small molecule with an indacenodithieno[3,2‐b]thiophene (IDTT) core unit and linear alkylated side chain (C 16 ) (IDTTIC) are reported. Compared to the state‐of‐the‐art n‐type molecule IDTIC, IDTTIC exhibits smaller optical bandgap and higher absorption coefficient, which is due to the enhanced intramolecular effect. After mixing with the polymer donor PBDB‐T, IDTIC‐based solar cells deliver a power conversion efficiency of only 5.67%. In stark contrast, the OSC performance of IDTTIC improves significantly to 11.2%. It is found that the superior photovoltaic properties of PBDB‐T:IDTTIC blends are mainly due to reduced trap‐assisted recombination and enhanced molecular packing coherence length and higher domain purity when compared to IDTIC. Moreover, a significantly higher electron mobility of 0.50 cm 2 V −1 s −1 for IDTTIC in OFET devices than for IDTIC (0.15 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) is obtained. These superior performances in OSCs and OFETs demonstrate that SMs with extended π‐conjugation of the backbone possess a great potential for application in organic electronic devices.

We report a design strategy that allows the preparation of solution processable n-type materials from low boiling point solvents for organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The polymer backbone is based on NDI-T2 copolymers where a branched alkyl side chain is gradually exchanged for a linear ethylene glycol-based side chain. A series of random copolymers was prepared with glycol side chain percentages of 0, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, and 100 with respect to the alkyl side chains. These were characterized to study the influence of the polar side chains on interaction with aqueous electrolytes, their electrochemical redox reactions, and performance in OECTs when operated in aqueous electrolytes. We observed that glycol side chain percentages of >50% are required to achieve volumetric charging, while lower glycol chain percentages show a mixed operation with high required voltages to allow for bulk charging of the organic semiconductor. A strong dependence of the electron mobility on the fraction of glycol chains was found for copolymers based on NDI-T2, with a significant drop as alkyl side chains are replaced by glycol side chains.

Colloidal TiO2 films have been prepared using a binder-free aqueous paste with Degussa P25 and hexafluorotitanic acid (H2TiF6), which was optimised for different substrates. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) fabricated using this paste were sintered at (ca. 393 K) and efficiencies (eta) of 3.0, 4.2 and 6.1% were measured for devices using titanium foil (ca. 1 mm thickness), indium-doped tin oxide on polyethylene terephthalate (ITO-PET), and for co-sensitized devices on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates, respectively. Electrochemical impedance measurements show that the charge transport resistance is less consistent for devices fabricated at low sintering temperature (ca. 393 K) by comparison to devices sintered at 773 K. These measurements correlate with the increased variation in device efficiency (eta) for low temperature sintered DSSC devices. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This work reports the synthesis, characterization, photophysical, and photovoltaic properties of five new thieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene isoindigo (TBTI)-containing low bandgap donor-acceptor conjugated polymers with a series of comonomers and different side chains. When TBTI is combined with different electron-rich moieties, even small structural variations can have significant impact on thin film morphology of the polymer:phenyl C70 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blends. More importantly, high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy is used to investigate the phase-separated bulk heterojunction domains, which can be accurately and precisely resolved, enabling an enhanced correlation between polymer chemical structure, photovoltaic device performance, and morphology.

This study addresses the dependence of charge transfer efficiency between bilayers of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPI 3 ) with PC 61 BM or poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene): polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) charge transfer layers on excitation intensity. It analyzes the kinetic competition between interfacial electron/hole transfer and charge trapping and recombination within MAPI 3 by employing a range of optical measurements including steady‐state (SS) photoluminescence quenching (PLQ), and transient photoluminescence and absorption over a broad range of excitation densities. The results indicate that PLQ measurements with a typical photoluminescence spectrometer can yield significantly different transfer efficiencies to those measured under 1 Sun irradiation. Steady‐state and pulsed measurements indicate low transfer efficiencies at low excitation conditions (<5E + 15 cm −3 ) due to rapid charge trapping and low transfer efficiencies at high excitation conditions (>5E + 17 cm −3 ) due to fast bimolecular recombination. Efficient transfer to PC 61 BM or PEDOT:PSS is only observed under intermediate excitation conditions (≈1 Sun irradiation) where electron and hole transfer times are determined to be 36 and 11 ns, respectively. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to the excitation density dependence of device photocurrent generation, impact of charge trapping on this dependence, and appropriate methodologies to determine charge transfer efficiencies relevant to device performance.

The instability of perovskite solar cells under oxygen and light stress can be alleviated by choosing a suitable device interlayer and device configuration.

Degradation analysis of CH3NH3Pb(I1−xBrx)3 mixed halide perovskites, showing promising environmental stability of CH3NH3PbBr3.

This is the data presented in the article 'Transient Optoelectronic Analysis of the Impact of Material Energetics and Recombination Kinetics on the Open-Circuit Voltage of Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells' published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b02411.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVCommunicationNEXTOne-Step Facile Synthesis of a Simple Hole Transport Material for Efficient Perovskite Solar CellsHu Chen*†, Daniel Bryant‡§, Joel Troughton§, Mindaugas Kirkus†, Marios Neophytou†, Xiaohe Miao†, James R. Durrant‡§, and Iain McCulloch†‡View Author Information† King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), SPERC, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia‡ Department of Chemistry and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom§ SPECIFIC, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Baglan Bay Innovation and Knowledge Centre, Central Avenue, Baglan SA12 7AX, United Kingdom*H. Chen. Email: [email protected]Cite this: Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 8, 2515–2518Publication Date (Web):April 4, 2016Publication History Received29 February 2016Revised4 April 2016Published online13 April 2016Published inissue 26 April 2016https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b00858https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b00858rapid-communicationACS PublicationsCopyright © 2016 American Chemical SocietyRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views3386Altmetric-Citations51LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-AlertscloseSupporting Info (2)»Supporting Information Supporting Information SUBJECTS:Additives,Differential scanning calorimetry,Mobility,Photovoltaics,Solar cells Get e-Alerts

Ion migration has been proposed as a possible cause of photovoltaic current-voltage hysteresis in hybrid perovskite solar cells. A major objection to this hypothesis is that hysteresis can be reduced by changing the interfacial contact materials; however, this is unlikely to significantly influence the behaviour of mobile ionic charge within the perovskite phase. Here, we show that the primary effects of ion migration can be observed regardless of whether the contacts were changed to give devices with or without significant hysteresis. Transient optoelectronic measurements combined with device simulations indicate that electric-field screening, consistent with ion migration, is similar in both high and low hysteresis CH3NH3PbI3 cells. Simulation of the photovoltage and photocurrent transients shows that hysteresis requires the combination of both mobile ionic charge and recombination near the perovskite-contact interfaces. Passivating contact recombination results in higher photogenerated charge concentrations at forward bias which screen the ionic charge, reducing hysteresis.

The optical constants of methylammonium lead halide single crystals CH3NH3PbX3 (X = I, Br, Cl) are interpreted with high level ab initio calculations using the relativistic quasiparticle self-consistent GW approximation (QSGW). Good agreement between the optical constants derived from QSGW and those obtained from spectroscopic ellipsometry enables the assignment of the spectral features to their respective inter-band transitions. We show that the transition from the highest valence band (VB) to the lowest conduction band (CB) is responsible for almost all the optical response of MAPbI3 between 1.2 and 5.5 eV (with minor contributions from the second highest VB and the second lowest CB). The calculations indicate that the orientation of [CH3NH3](+) cations has a significant influence on the position of the bandgap suggesting that collective orientation of the organic moieties could result in significant local variations of the optical properties. The optical constants and energy band diagram of CH3NH3PbI3 are then used to simulate the contributions from different optical transitions to a typical transient absorption spectrum (TAS).

Correction for ‘Light and oxygen induced degradation limits the operational stability of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells’ by Daniel Bryant et al., Energy Environ. Sci., 2016, DOI: 10.1039/c6ee00409a.

In this paper we address the JV hysteresis behavior of planar organic–inorganic lead halide perovskite solar cells fabricated using PC60BM as the cathode. At room temperature, these devices exhibit apparently hysteresis free JV scans. We observe that cooling the temperature to 175 K results in the appearance of substantial JV hysteresis. Employing chronoamperometric measurements, we demonstrate that the half-time for the relaxation process underlying this hysteresis slows from 0.6 s at 298 K to 15.5 s at 175 K, yielding an activation energy of 0.12 eV. We further demonstrate that by cooling a cell to 77 K while held under positive bias, we are able to “freeze” the cell into the most favorable condition for efficient photovoltaic performance. We thus conclude that changes to device architecture that appear to remove room temperature JV hysteresis may not remove the underlying process(es), but rather shift them to time scales not readily observable in typical room temperature JV scans.

The maximum open-circuit voltage of a solar cell can be evaluated in terms of its ability to emit light. We herein verify the reciprocity relation between the electroluminescence spectrum and subband-gap quantum efficiency spectrum for several photovoltaic technologies at different stages of commercial development, including inorganic, organic, and a type of methyl-ammonium lead-halide CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite solar cells. Based on the detailed balance theory and reciprocity relations between light emission and light absorption, voltage losses at open circuit are quantified and assigned to specific mechanisms, namely, absorption edge broadening and nonradiative recombination. The voltage loss due to nonradiative recombination is low for inorganic solar cells (0.04-0.21 V), while for organic solar cell devices it is larger but surprisingly uniform, with values of 0.34-0.44 V for a range of material combinations. We show that, in CH3NH3PbI3-xClx perovskite solar cells that exhibit hysteresis, the loss to nonradiative recombination varies substantially with voltage scan conditions. We then show that for different solar cell technologies there is a roughly linear relation between the power conversion efficiency and the voltage loss due to nonradiative recombination.

Transient absorption spectroscopy is used to study the charge transfer processes in methyl ammonium lead triiodide based photoactive layers under ambient and inert conditions.

Through materials and device developments and by using measurements such as transient photovoltage decay and impedance spectroscopy we have begun to identify recombination mechanisms in perovskite solar cells. At the forefront of our developments is a transparent, indium free, cathode which allows measurements to be made whilst illuminating from both the photoanode side and the cathode side of the device. Recombination is consistently faster when illuminated from the cathode side and we conclude that in this case, as charge carriers are generated closer to the perovskite/SPIRO-OMeTAD interface, interfacial recombination is a significant contributor to voltage losses within the device.