The need to develop inexpensive renewable energy sources stimulates scientific research for efficient, low-cost photovoltaic devices.1 The organic, polymer-based photovoltaic elements have introduced at least the potential of obtaining cheap and easy methods to produce energy from light.2 The possibility of chemically manipulating the material properties of polymers (plastics) combined with a variety of easy and cheap processing techniques has made polymer-based materials present in almost every aspect of modern society.3 Organic semiconductors have several advantages: (a) lowcost synthesis, and (b) easy manufacture of thin film devices by vacuum evaporation/sublimation or solution cast or printing technologies. Furthermore, organic semiconductor thin films may show high absorption coefficients4 exceeding 105 cm-1, which makes them good chromophores for optoelectronic applications. The electronic band gap of organic semiconductors can be engineered by chemical synthesis for simple color changing of light emitting diodes (LEDs).5 Charge carrier mobilities as high as 10 cm2/V‚s6 made them competitive with amorphous silicon.7 This review is organized as follows. In the first part, we will give a general introduction to the materials, production techniques, working principles, critical parameters, and stability of the organic solar cells. In the second part, we will focus on conjugated polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells, mainly on polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) derivatives/(1-(3-methoxycarbonyl) propyl-1-phenyl[6,6]C61) (PCBM) fullerene derivatives and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/PCBM systems. In the third part, we will discuss the alternative approaches such as polymer/polymer solar cells and organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells. In the fourth part, we will suggest possible routes for further improvements and finish with some conclusions. The different papers mentioned in the text have been chosen for didactical purposes and cannot reflect the chronology of the research field nor have a claim of completeness. The further interested reader is referred to the vast amount of quality papers published in this field during the past decade.

Conjugated polymer-based organic solar cells

A broad organic–inorganic series of hybrid metal iodide perovskites with the general formulation AMI3, where A is the methylammonium (CH3NH3+) or formamidinium (HC(NH2)2+) cation and M is Sn (1 and 2) or Pb (3 and 4) are reported. The compounds have been prepared through a variety of synthetic approaches, and the nature of the resulting materials is discussed in terms of their thermal stability and optical and electronic properties. We find that the chemical and physical properties of these materials strongly depend on the preparation method. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of 1–4 classifies the compounds in the perovskite structural family. Structural phase transitions were observed and investigated by temperature-dependent single crystal X-ray diffraction in the 100–400 K range. The charge transport properties of the materials are discussed in conjunction with diffuse reflectance studies in the mid-IR region that display characteristic absorption features. Temperature-dependent studies show a ...

Semiconducting tin and lead iodide perovskites with organic cations: phase transitions, high mobilities, and near-infrared photoluminescent properties.

Infrared spectroscopy of proteins.

The Interaction of Water with Solid Surfaces: Fundamental Aspects Revisited

This article is written from an organic chemist's point of view and provides an up-to-date review about organic solar cells based on small molecules or oligomers as absorbers and in detail deals with devices that incorporate planar-heterojunctions (PHJ) and bulk heterojunctions (BHJ) between a donor (p-type semiconductor) and an acceptor (n-type semiconductor) material. The article pays particular attention to the design and development of molecular materials and their performance in corresponding devices. In recent years, a substantial amount of both, academic and industrial research, has been directed towards organic solar cells, in an effort to develop new materials and to improve their tunability, processability, power conversion efficiency, and stability. On the eve of commercialization of organic solar cells, this review provides an overview over efficiencies attained with small molecules/oligomers in OSCs and reflects materials and device concepts developed over the last decade. Approaches to enhancing the efficiency of organic solar cells are analyzed.

Small molecule organic semiconductors on the move: promises for future solar energy technology.

Second-order nonlinear optics can be used to quantitatively determine the orientation of chemical bonds or submoieties of a fairly complicated molecule at an interface, and therefore completely map out its orientation and conformation. As a specific example, we have studied pentyl-cyanoterphenyl molecules at the air-water interface. We have measured the orientation of all three parts of the molecule (cyano head group, terphenyl ring, and pentyl chain) by optical second-harmonic generation and infrared-visible sum-frequency generation. A quantitatively consistent picture of the molecular configuration has been obtained. The technique can be applied to situations where other methods would fail (e.g., the surface of neat liquids or buried interfaces).

Mapping molecular orientation and conformation at interfaces by surface nonlinear optics

Liquid interfaces play a fundamental role in science and technology. The development of surface-sensitive probes capable of yielding molecular information about these interfaces is of great importance. This paper gives an overview of our and some others' recent work on vibrational spectroscopy of liquid interfaces by the sum-frequency generation (SFG) technique. This technique, being highly surface specific and applicable to all interfaces accessible by light, has been proven to be a most powerful analytical tool for liquid interfaces. A wide range of systems have been studied including neat liquid surfaces, solid/liquid and liquid/liquid interfaces, surfactants at liquid interfaces, and electrochemical interfaces. In many cases, SFG is shown to be the only technique available that can provide detailed information about a liquid interface at the molecular level.

Liquid interfaces: A study by sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy

The structure of a water film formed on mica at room temperature, in equilibrium with water vapor at various relative humidities (RH), was studied using sum-frequency-generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy and scanning polarization force microscopy (SPFM). Analysis of the O-D stretch modes in the SFG spectra of D{sub 2}O on mica indicates that as RH increases, the submonolayer water structure evolves into a more ordered hydrogen-bonding network. At full monolayer coverage ({approximately} 90{percent} RH) , the SFG spectrum suggests an icelike film with no dangling O-D groups, in agreement with a recent molecular dynamics simulation. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}

Icelike Water Monolayer Adsorbed on Mica at Room Temperature

Surface melting on the (0001) face of hexagonal ice ( I(h)) was studied by sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy in the OH stretch frequency range. The degree of orientational order of the dangling OH bonds at the surface was measured as a function of temperature. Disordering sets in around 200 K and increases dramatically with temperature. The results show that the disordered (quasiliquid) layer on ice is structurally different from normal liquid water.

Paulo B. Miranda

Papers

Mapping molecular orientation and conformation at interfaces by surface nonlinear optics

Liquid interfaces: A study by sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy

Icelike Water Monolayer Adsorbed on Mica at Room Temperature

Surface vibrational spectroscopic study of surface melting of ice.

A New Luminescent Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Compound with Large Optical Nonlinearity