Recent Advances in Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells

The design and characterization of metal–organic complexes for optoelectronic applications is an active area of research. The metal–organic complex offers unique optical and electronic properties arising from the interplay between the inorganic metal and the organic ligand. The ability to modify chemical structure through control over metal–ligand interaction on a molecular level could directly impact the properties of the complex. When deposited in thin film form, this class of materials enable the fabrication of a wide variety of low-cost electronic and optoelectronic devices. These include light emitting diodes, solar cells, photodetectors, field-effect transistors as well as chemical and biological sensors. Here we present an overview of recent development in metal–organic complexes with controlled molecular structures and tunable properties. Advances in extending the control of molecular structures to solid materials for energy conversion and information technology applications will be highlighted.

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Recent progress in metal–organic complexes for optoelectronic applications

Photothermal therapy (PTT) offers many advantages such as high efficiency and minimal invasiveness, but clinical adoption of PTT nanoagents have been stifled by unresolved concerns such as the biodegradability as well as long-term toxicity. Herein, poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) loaded with black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) is processed by an emulsion method to produce biodegradable BPQDs/PLGA nanospheres. The hydrophobic PLGA not only isolates the interior BPQDs from oxygen and water to enhance the photothermal stability, but also control the degradation rate of the BPQDs. The in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that the BPQDs/PLGA nanospheres have inappreciable toxicity and good biocompatibility, and possess excellent PTT efficiency and tumour targeting ability as evidenced by highly efficient tumour ablation under near infrared (NIR) laser illumination. These BP-based nanospheres combine biodegradability and biocompatibility with high PTT efficiency, thus promising high clinical potential.

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Biodegradable black phosphorus-based nanospheres for in vivo photothermal cancer therapy.

2D materials are the focus of an intense research effort because of their unique properties and their potential for revealing intriguing new phenomena. Phosphorene, a monolayer of black phosphorus, earned its place among the family of 2D semiconductor materials when recent results unveiled its high carrier mobility, high optical and UV absorption, and other attractive properties, which are of particular interest for optoelectronic applications. Unlike graphene, phosphorene has an anisotropic orthorhombic structure that is ductile along one of the in-plane crystal directions but stiff along the other. This results in unusual mechanical, electronic, optical and transport properties that reflect the anisotropy of the lattice. This Review summarizes the physical properties of phosphorene and highlights the recent progress made in the preparation, isolation and characterization of this material. The role of defects and doping is discussed, and phosphorene-based devices are surveyed; finally, the remaining challenges and potential applications of phosphorene are outlined. Phosphorene is a 2D material exhibiting remarkable mechanical, electronic and optical properties. In this Review, we survey fabrication techniques and discuss theoretical and experimental findings, exploring phosphorene from its fundamental properties to its implementation in devices.

Phosphorene: from theory to applications

Organic solar cells (OSCs) present some advantages, such as simple preparation, light weight, low cost and large-area flexible fabrication, and have attracted much attention in recent years. Although the power conversion efficiencies have exceeded 10%, the inferior device stability still remains a great challenge. In this review, we summarize the factors limiting the stability of OSCs, such as metastable morphology, diffusion of electrodes and buffer layers, oxygen and water, irradiation, heating and mechanical stress, and survey recent progress in strategies to increase the stability of OSCs, such as material design, device engineering of active layers, employing inverted geometry, optimizing buffer layers, using stable electrodes and encapsulation. Some research areas of device stability that may deserve further attention are also discussed to help readers understand the challenges and opportunities in achieving high efficiency and high stability of OSCs towards future industrial manufacture.

Stability of organic solar cells: challenges and strategies

Blue phosphorus, a previously unknown phase of phosphorus, has been recently predicted by theoretical calculations and shares its layered structure and high stability with black phosphorus, a rapidly rising two-dimensional material. Here, we report a molecular beam epitaxial growth of single layer blue phosphorus on Au(111) by using black phosphorus as precursor, through the combination of in situ low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculation. The structure of the as-grown single layer blue phosphorus on Au(111) is explained with a (4 × 4) blue phosphorus unit cell coinciding with a (5 × 5) Au(111) unit cell, and this is verified by the theoretical calculations. The electronic bandgap of single layer blue phosphorus on Au(111) is determined to be 1.10 eV by scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurement. The realization of epitaxial growth of large-scale and high quality atomic-layered blue phosphorus can enable the rapid development of novel electronic and optoelect...

Epitaxial Growth of Single Layer Blue Phosphorus: A New Phase of Two-Dimensional Phosphorus

Black phosphorus, a fast emerging two-dimensional material, has been configured as field effect transistors, showing a hole-transport-dominated ambipolar characteristic. Here we report an effective modulation on ambipolar characteristics of few-layer black phosphorus transistors through in situ surface functionalization with caesium carbonate (Cs2CO3) and molybdenum trioxide (MoO3), respectively. Cs2CO3 is found to strongly electron dope black phosphorus. The electron mobility of black phosphorus is significantly enhanced to similar to 27 cm(2)V(-1) s(-1) after 10 nm Cs2CO3 modification, indicating a greatly improved electron-transport behaviour. In contrast, MoO3 decoration demonstrates a giant hole-doping effect. In situ photoelectron spectroscopy characterization reveals significant surface charge transfer occurring at the dopants/black phosphorus interfaces. Moreover, the surface-doped black phosphorus devices exhibit a largely enhanced photodetection behaviour. Our findings coupled with the tunable nature of the surface transfer doping scheme ensure black phosphorus as a promising candidate for further complementary logic electronics.

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Surface transfer doping induced effective modulation on ambipolar characteristics of few-layer black phosphorus

Manipulating the electronic and chemical properties of graphene via molecular functionalization

In situ bottom-gated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) field effect transistors (FETs) device characterization and in situ ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements were combined to investigate the effect of surface modification layers of C60 and molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) on the electronic properties of single layer MoS2. It is found that C60 decoration keeps MoS2 FET performance intact due to the very weak interfacial interactions, making C60 as an ideal capping layer for MoS2 devices. In contrast, decorating MoO3 on MoS2 induces significant charge transfer at the MoS2/MoO3 interface and largely depletes the electron charge carriers in MoS2 FET devices.

Modulating electronic transport properties of MoS2 field effect transistor by surface overlayers

In this work, efficient bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSC) in inverted configuration have been demonstrated. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.7% is reported for OSC employing silver top electrodes, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) as the hole-transport interlayer (HTL), active layer comprising of poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as well as a nanocrystalline solution-synthesized zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticle (NP) film as the electron-transport layer (ETL). By using solution-processable ZnO crystalline NPs as ETL, we can eliminate the typical high temperature processing/annealing step, which is widely adopted in the conventional ZnO ETL fabrication process via the sol–gel method. Such highly crystalline ZnO NP films can enhance charge collection at the electrodes. It is also found that inverted OSCs exhibit greater air stability and lifetime performance compared to the OSC employing the normal structure.

Shu Zhong

Papers

Epitaxial Growth of Single Layer Blue Phosphorus: A New Phase of Two-Dimensional Phosphorus

Surface transfer doping induced effective modulation on ambipolar characteristics of few-layer black phosphorus

Manipulating the electronic and chemical properties of graphene via molecular functionalization

Modulating electronic transport properties of MoS2 field effect transistor by surface overlayers

Air-Stable Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells Using Solution-Processed Nanocrystalline ZnO Interfacial Layer