The origin of DC electrical conduction and dielectric relaxation in pristine and doped poly(3-hexylthiophene) films

An Informatics Approach for Designing Conducting Polymers

Doping conjugated polymers, which are potential candidates for the next generation of organic electronics, is an effective strategy for manipulating their electrical conductivity. However, selecting a suitable polymer-dopant combination is exceptionally challenging because of the vastness of the chemical, configurational, and morphological spaces one needs to search. In this work, high-performance surrogate models, trained on available experimentally measured data, are developed to predict the p-type electrical conductivity and are used to screen a large candidate hypothetical data set of more than 800 000 polymer-dopant combinations. Promising candidates are identified for synthesis and device fabrication. Additionally, new design guidelines are extracted that verify and extend knowledge on important molecular fragments that correlate to high conductivity. Conductivity prediction models are also deployed at www.polymergenome.org for broader open-access community use.

Nanoscale Mapping of Dielectric Properties of Nanomaterials from Kilohertz to Megahertz Using Ultrasmall Cantilevers

Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) is often used for nanoscale dielectric spectroscopy, the measurement of local dielectric properties of materials as a function of frequency. However, the frequency range of atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based dielectric spectroscopy has been limited to a few kilohertz by the resonance frequency and noise of soft microcantilevers used for this purpose. Here, we boost the frequency range of local dielectric spectroscopy by 3 orders of magnitude from a few kilohertz to a few megahertz by developing a technique that exploits the high resonance frequency and low thermal noise of ultrasmall cantilevers (USCs). We map the frequency response of the real and imaginary components of the capacitance gradient (∂C(ω)/∂z) by using second-harmonic EFM and a theoretical model, which relates cantilever dynamics to the complex dielectric constant. We demonstrate the method by mapping the nanoscale dielectric spectrum of polymer-based materials for organic electronic devices. Beyond offering a powerful extension to AFM-based dielectric spectroscopy, the approach also allows the identification of electrostatic excitation frequencies which affords high dielectric contrast on nanomaterials.

Synthesis and Photophysical and Electroluminescent Properties of Poly(1,4-phenylene-ethynylene)-alt-poly(1,4-phenylene-vinylene)s with Various Dissymmetric Substitution of Alkoxy Side Chains

The synthesis and characterization of a set of conjugated polymers, poly(1,4-phenylene–ethynylene)-alt-poly(1,4-phenylene–vinylene)s (PPE–PPVs), with a dissymmetrical configuration (partial or total) of alkoxy side chains is reported. Five new polymers bearing octyloxy and/or octadecyloxy side chains at the phenylene–ethynylene and phenylene–vinylene segments, respectively, were obtained. Two symmetrical substituted polymers were used for comparison. Polymers with weight-average molecular weight, M_w, up to 430 000 g/mol and degree of polymerization between 17 and 322 were obtained by a Horner–Wadsworth–Emmons olefination polycondensation reaction of the respective luminophoric dialdehydes and bisphosphonates. As expected, identical conjugated backbones in all polymers results in very similar photophysical response in dilute solution, with high fluorescence quantum yields between 50% and 80%. In contrast, the thin film properties are dependent on the combinatorial effects of side chain configuration, molecular weight, and film thickness parameters, which are the basis of the resulting comparison and discussion.

An ultraviolet responsive hybrid solar cell based on titania/poly(3-hexylthiophene)

Here we present an ultraviolet responsive inorganic-organic hybrid solar cell based on titania/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (TiO(2)/P3HT) heterojuction. In this solar cell, TiO(2) is an ultraviolet light absorber and electronic conductor, P3HT is a hole conductor, the light-to-electrical conversion is realized by the cooperation for these two components. Doping ionic salt in P3HT polymer can improve the photovoltaic performance of the solar cell. Under ultraviolet light irradiation with intensity of 100 mW·cm(-2), the hybrid solar cell doped with 1.0 wt.% lithium iodide achieves an energy conversion efficiency of 1.28%, which is increased by 33.3% compared to that of the hybrid solar cell without lithium iodide doping. Our results open a novel sunlight irradiation field for solar energy utilization, demonstrate the feasibility of ultraviolet responsive solar cells, and provide a new route for enhancing the photovoltaic performance of solar cells.