Phase Separation of Silicon-Containing Polymer/Polystyrene Blends in Spin-Coated Films

Exploring Pore Formation and Gas Sensing Kinetics Using Conjugated Polymer-Small Molecule Blends

Controlling miscibility between mixture components helps induce spontaneous phase separation into distinct domain sizes, thereby resulting in porous conjugated polymer (CP) films with different pore sizes after selective removal of auxiliary components. The miscibility of the CP mixture can be tailored by blending auxiliary model components designed by reflecting the difference in solubility parameters with the CP. The pore size increases as the difference in solubility parameters between the matrix CP and auxiliary component increases. Electrical properties are not critically damaged even after forming pores in the CP; however, excessive pore formation enables pores to spread to the vicinity of the dielectric layer of CP-based field-effect transistors (FETs), leading to partial loss of the carrier-transporting active channel in the FET. The porous structure is advantageous for not only increasing detection sensitivity but also improving the detection speed when porous CP films are applied to FET-based gas sensors for NO2 detection. The quantitative analysis of the response-recovery trend of the FET sensor using the Langmuir isotherm suggests that the response speed can be improved by more than 2.5 times with a 50-fold increase in NO2 sensitivity compared with pristine CP, which has no pores.

Buried interface modification and light outcoupling strategy for efficient blue perovskite light-emitting diodes

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) exhibit remarkable potential in the field of displays and solid-state lighting. However, blue PeLEDs, a key element for practical applications, still lag behind their green and red counterparts, due to a combination of strong nonradiative recombination losses and unoptimized device structures. In this report, we propose a buried interface modification strategy to address these challenges by focusing on the bottom-hole transport layer (HTL) of the PeLEDs. On the one hand, a multifunctional molecule, aminoacetic acid hydrochloride (AACl), is introduced to modify the HTL/perovskite interface to regulate the perovskite crystallization. Experimental investigations and theoretical calculations demonstrate that AACl can effectively reduce the nonradiative recombination losses in bulk perovskites by suppressing the growth of low-n perovskite phases and also the losses at the bottom interface by passivating interfacial defects. On the other hand, a self-assembly nanomesh structure is ingeniously developed within the HTLs. This nanomesh structure is meticulously crafted through the blending of poly-(9,9-dioctyl-fluorene-co-N-(4-butyl phenyl) diphenylamine) and poly (n-vinyl carbazole), significantly enhancing the light outcoupling efficiency in PeLEDs. As a result, our blue PeLEDs achieve remarkable external quantum efficiencies, 20.4% at 487 nm and 12.5% at 470 nm, which are among the highest reported values. Our results offer valuable insights and effective methods for achieving high-performance blue PeLEDs.

Tunable Omnidirectional Antireflection Coatings Inspired by Inclined Irregular Nanostructures on Transparent Blue-Tailed Forest Hawk Dragonfly Wings

Randomly arranged inclined irregular nanostructure-covered blue-tailed forest hawk dragonfly wings are highly transparent for wide viewing angles. Inspired by the dragonfly wings, monolayer silica colloids are self-assembled on shape memory polymer-coated substrates and utilized as plasma etching masks to pattern disorderly arranged inclined irregular conical structures. The structures build gradual refractive index transitions at various angles of incidences, resulting in omnidirectional antireflection performance over the whole visible wavelength region. In comparison with a bare substrate, the optimized structure-covered substrate presents 10% higher optical transmission at 0° and even 41% higher optical transmission at an angle of incidence of 75°. Importantly, by manipulating the structural configuration of the shape memory polymer-based structures, the corresponding antireflection characteristics can be instantaneously and reversibly eliminated and recovered after drying out of common household liquids or applying contact pressures in ambient environments. The tunable omnidirectional antireflection coatings are prospective candidates for realizing optical modulation, which exhibits an enormous application value in smart windows, intelligent display screens, optical components, and novel optoelectronic devices.

Non-Iridescent Metal Nanomesh with Disordered Nanoapertures Fabricated by Phase Separation Lithography of Polymer Blend as Transparent Conductive Film

Metallic nanomesh, one of the emerging transparent conductive film (TCF) materials with both high electrical conductivity and optical transmittance, shows great potential to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) in optoelectronic devices. However, lithography-fabricated metallic nanomeshes suffer from an iridescence problem caused by the optical diffraction of periodic nanostructures, which has negative effects on display performance. In this work, we propose a novel approach to fabricate large-scale metallic nanomesh as TCFs on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheets by maskless phase separation lithography of polymer blends in a low-cost and facile process. Polystyrene (PS)/polyphenylsilsequioxane (PPSQ) polymer blend was chosen as resist material for phase separation lithography due to their different etching selectivity under O₂ reactive ion etching (RIE). The PS constituent was selectively removed by O₂ RIE and the remained PPSQ nanopillars with varying sizes in random distribution were used as masks for further pattern transfer and metal deposition process. Gold (Au) nanomeshes with adjustable nanostructures were achieved after the lift-off step. Au nanomesh exhibited good optoelectronic properties (R_S = 41 Ω/sq, T = 71.9%) and non-iridescence, without angle dependence owing to the aperiodic structures of disordered apertures. The results indicate that this Au nanomesh has high potential application in high-performance and broad-viewing-angle optoelectronic devices.

Morphology of Poly(styrene- co-butadiene) Random Copolymer Thin Films and Nanostructures on a Graphite Surface

We studied the morphology of poly(styrene- co-butadiene) random copolymers on a graphite surface. Polymer solutions were spin coated onto graphite, at various concentrations and molecular weights. The polymer films and nanostructures were imaged using atomic force microscopy. Above the overlap concentration, thin films formed. However, total wetting did not occur, despite the polymers being well above their T_g. Instead, dewetting was observed, suggesting the films were in a state of metastable equilibrium. At lower concentrations, the polymers formed networks, nanoislands, and nanoribbons. Ordered nanopatterns were observed on the surface; the polymers orientated themselves due to π-π stacking interactions reflecting the crystalline structure of the graphite. At the lowest concentration, this ordering was very pronounced. At higher concentrations, it was less defined but still statistically significant. Higher degrees of ordering were observed with poly(styrene- co-butadiene) than polystyrene and polybutadiene homopolymers as the copolymer's aromatic rings are distributed along a flexible chain, which maximizes π-π stacking. At the two lowest concentrations, the size of the nanoislands and nanoribbons remained similar with varying molecular weight. However, at higher concentrations, the polymer network features were largest at the lowest molecular weight, indicating that in this case, a large proportion of shorter chains stay on top of the adsorbed ones. The contact angles of the polymer nanostructures remained mostly constant with size, which is due to the strong polymer/graphite adhesion dominating over line tension and entropic effects.

Investigation of phase separated polyimide blend films containing boron nitride using FTIR imaging

Immiscible aromatic polyimide (PI) blend films and a PI blend film incorporated with thermally conductive boron nitride (BN) were prepared, and their phase separation behaviors were examined by optical microscopy and FTIR imaging. The 2,2'-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzidine (TFMB)-containing and 4,4'-thiodianiline (TDA)-containing aromatic PI blend films and a PI blend/BN composite film show two clearly separated regions; one region is the TFMB-rich phase, and the other region is the TDA-rich phase. The introduction of BN induces morphological changes in the immiscible aromatic PI blend film without altering the composition of either domain. In particular, the BN is selectively incorporated into the TDA-rich phase in this study.

Light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells via phase separated disordered nanopillars

In this work, we have improved the absorption properties of thin film solar cells by introducing light trapping reflectors deposited onto self-assembled nanostructures. The latter consist of a disordered array of nanopillars and are fabricated by polymer blend lithography. Their broadband light scattering properties are exploited to enhance the photocurrent density of thin film devices, here based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon active layers. We demonstrate that these light scattering nanopillars yield a short-circuit current density increase of +33%rel with respect to equivalent solar cells processed on a planar reflector. Moreover, we experimentally show that they outperform randomly textured substrates that are commonly used for achieving efficient light trapping. Complementary optical simulations are conducted on an accurate 3D model to analyze the superior light harvesting properties of the nanopillar array and to derive general design rules. Our approach allows one to easily tune the morphology of the self-assembled nanostructures, is up-scalable and operated at room temperature, and is applicable to other photovoltaic technologies.

Poly(styrene-co-butadiene) random copolymer thin films and nanostructures on a mica surface: morphology and contact angles of nanodroplets

The self-assembly of poly(styrene-co-butadiene) random copolymers on mica surfaces was studied by varying solution concentrations and polymer molecular weights. Toluene solutions of the poly(styrene-co-butadiene) samples were spin coated onto a mica surface and the resulting polymer morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy. At higher concentrations, thin films formed with varying thicknesses; some dewetting was observed which depended on the molecular weight. Total dewetting did not occur despite the polymer's low glass transition temperature. Instead, partial dewetting was observed suggesting that the polymer was in a metastable equilibrium state. At lower concentrations, spherical cap shaped nanodroplets formed with varying sizes from single polymer chains to aggregates containing millions of chains. As the molecular weight was increased, fewer aggregates were observed on the surface, albeit with larger sizes resulting from increased solution viscosities and more chain entanglements at higher molecular weights. The contact angles of the nanodroplets were shown to be size dependent. A minimum contact angle occurs for droplets with radii of 100-250 nm at each molecular weight. Droplets smaller than 100 nm showed a sharp increase in contact angle; attributed to an increase in the elastic modulus of the droplets, in addition, to a positive line tension value. Droplets larger than 250 nm also showed an increased contact angle due to surface heterogeneities which cannot be avoided for larger droplets. This increase in contact angle plateaus as the droplet size reaches the macroscopic scale.

Wafer Scale Fabrication of Dense and High Aspect Ratio Sub-50 nm Nanopillars from Phase Separation of Cross-Linkable Polysiloxane/Polystyrene Blend

We demonstrated a simple and effective approach to fabricate dense and high aspect ratio sub-50 nm pillars based on phase separation of a polymer blend composed of a cross-linkable polysiloxane and polystyrene (PS). In order to obtain the phase-separated domains with nanoscale size, a liquid prepolymer of cross-linkable polysiloxane was employed as one moiety for increasing the miscibility of the polymer blend. After phase separation via spin-coating, the dispersed domains of liquid polysiloxane with sub-50 nm size could be solidified by UV exposure. The solidified polysiloxane domains took the role of etching mask for formation of high aspect ratio nanopillars by O₂ reactive ion etching (RIE). The aspect ratio of the nanopillars could be further amplified by introduction of a polymer transfer layer underneath the polymer blend film. The effects of spin speeds, the weight ratio of the polysiloxane/PS blend, and the concentration of polysiloxane/PS blend in toluene on the characters of the nanopillars were investigated. The gold-coated nanopillar arrays exhibited a high Raman scattering enhancement factor in the range of 10⁸-10⁹ with high uniformity across over the wafer scale sample. A superhydrophobic surface could be realized by coating a self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of fluoroalkyltrichlorosilane on the nanopillar arrays. Sub-50 nm silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with high aspect ratio of about 1000 were achieved by using the nanopillars as etching mask through a metal-assisted chemical etching process. They showed an ultralow reflectance of approximately 0.1% for wavelengths ranging from 200 to 800 nm.

Narrow band resonance in the UV light region of a plasmonic nanotextured surface used as a refractive index sensor

An aperiodic plasmoic nanotextured surface with metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) multilayer nanostructure acts as a refractive index (RI) sensor in the ultra-violet light region.

Voltage-stabilised elastomers with increased relative permittivity and high electrical breakdown strength by means of phase separating binary copolymer blends of silicone elastomers

Increased electro-mechanical properties of silicone-based dielectric elastomers are achieved by means of the addition of so-called voltage-stabilisers prepared from PDMS–PPMS copolymers.

Titanium Oxide/Silicon Moth-Eye Structures with Antireflection, p-n Heterojunctions, and Superhydrophilicity

By employing KOH etching of silicon and hydrothermal growth of titanium oxide (TiO₂), TiO₂ nanorods assembled on the silicon micropyramids to form biomimetic composite coating, similar to moth-eye structures. The biomimetic composite coating possessed not only the micro-nano hierarchical structures but also the p-n heterojunctions, resulting in a decrease in the reflection of incident light and an increase in the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. Meanwhile, the structures showed excellent superhydrophilicity, making for the self-cleaning of the material surface. We further demonstrate that by exploiting the advantages of this method, the application of such structures in the photocatalysis field is thus straightforward.