Developing Nanostructured Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Semiconductors for Photovoltaic Applications

该项目旨在开发一种独特的无机-有机混合半导体，具有很强的光伏应用潜力。这些材料可以被认为是基于II-VI的宽带隙混合系统的衍生物，并且将被设计成具有系统可调谐的晶体结构，成分和半导体特性，其带隙落在一个特别适合用于太阳能电池的范围内。这些晶体材料由相同尺寸的半导体基元（例如链、单层和多层板）组成，它们通过有机间隔物的化学键排列成完美有序的阵列。由于强结构诱导的量子约束，它们表现出不同寻常的、许多增强的电子和光学特性，这在半导体母体中是无法实现的。目的是研究无机-有机界面发生的化学和物理基本问题，这将有助于深入了解结构-组成-性能关系，并为未来具有独特性能的杂化材料的开发提供指导。该项目重要的教育方面包括对学生培训的坚定承诺。寻找负担得起的、清洁的、高效的能源来取代化石燃料已经成为全球减少温室气体排放的主要努力。阳光是一种广泛使用的可再生能源，光伏发电（PV）是一种将阳光直接转化为电能的重要发电技术。该研究项目将为太阳能转换技术提供性能更好的半导体材料。这些材料将由无机和有机成分制成，两者的混合将导致许多增强的功能。通过改变它们的结构和成分，人们可以系统地调整这些混合半导体的特性，以提高能源效率。这个项目的影响是教育和技术。从教育的角度来看，该项目将为研究生和本科生提供直接参与能源研究的独特机会，并且由于PI参与了罗格斯大学校园和大学范围内的几个中心和项目，例如先进材料，器件和纳米技术研究所（IAMDN），能源研究倡议（ERI），两个NSF资助的跨学科研究生教育和研究培训（IGERT）项目，与工程研究中心（ERC）合作，为获资助的学生提供更全面的培训和教育。

This project aims to develop a unique class of inorganic-organic hybrid semiconductors with strong potential for photovoltaic applications. These materials can be considered as derivatives of II-VI based wide-bandgap hybrid systems, and will be designed to have systematically tunable crystal structures, compositions and semiconductor properties, with band gaps falling in a range specifically suitable for use in solar cells. These crystalline materials are composed of semiconductor motifs of identical size (e.g. chains, single-layer and multi-layer slabs), which are arranged into perfectly ordered arrays via chemical bonds with organic spacers. They demonstrate unusual and numerous enhanced electronic and optical properties that are not achievable in their semiconductor parent bulk, as a result of strong structure-induced quantum confinement. The goal is to research fundamental questions concerning the chemistry and physics occurring at the inorganic-organic interface, which will assist in-depth understanding of the structure-composition-property relationship, and offer guidance to future development of hybrid materials with unique properties. Important educational aspects of this project include strong commitment to student training. %%%Seeking affordable, clean, and efficient energy to replace fossil fuels has become a major global effort to reduce emission of green house gases. Sunlight is a widely available renewable energy source and photovoltaics (PV) is an important power-generating technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity. This research project will provide semiconductor materials with improved performance for solar energy conversion technologies. The materials will be made of both inorganic and organic components, and the blending of the two will lead to a number of enhanced functionalities. By modifying their structures and compositions one can systematically tune the properties of these hybrid semiconductors to increase energy efficiency. The impact of this project is both educational and technological. From an educational point of view, this project will provide unique opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to directly participate in energy research, and as a result of the involvement of the PI in several campus- and university-wide centers and programs at Rutgers, such as the Institute of Advanced Materials, Devices and Nanotechnology (IAMDN), an Energy Research Initiative (ERI), two NSF funded Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) programs, and Engineering Research Center (ERC), a more general training and education will be available to students supported under this grant.