Revealing the Nanomorphology and Excited State Dynamics Behind the Ternary Advantage in Organic Photovoltaics

揭示有机光伏三元优势背后的纳米形态和激发态动力学

• 批准号: 2247711
• 负责人: Brian Collins
• 金额: $ 52.2万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-15 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2247711&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Revealing; Nanomorphology; Excited; State; Dynamics

Non-technical DescriptionThe emergence of low-cost, flexible, and biocompatible organic devices will have a game-changing impact on society. These devices could revolutionize how we interface with technology, transform our ability to renewably harvest and store energy, and advance healthcare. Printed solar panels have great potential, yet current technology still uses relatively low-performance materials or involves toxic lead-based materials. Organic solar cells require two different types of molecules to generate and transport charge from incident light. A recent breakthrough in the performance of organic solar cells uses a blend of three types of molecules. This suggests an opportunity for the next leap in a disruptive technology, but it is held back by a lack of scientific understanding of the phenomenon. Investigators will use X-ray probes to correlate the performance and nanostructure of these blends. They will also analyze charge generation dynamics to determine the processes responsible for performance gains. This work will reveal how to control the phenomenon to enable truly high-performance printed and lead-free photovoltaic modules to fully compete in the marketplace. Graduate students involved will benefit from the multidisciplinary nature of the work to gain critical experience and expertise in communicating in diverse collaborations. Their travel to major national laboratories for the work will provide new career opportunities and perspective. Students involved will bolster outreach activities of the WSU Science Ambassadors Program by traveling to area schools with educational activities and mentoring undergraduates in summer projects in the principal investigator’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program.Technical DescriptionMulticomponent organic electronic systems are being increasingly explored to enhance properties and performance in devices for printable, flexible, and biocompatible applications. Recently, ternary and quaternary blends have been shown to enhance performance of organic photovoltaics to over 20% efficiencies. The high dimensionality of parameter space which are difficult to characterize, however, results in halting progress. In this project, a spectral analysis of resonant soft X-ray nanoprobes will uniquely enable definitive characterization of these complex three and four-component systems to reveal the precise morphological paradigms responsible for the ternary advantage. These nanostructure measurements will be combined with a holistic analysis of the fundamental charge generation dynamic process as well its energetics in device-relevant conditions to define the emergent excited state pathways responsible for the performance gains. The hypothesis is that mixing of guest molecules in strategic domains can tune charge transport and non-radiative losses, but collection of the guest molecules at donor-acceptor interfaces is key to lowering energetic barriers to enhance charge separation efficiencies. The aim is to establish the mechanisms of the ternary advantage and the thermodynamic and kinetic limits of these mechanisms to provide a model for further optimization through molecular design and device processing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

低成本、灵活和生物相容性有机设备的出现将对社会产生改变游戏规则的影响。这些设备可以彻底改变我们与技术的互动方式，改变我们可再生地收获和储存能源的能力，并促进医疗保健。印刷太阳能电池板具有巨大的潜力，但目前的技术仍然使用相对低性能的材料或涉及有毒的铅基材料。有机太阳能电池需要两种不同类型的分子来从入射光产生和传输电荷。有机太阳能电池性能的最新突破使用了三种类型分子的混合物。这意味着颠覆性技术的下一次飞跃有机会，但由于缺乏对这一现象的科学理解，这一机会受到了阻碍。研究人员将使用X射线探针来关联这些混合物的性能和纳米结构。他们还将分析电荷生成动态，以确定负责性能增益的过程。这项工作将揭示如何控制这一现象，使真正高性能的印刷和无铅光伏组件在市场上充分竞争。参与的研究生将受益于工作的多学科性质，以获得在不同的合作沟通的关键经验和专业知识。他们前往主要的国家实验室工作将提供新的职业机会和视角。参与的学生将加强WSU科学大使计划的推广活动，通过前往地区学校开展教育活动，并在首席研究员的本科生研究经验计划的夏季项目中指导本科生。技术说明多组分有机电子系统正在越来越多地探索，以提高可打印，灵活和生物相容性应用设备的性能和性能。最近，三元和四元共混物已被证明可以将有机光致变色材料的性能提高到超过20%的效率。然而，参数空间的高维性难以表征，导致了停滞的进展。在这个项目中，共振软X射线纳米探针的光谱分析将独特地使这些复杂的三组分和四组分系统的明确表征，以揭示负责三元优势的精确形态学范式。这些纳米结构的测量将结合一个整体分析的基本电荷产生的动态过程，以及它的能量在设备相关的条件下，以定义负责的性能增益出现激发态的途径。该假设是客体分子在战略域中的混合可以调节电荷传输和非辐射损失，但是客体分子在供体-受体界面处的收集是降低能量势垒以提高电荷分离效率的关键。其目的是建立三元优势的机制以及这些机制的热力学和动力学限制，为通过分子设计和器件加工进行进一步优化提供模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。