1. Time-of-flight photoconductivity investigation of high charge carrier mobility in ▫$Ti_3C_2T_x$▫ MXenes thin-filmJurij Urbančič, Erika Tomsic, Manisha Chhikara, Nadiia Pastukhova, Vadym Tkachuk, Alex Dixon, Andraž Mavrič, Payam Hashemi, Davood Sabaghi, Ali Shaygan Nia, Gvido Bratina, Egon Pavlica, 2023, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: Charge transport through a randomly oriented multilayered network of two-dimensional (2D) Ti3C2Tx (where Tx is the surface termination and corresponds to O, OH and F) was studied using time-of-flight photoconductivity (TOFP) method, which is highly sensitive to the distribution of charge carrier velocities. We prepared samples comprising Ti3C2Tx with thickness of 12 nm or 6-monolayers. MXene flakes of size up to 16 μm were randomly deposited on the surface by spin-coating from water solution. Using TOFP, we have measured electron mobility that reached values up to 279 cm2/Vs and increase with electric-field in a Poole-Frenkel manner. These values are approximately 50 times higher than previously reported field-effect mobility. Interestingly, our zero-electric-field extrapolate approaches electron mobility measured using terahertz absorption method, which represents intra-flake transport. Our data suggest that macroscopic charge transport is governed by two distinct mechanisms. The high mobility values are characteristic for the intra-flake charge transport via the manifold of delocalized states. On the other hand, the observed Poole-Frenkel dependence of charge carrier mobility on the electric field is typical for the disordered materials and suggest the existence of an important contribution of inter-flake hopping to the overall charge transport. Ključne besede: charge transport, multilayered network, flakes, time-of-flight photoconductivity, MXene exfoliation, high-mobility solution-cast thin-film, semiconducting MXene Objavljeno v RUNG: 31.03.2023; Ogledov: 2111; Prenosov: 9 Celotno besedilo (1,97 MB) |
2. Conjugated polymer mesocrystals with structural and optoelectronic coherence and anisotropy in three dimensionsLiyang Yu, Egon Pavlica, Ruipeng Li, Yufei Zhong, Carlos Silva, Gvido Bratina, Christian Műller, Aram Amassian, Natalie Stingelin, 2022, izvirni znanstveni članek Ključne besede: organic semiconductor, time-of-flight, charge carrier mobility, solid processing, large crystal Objavljeno v RUNG: 28.02.2023; Ogledov: 1842; Prenosov: 83 Povezava na celotno besedilo Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
3. Photoexcited charge mobility in quasi two-dimensional polyacetyleneNadiia Pastukhova, Kejun Liu, Renhao Dong, Gvido Bratina, Xinliang Feng, Egon Pavlica, 1894, objavljeni povzetek znanstvenega prispevka na konferenci Opis: Two-dimensional conjugated polymers (2DCPs) have been described and recognised as crystalline, one- to two-layer polymer nanosheets prepared by 2D covalent polymerization exhibiting strong in-plane π-electron delocalization with two orthogonal directions and weak out-of-plane π-π stacking.[1,2] The extension of polymer dimensionality into two dimensions improves the alignment of individual polymer sheets and overcomes the limitations associated with charge carrier hopping between polymer chains in one-dimensional and crosslinked polymers.[3] Compared to other two-dimensional materials such as graphene or transition metal dichalcogenides, 2DCPs offer a high degree of flexibility in chemical design and are compatible with liquid-based processing methods. Various 2DCPs have been synthesised by surfactant monolayer-assisted interfacial synthesis (SMAIS).[5]
Of particular interest is the photoresponse of these materials due to their tunable properties, such as bandgap and associated wavelength-dependent photoexcitation, which enables a wide range of applications in optoelectronic devices. Using time-of-flight photoconductivity (TOF-PC) measurements [4], we investigate the charge transport properties of 2D polyacetylene prepared by SMAIS method. We preform TOF-PC measurement of 2D polyacetylene using a focused nanosecond pulse laser at 325 nm and electrode separation of 250 µm. From the bias polarity and time duration of the photocurrent, we can determine the polarity, velocity and mobility of photoexcited charge carriers as a function of applied bias voltage and excitation wavelength. Using excitation at 325 m, we observed an electron mobility in the range of 150 cm2 V-1 s-1, which is in the realm of most advances small-molecule single-crystal organic semiconductors and almost an order of magnitude higher than linear polymeric semiconductors. Ključne besede: Two-dimensional conjugated polymers, 2DCPs, 2Dpolymers, charge mobility, time-of-flight photoconductivity Objavljeno v RUNG: 29.11.2022; Ogledov: 2025; Prenosov: 0 Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
4. Enhancement of indacenodithiophene–benzothiadiazole copolymer field-effect mobility with MXenesJurij Urbančič, Nadiia Pastukhova, Manisha Chhikara, Hu Chen, Iain Mcculloch, Huanhuan Shi, Ali Shaygan Nia, Xinliang Feng, Egon Pavlica, Gvido Bratina, 2022, objavljeni povzetek znanstvenega prispevka na konferenci Opis: The predominant mode of charge carrier transport in thin layers of organic semiconductors (OSs) is thermally-activated hopping between localized states. This results in lower charge mobility compared to inorganic semiconductors precluding the use of OSs in high-speed electronic devices. Therefore, significant effort is invested to improve charge carrier mobility of OS thin layers, which form the basis of most of the organic electronic devices. Recent advances in the field of two-dimensional (2D) materials stimulated their use as addition to OS thin layers to boost the charge carrier mobility. MXenes promise to deliver most of the benefits of 2D materials coupled with large scale fabrication capability. Herein we examined Ti3C2X (X is O or OH group termination) MXene, as a candidate to improve charge carrier mobility in thin layer of indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole (IDTBT), a polymer exhibiting high electron mobility in defect-free crystalline layers. In our work we demonstrate that improvement in electron mobility in solution-cast IDTBT thin layers can be achieved by depositing a non-connected network of MXene flakes at the gate-dielectric/IDBT interface. Bottom-gate field-effect transistors (FETs) comprising of Au electrodes on n-doped silicon wafer covered with 230 nm of thermally deposited SiO2 were prepared and characterized. Charge carrier mobilities determined from transfer characteristics of FETs composing neat IDTBT channels were found to be in the range of 1 - 2×10−2 cm2/Vs. Devices comprising MXene flakes at the interface between SiO2 and IDTBT, instead exhibited a factor of four increase in electron mobility, while preserving the on/off ratio of 104. Ključne besede: MXene, IDTBT, charge carrier mobility, OFET Objavljeno v RUNG: 20.10.2022; Ogledov: 2836; Prenosov: 11 Povezava na celotno besedilo Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
5. A pyrrolopyridazinedione-based copolymer for fullerene-free organic solar cellsAstrid-Caroline Knall, Samuel Rabensteiner, Sebastian F. Hoefler, Matiss Reinfelds, Mathias Hobisch, Heike M. A. Ehmann, Nadiia Pastukhova, Egon Pavlica, Gvido Bratina, Illie Hanzu, Shuguang Wen, Renqiang Yang, Gregor Trimmel, Thomas Rath, 2021, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: The recent success of non-fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics also entails a change in the requirements to the polymer donor in terms of optical and morphological properties leading to a demand for novel conjugated polymers. Herein, we report on the synthesis of a 1,4-bis-(thiophene-2-yl)-pyrrolopyridazinedione based copolymer with 2-ethylhexyl substituents on the pyrrolopyridazinedione moiety. A 2D conjugated benzodithiophene (BDT) was chosen as comonomer. The resulting copolymer T-EHPPD-T-EHBDT showed a molecular weight of 10.2 kDa, an optical band gap of 1.79 eV, a hole mobility of 1.8 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a preferred face-on orientation with regard to the substrate. The comparably wide band gap as well as the determined energy levels (HOMO: −5.47 eV, LUMO: −3.68 eV) match well with the narrow band gap non-fullerene acceptor ITIC-F, which was used as the acceptor phase in the bulk heterojunction absorber layers in the investigated solar cells. The solar cells, prepared in inverted architecture, revealed power conversion efficiencies up to 7.4% using a donor:acceptor ratio of 1 : 1 in the absorber layer. Ključne besede: non-fullerene solar cells, charge transport, charge mobility, power conversion efficiency Objavljeno v RUNG: 27.01.2021; Ogledov: 3535; Prenosov: 0 Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
6. Elucidation of Donor:Acceptor Phase Separation in Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells and Its Implications on Device Performance and Charge Carrier MobilitySebastian F. Hoefler, Georg Haberfehlner, Thomas Rath, Andreas Keilbach, Mathias Hobisch, Alexander Dixon, Egon Pavlica, Gvido Bratina, Gerald Kothleitner, Ferdinand Hofer, Gregor Trimmel, 2019, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: In bulk-heterojunction solar cells, the device performance strongly depends on the donor and acceptor properties, the phase separation in the absorber layer, and the formation of a bicontinuous network. While this phase separation is well explored for polymer:fullerene solar cells, only little is known for polymer:nonfullerene acceptor solar cells. The main hurdle in this regard is often the chemical similarity of the conjugated polymer donor and the organic nonfullerene acceptor (NFA), which makes the analysis of the phase separation via atomic force microscopic (AFM) phase images or conventional transmission electron microscopy difficult. In this work, we use the donor polymer PTB7-Th and the small molecule acceptor O-IDTBR as the model system and visualized the phase separation in PTB7-Th:O-IDTBR bulk-heterojunctions with different donor:acceptor ratios via scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) images and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) based elemental mapping, which resulted in a good contrast between the donor and the acceptor despite very low differences in the chemical composition. AFM as well as grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) investigations support the electron microscopic data. Furthermore, we elucidate the implications of the phase separation on the device performance as well as charge carrier mobilities in the bulk-heterojunction layers, and a high performance of the solar cells was found over a relatively broad range of polymer domain sizes. This can be related to the larger domain sizes of the acceptor phase with higher amounts of O-IDTBR in the blend, while the polymer donor phase still forms continuous pathways to the electrode, which keeps the hole mobility at a relatively constant level. Ključne besede: nanomorphology bulk-heterojunction scanning transmission electron microscopy organic photovoltaics charge carrier mobility Objavljeno v RUNG: 15.01.2020; Ogledov: 3788; Prenosov: 91 Celotno besedilo (6,22 MB) |
7. PHOTO-EXCITATION ENERGY INFLUENCE ON THE PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY OF ORGANIC SEMICONDUCTORSNadiia Pastukhova, 2018, doktorska disertacija Opis: In this work, we experimentally studied the influence of photoexcitation energy
influence on the charge transport in organic semiconductors. Organic semiconductors
were small molecules like corannulene, perylene and pentacene derivatives, polymers
such as polythiophene and benzothiophene derivatives, and graphene, along with
combinations of these materials in heterojunctions or composites.
The first part of this study is focused on the photoexcitation energy influence on
the transient photoconductivity of non-crystalline curved π-conjugated corannulene
layers. The enhanced photoconductivity, in the energy range where optical absorption
is absent, is deduced from theoretical predictions of corannulene gas-phase excited
state spectra. Theoretical analysis reveals a consistent contribution involving
transitions to Super Atomic Molecular Orbitals (SAMOs), a unique set of diffuse
orbitals typical of curved π-conjugated molecules. More, the photoconductivity of the
curved corannulene was compared to the π-conjugated planar N,N′-1H,1H-
perfluorobutyldicyanoperylene-carboxydi-imide
(PDIF-CN2),
where
the
photoexcitation energy dependence of photocurrent closely follows the optical
absorption spectrum.
We next characterized charge transport in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) layers
deposited from solution. Our results indicate that time-of-flight (TOF) mobility
depends on the photoexcitation energy. It is 0.4× 10 −3 cm 2 /Vs at 2.3 eV (530 nm) and
doubles at 4.8 eV (260 nm). TOF mobility was compared to field-effect (FET) mobility
of P3HT field-effect transistors (OFETs). The FET mobility was similar to the 2.3 eV
excitation TOF mobility. In order to improve charge mobility, graphene nanoparticles
were blended within a P3HT solution before the deposition. We found that the mobility
significantly improves upon the addition of graphene nanoparticles of a weight ratio
as low as 0.2 %. FET mobility increases with graphene concentration up to a value of
2.3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs at 3.2 %. The results demonstrate that phase segregation starts to
influence charge transport at graphene concentration of 0.8 % and above. Hence, the
graphene cannot form a bridged conduction channel between electrodes, which would
cancel the semiconducting effect of the polymer composite.
An alternative approach to enhance mobility is to optimize the molecular ordering
of organic semiconductors. For that purpose, we studied an innovative nanomesh
device. Free-standing nanomesh devices were used to form nanojunctions of N,N′-
iiDioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C8) nanowires and crystalline
bis(triisopropylsilylethinyl)pentacene (TIPS-PEN). We characterized the photocurrent
response time of this novel nanomesh scaffold device. The photoresponse time
depends on the photon energy. It is between 4.5 − 5.6 ns at 500 nm excitation
wavelength and between 6.7 − 7.7 ns at 700 nm excitation wavelength. In addition, we
found that thermal annealing reduces charge carrier trapping in crystalline nanowires.
This confirms that the structural defects are crucial to obtaining high photon-to-charge
conversion efficiency and subsequent transport from pn junction in heterostructured
materials.
Structural defects also influence the power conversion efficiency of organic
heterostructured photovoltaics (OPVs). Anticipating that polymers with different
backbone lengths produce different level of structural defects, we examined charge
transport
dependence
on
the
molecular
weight
of
poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-
ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-
ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl]
(PTB7-Th)
from 50 kDa to 300 kDa. We found p-type hopping transport in PTB7-Th,
characterized by 0.1 – 3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs mobility, which increases with temperature and
electric field. The polymer molecular weight exhibits a non-trivial influence on charge
transport. FET mobility in the saturation regime increases with molecular weight. A
similar trend is observed in TOF mobility and FET mobility in the linear regime,
except for the 100kDa polymer, which manifests in the highest mobility due to reduced
charge trapping. The lowest trapping at the dielectric interface of OFET is observed at
200 kDa. In addition, the 200 kDa polymer exhibits the lowest activation energy of the
charge transport. Although the 100 kDa polymer indicates the highest mobility, OPVs
using the 200 kDa polymer exhibit the best performance in terms of power conversion
efficiency. Ključne besede: organic
semiconductors, optical
absorption
spectroscopy, time-of-flight
photoconductivity, transient photocurrent spectroscopy, organic thin film transistors, atomic force microscopy, superatomic molecular orbitals, pn heterojunction, organic
nanowires, graphene, composites, charge mobility, charge trapping, temperature
dependence, photodetector, photovoltaic, solar cell, organic electronics Objavljeno v RUNG: 08.10.2018; Ogledov: 6751; Prenosov: 170 Celotno besedilo (4,56 MB) |
8. The role of local potential minima on charge transport in thin organic semiconductor layersEgon Pavlica, Raveendra Babu Penumala, Gvido Bratina, 2016, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: We have performed a systematic study of dependence of time-resolved photocurrent on the point of charge excitation within the organic semiconductor channel formed by two coplanar metal electrodes. The results confirm that spatial variation of electric field between the electrodes crucially determines transport of photogenerated charge carriers through the organic layer. Time-of-flight measurements of photocurrent demonstrate that the transit time of photogenerated charge carrier packets drifting between the two electrodes decreases with increasing travelling distance. Such counterintuitive result cannot be reconciled with the spatial distribution of electric field between coplanar electrodes, alone. It is also in contrast to expected role of space-charge screening of external electric field. Supported by Monte Carlo simulations of hopping transport in disordered organic semiconductor layer, we submit that the space-charge screens the external electric field and captures slower charge carriers from the photogenerated charge carrier packet. The remaining faster carriers, exhibit velocity distribution with significantly higher mean value and shorter transit time. Ključne besede: Charge transport, Organic semiconductors, Time of flight, Mobility, Traps Objavljeno v RUNG: 23.12.2016; Ogledov: 6276; Prenosov: 0 Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |