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Large area processing of organic photovoltaic cells and modules is a key step towards commercialization. At the same time, the scale-up of fabrication entails careful evaluation and selection of solvents, and optimization of processing parameters. It has been proven that using proper processing additives in polymer:PCBM bulk-heterojunction solution is one of the most effective strategies to improve the performance of organic photovoltaic cells. Here we report a new transition solvent strategy of using non-halogenated solvents to fabricate PDTSTPD: PC71BM based active layers. This strategy uses a combination of miscible good main solvent such as 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and coadditives such as diphenyl ether (DPE) and 1-methylnaphtalene (MeN) for middle molecular weight PDTSTPD, or 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) and MeN for high molecular weight PDTSTPD to tune the nano-scale morphology of the active layer during the film drying process. Inverted organic photovoltaic cells with an active area of 1cm2 on PET substrate fabricated by a blade coating process using the formulated ink have demonstrated a power conversion efficiency up to 5 %.

The synthesis of 4,4ʹ-difluoro-2,2ʹ-bithiophene is reported and an alternating donor-acceptor copolymer of this moiety and diketopyrrolopyrrole has been prepared. This polymer has a lower highest occupied molecular orbital than its non-fluorinated analogue polymer. Organic thin film transistors based on this polymer showed p-type charge transport behavior and a hole mobility of 0.21 cm2 V−1 s−1 in bottom-gate bottom-contact devices. Organic solar cells using this polymer as donor and [6,6]-Phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester as acceptor achieved a power conversion efficiency of 3.4% with a high fill factor of 69%. Our morphology analysis showed that there was a lack of long-range ordered structure in the neat polymer thin film, which could cause the inferior device performance.

In this paper, a compact testing system is developed to read/write a printed flexible FE (Ferroelectric) memory arrays and evaluate individual FE capacitors. Novel technologies, to the best of our knowledge, for random cell accessing, reading/writing,and analyzing are achieved. This compact system (both hardware and software) is controlled by LabVIEW program installed in a Laptop,and is essentially multi-functional and programmable. This system is designed for writing/reading FE memory cells, individually or in batch, as well as analyzing and displaying FE memory., 2018 7th Electronic System-Integration Technology Conference (ESTC), September 18-21, 2018, Dresden, Germany

In this work, a combined approach was used to obtain a low-cost material for organic electronics by focusing on inexpensive monomers, short synthetic pathway, high-yielding polymerization method, low waste, and easy scalability. To achieve this, a new material, poly[isoindigo-alt-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene], was synthesized using direct (hetero)arylation polymerization (DHAP). Only a few synthetic steps are required to obtain this material, and no organometallic intermediates are used. In order to make a bigger step toward a truly inexpensive technology, continuous flow methods were applied for the first time to DHAP. This method helped solving a common problem encountered in conjugated polymers synthesis, namely, batch-to-batch variations. Electronic properties of this polymeric material were evaluated using field effect transistors (μh = 7 × 10-3 cm2·V-1·s-1) and solar cells (η = 3.0%).

In this work, two high boiling-point solvents (1-chloronaphthalene (CN) and 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO)) were utilized as co-additives in ortho-dichlorobenzene (ODCB) and chlorobenzene (CB) solutions to fine tune the donor and acceptor domains in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) of poly(benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-alt-thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione) (PBDTTPD) and fullerene derivatives. A power conversion efficiency of 7.1% and a fill factor up to 70% were obtained for solar cells with active area of 1 cm2 when using [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) as acceptor, suggesting that an optimized morphology was achieved.

We report the synthesis of new push-pull conjugated polymers for bulk heterojunction solar cells based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (push) and thieno[3,4-d]thiazole (TTz) (pull) derivatives. Stille polycondensation between distannyl-BDT derivatives with 4,6-dibromo-2-octylthieno[3,4-d]thiazole led to two alternating copolymers, namely PBDTTTz-1 and PBDTTTz-2, which have a bandgap of 1.8 and 1.7 eV, respectively. Both copolymers are stable in air with HOMO energy level of -5.3 eV for PBDTTTz-1 and -5.4 eV for PBDTTTz-2. Both copolymers have been tested in bulk heterojunction solar cells, and preliminary results (without any optimization process) show promising power conversion efficiency of 1.4% for PBDTTTz-1 and 1.7% for PBDTTTz-2. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

To obtain high performance bulk heterojunction organic solar cells, the selection of solvents to prepare the donor/acceptor blend is as important as the choice of the donor/acceptor materials themselves. State-of-the-art lab-scale polymer solar cells have evolved around chlorinated solvents such as chloroform, chlorobenzene and o-dichlorobenzene. However, for large scale applications, benign processing solvents may become inevitable. In this work, we used a mixture of Xylenes (a chlorine-free solvent), methyl naphthalene (MeN) and 1,8-diiodoctane (DIO) to modulate the nano-scale morphology of poly(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole-alt-1, 3-(5-octylthieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione) (PDTSTPD)/PCBM blend, one of the most efficient active layer in polymeric solar cell. Power conversion efficiencies up to 5.5% (with PC61BM) and 6.2% (with PC71BM) were obtained for photovoltaic devices with an active area of 1.0 cm2. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new low-band-gap thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione-based copolymer, PBDTTPD, has been designed and synthesized. PBDTTPD is soluble in chloroform or o-dichlorobenzene upon heating and shows a broad absorption in the visible region. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels were estimated to be at -5.56 and -3.75 eV, respectively. These electrochemical measurements fit well with an optical bandgap of 1.8 eV. When blended with PC(71)BM, this polymer demonstrated a power conversion efficiency of 5.5% in a bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic device having an active area of 1.0 cm(2).

A series of new dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]germole copolymers have been synthesized and characterized. The dithienogermole unit has been polymerized with different aromatic comonomers such as the benzothiadiazole (PGe1-C8 and PGe1-EH) and thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (PGe2). Suzuki and Stille coupling polymerizations under various conditions have been utilized. The polymers were then characterized by size-exclusion chromatography and thermal analyses (TGA, DSC), and their optical and electronic properties were investigated by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. These low bandgap polymers (1.3-1.7 eV) have also been tested for photovoltaic applications; the best result was achieved with polymer PGe2, which shows a power conversion efficiency of 4.1%. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Direct C-H bond arylation reactions between heteroarenes and aryl halides provide an atom-economical and "green" alternative to standard cross-coupling reactions (Stille, Suzuki, etc.). Unfortunately, this reaction is not selective and more than one type of C-H bond may react, which, during polymerization reactions, can lead to cross-linked materials. This paper reports the preparation of PDTSiTPD and PDTGeTPD, which have exhibited high efficiencies in organic solar cells, using direct (hetero)arylation polymerization methodologies. In order to circumvent side reactions leading to cross-linked polymers, a number of new dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole (DTSi) monomers were prepared where the β-positions were blocked with alkyl chains and the alkyl groups on the heteroatom were modified. Co-polymers were synthesized with N-alkylthieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) and the oxygen congener, N-alkylfuro[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (FPD). However, the resulting polymers were not planar, and conjugation of the backbone was disrupted. An efficiency of 1.7% was achieved in bulk heterojunction solar cells (BHJ-SCs). © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.