An alkoxy‐substituted poly(phenylene thiophene) is used in order to suspend single‐walled carbon nanotubes in an organic solvent. The suspension is spread on the air–water interface of a Langmuir trough and the floating film is characterized by means of Brewster angle microscopy and UV‐visible reflection spectroscopy and the compression isotherm is recorded. The polymer/carbon‐nanotube blend is transferred onto different substrates using the Langmuir–Blodgett technique. AFM measurements indicate the formation of globular structures for the samples transferred at low surface‐pressure values and a tubular morphology for high‐pressure‐deposited samples. AFM analysis is repeated on a sample exposed to soft X‐rays for about 5 h and a highly organized structure of bundles of carbon nanotubes rises up. Samples with different numbers of layers are transferred onto ITO substrates by means of the Langmuir–Blodgett method and are tested as photocathodes in a photo‐electrochemical cell. A Voc of 0.18 V, an Isc of 85.8 mA, FF of 40.0%, and η of (6.23 × 10−3)% are obtained.
The impact of Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET) in CdTe quantum dot (QD) based photoelectrochemical cells is investigated. By deposition of different CdTe QD sizes onto indium on oxide electrodes, FRET across the photoactive film could be obtained, resulting in a 25% enhancement of the photon‐to‐current efficiency when compared to reference systems that lack FRET.
Inorganic meets organic: Covalent bonds (peptide condensation) and noncovalent interactions (π–π stacking) have been employed en route toward versatile donor–acceptor inorganic–organic nanohybrids, QD‐pyrene/SWNT. A charge‐transfer event within the hybrid transforms the excitonic state of the quantum dot into a charge‐transfer state that has a lifetime of several nanoseconds.
We have investigated the role of linker molecules in quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) using density-functional theory (DFT) and experiments. Linkers not only govern the number of attached QDs but also influence charge separation, recombination, and transport. Understanding their behavior is therefore not straightforward. DFT calculations show that mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and cysteine (Cys) exhibit characteristic binding configurations on TiO(2) surfaces. This information is used to optimize the cell assembly process, yielding Cys-based cells that significantly outperform MPA cells, and reach power conversion efficiencies (PCE) as high as 2.7% under AM 1.5 illumination. Importantly, the structural information from theory also helps understand the cause for this improved performance.
We present a series of non-stoichiometric cadmium sulfide quantum-dot (QD) models. Using density functional theory (DFT) and semi-empirical molecular orbital (MO) calculations, we explore the ligand binding and exchange chemistry of these models. Their surface morphology allows for these processes to be rationalized on the atomic scale. This is corroborated by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), infrared (IR), and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES).
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