The morphology of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells controls many of the performance characteristics of devices. However, measuring this morphology is challenging because of the small length-scales and low contrast between organic materials. Here we use nanoscale photocurrent mapping, ultrafast fluorescence and exciton diffusion to observe the detailed morphology of a high-performance blend of PTB7:PC71BM. We show that optimized blends consist of elongated fullerene-rich and polymer-rich fibre-like domains, which are 10–50 nm wide and 200–400 nm long. These elongated domains provide a concentration gradient for directional charge diffusion that helps in the extraction of charge pairs with 80% efficiency. In contrast, blends with agglomerated fullerene domains show a much lower efficiency of charge extraction of ~45%, which is attributed to poor electron and hole transport. Our results show that the formation of narrow and elongated domains is desirable for efficient bulk heterojunction solar cells.

The latex technology concept is applied for the preparation of graphene/polystyrene nanocomposites. Aqueous dispersions of graphene are obtained via oxidation and exfoliation of graphite and subsequent reduction in the presence of surfactant. The quality of the prepared nanofillers is characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Different amounts of aqueous graphene dispersions are then mixed with polystyrene (PS) latex and composites are prepared by freeze-drying and subsequent compression molding. The final bulk and local conductivities of the composites are respectively measured by a fourpoint method and by means of conductive AFM (C-AFM) analysis. The morphology of the conductive nanocomposites is studied with charge contrast scanning electron microscopy imaging (SEM). The percolation threshold for conduction is below 1 wt% of graphene in the composites, and a maximum conductivity of about 15 S m À1 can be achieved for 1.6-2 wt% nanofiller.

The conductivity behavior of MWCNT networks within the volume of polymer nanocomposite samples is analyzed with nanometer resolution in all three dimensions. It is demonstrated that close to but above the percolation threshold for electrical conduction most of the MWCNTs do not contribute to the conductive network within the nanocomposite.

The detailed structure of PTB7:PC71BM blends deposited with and without addition of diiodooctane studied by transmission electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy.

We consider a nonlinear mechanism of localized light inelastic scattering within nanopatterned plasmonic and Raman-active titanium nitride (TiN) thin films exposed to continuous-wave (cw) modest-power laser light. Owing to the strong third-order nonlinear interaction between optically excited broadband surface plasmons and localized Stokes and anti-Stokes waves, both stimulated and inverse Raman effects can be observed. We provide experimental evidence for coherent amplification of the localized Raman signals using a planar square-shaped refractory antenna.

The effect of the dispersed state of graphene is studied as a factor influencing the electrical percolation threshold of graphene/polystyrene nanocomposites. We find the percolation threshold of our nanocomposites, prepared with graphene dispersions with different thermodynamic stabilities, degrees of exfoliation, and size polydispersities, to range from 2 to 4.5 wt %. Connectedness percolation theory is applied to calculate percolation thresholds of the corresponding nanocomposites, based on the premise that size polydispersity of graphene platelets in the corresponding solutions must have a strong influence on it. Theory and experimental results agree qualitatively.

The local electrical properties of a conductive graphene/polystyrene (PS) composite sample are studied by scanning probe microscopy (SPM) applying various methods for electrical properties investigation. We show that the conductive graphene network can be separated from electrically isolated graphene sheets (GS) by analyzing the same area with electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) and conductive atomic force microscopy (C‐AFM). EFM is able to detect the graphene sheets below the sample surface with the maximal depth of graphene detection up to ≈100 nm for a tip‐sample potential difference of 3 V. To evaluate depth sensing capability of EFM, the novel technique based on a combination of SPM and microtomy is utilized. Such a technique provides 3D data of the GS distribution in the polymer matrix with z‐resolution on the order of ≈10 nm. Finally, we introduce a new method for data correction for more precise 3D reconstruction, which takes into account the height variations.

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