Xiangjian Wan

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Name: 万相见; XiangXian Wan
Organization: Nankai University , China
Department: Institute of Polymer Chemistry
Title: Associate Professor(PhD)

TOPICS

Co-reporter:Rongrong Cheacharoen, William R. Mateker, Qian Zhang, Bin Kan, Dylan Sarkisian, Xiaofeng Liu, John A. Love, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen, Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, Guillermo C. Bazan, Michael D. McGehee
Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 2017 Volume 161() pp:368-376
Publication Date(Web):March 2017
DOI:10.1016/j.solmat.2016.12.021
•Both heat and light contribute to 31–66% initial burn-in degradation.•First reported TS80 lifetime (3450–5600 h) of high PCE SM BHJ solar cells.•Post burn-in lifetime of SM BHJ is governed by thermal degradation.•Higher crystallinity active layer solar cells have less photo burn-in.•Larger molecule weight donor contributes to higher thermal stability.Solution-processed small molecule-fullerene bulk heterojunction (SM BHJ) solar cells now have power conversion efficiency (PCE) greater than 10%. However, degradation of SM BHJ solar cells has not been well studied. This work reports the first stability study of six high performance molecules including the record SM BHJ solar cells under device operating conditions. Solar cells with a range of donor molecular weight from 1200 to 2300 Da giving 6–10% PCE are monitored in nitrogen gas under 1 sun illumination with maximum power point tracking as well as at 25 °C and 70 °C in the dark. Both heat and light contribute to initial exponential decay or burn-in with total reduction in efficiency from 31% to 66%. Larger molecules are found to be resistant to heat induced burn-in, while more crystalline active layers are more resistant to light induced burn-in. After burn-in, the linear degradation is observed to be governed by thermal processes. Stabilized TS80 lifetimes of the SM BHJ solar cells range from 3450 h to 5600 h. Molecular design towards higher stability should aim at increasing thermal stability while maintaining crystallinity for photostability.
Co-reporter:Huan-Huan Gao 高欢欢;Yanna Sun 孙延娜 万相见;Bin Kan 阚斌
Science China Materials 2017 Volume 60( Issue 9) pp:819-828
Publication Date(Web):29 August 2017
DOI:10.1007/s40843-017-9084-x
Three low bandgap non-fullerene acceptors based on thieno[3,2-b]thiophene fused core with different ending groups, named TTIC-M, TTIC, TTIC-F were designed and synthesized. Using a wide bandgap polymer PBDB-T as donor to form a complementary absorption in the range of 300–900 nm, high efficencies of 9.97%, 10.87% and 9.51% were achieved for TTIC-M, TTIC and TTFC-F based photovoltaic devices with impressively high short circuit current over 21 mA cm−2.本文设计合成了基于噻吩[3,2b]噻吩稠环受体具有不同末端基团的三个窄带系非富勒烯受体TTIC-M, TTIC和TTIC-F. 采用宽带隙聚合物PBDB-T为给体在300–900 nm光谱范围内形成了互补光吸收, 基于TTIC-M, TTIC和TTIC-F的光伏器件分别获得了高达9.97%,10.87%和9.51%的效率和高达21 mA cm−2的短路电流密度.
Co-reporter:Qian Zhang;Feng Liu;Bin Kan;Miaomiao Li;Huanran Feng;Hongtao Zhang;Thomas P. Russell;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Materials 2016 Volume 28( Issue 32) pp:7008-7012
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/adma.201601435
Co-reporter:Wang Ni, Miaomiao Li, Bin Kan, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Qian Zhang, Hongtao Zhang, Thomas P. Russell and Yongsheng Chen  
Chemical Communications 2016 vol. 52(Issue 3) pp:465-468
Publication Date(Web):29 Oct 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5CC07973J
A new small molecule named DTBTF with thiobarbituric acid as a terminal group was designed and synthesized as an acceptor for organic photovoltaic applications. DTBTF exhibits strong absorption in the visible region, and a relatively high lying LUMO energy level (−3.62 eV). All-small-molecule organic solar cells based on DR3TSBDT:DTBTF blend films show a considerable PCE of 3.84% with a high Voc of 1.15 V.
Co-reporter:Huijing Zhang, Nailiang Qiu, Wang Ni, Bin Kan, Miaomiao Li, Qian Zhang, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Dyes and Pigments 2016 Volume 126() pp:173-178
Publication Date(Web):March 2016
DOI:10.1016/j.dyepig.2015.11.024
•Two new small molecules with DPP as core unit were reported.•The two molecules gave optical bangap as low as 1.40 eV.•The two molecules exhibited wide absorption ranging from 300 to 900 nm.Two small molecules DOR2TDPP and DCAO2TDPP with a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) unit as the central building block have been designed and synthesized for solution-processed bulk-heterojuntion (BHJ) solar cells. The two molecules in films exhibited broad absorption ranging from 300 to 900 nm with optical bandgaps of around 1.40 eV. The BHJ solar cell devices based on the DOR2TDPP and DCAO2TDPP as donors and PC71BM as acceptors gave a PCE of 2.05% and 1.09%, respectively, under the illumination of AM.1.5G, 100 mW cm−2. The influence of blend ratio of donor/acceptor and amount of additive on the performance of the solar cell were studied systematically.
Co-reporter:Yunchuang Wang, Qian Zhang, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Kan, Huanran Feng, Xuan Yang, Thomas P. Russell, Yongsheng Chen
Organic Electronics 2016 Volume 28() pp:263-268
Publication Date(Web):January 2016
DOI:10.1016/j.orgel.2015.10.006
•Two new small molecules using alkylthiol flexible side chain to function BDTT based thiophene-conjugated were constructed.•High performance with PCEs of over 8% for these two molecules based devices were obtained.•DRSBDTT-BO based devices have better reproducibility than that of DRSBDTT-EH due to its good solubility in chloroform.Two new small molecules, namely DRSBDTT-EH and DRSBDTT-BO, with alkylthio thienyl substituted benzodithiophene as the central unit and 3-ethylrhodanine as end groups, were designed and studied as the donors for solution processed organic solar cells. The optimized device based on DRSBDTT-EH bearing shorter alkylthio chain gave a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.78%, which is slightly higher than that of device (8.53%) based on DRSBDTT-BO with longer alkylthio chain.
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li;Feng Liu;Wang Ni;Bin Kan;Huanran Feng;Qian Zhang;Xuan Yang;Yunchuang Wang;Yamin Zhang;Yan Shen;Thomas P. Russell;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Materials 2015 Volume 27( Issue 40) pp:6296-6302
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/adma.201502645
Co-reporter:Wang Ni, Miaomiao Li, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Huanran Feng, Bin Kan, Qian Zhang, Hongtao Zhang, and Yongsheng Chen
Chemistry of Materials 2015 Volume 27(Issue 17) pp:6077
Publication Date(Web):August 21, 2015
DOI:10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b02616
Two new acceptor–donor–acceptor (A-D-A) small molecules with 2,6-(4,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b′]-dithiophene (DTC) and (4,4′-bis(2-ethylhexyl) dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole)–2,6-diyl (DTS) as the central building block unit and 3-ethyl-rhodanine as the end-capping groups have been designed and synthesized. The influence of the bridging atoms on the optical, electrochemical properties, packing properties, morphology, and device performance of these two molecules was systematically investigated. Although with only the difference of one atom on the central core units, the two molecules showed great different properties such as film absorption, molecular packing, and charge transport properties. The optimized device based on molecule DR3TDTS exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of >8%.
Co-reporter:Bin Kan, Qian Zhang, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Yunchuang Wang, Wang Ni, Xuan Yang, Mingtao Zhang, Hongtao Zhang, Thomas P. Russell, and Yongsheng Chen
Chemistry of Materials 2015 Volume 27(Issue 24) pp:8414
Publication Date(Web):November 19, 2015
DOI:10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03889
Two acceptor–donor–acceptor small molecules based on thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene, DRBDT-TT with alkyl side chain and DRBDT-STT with alkylthio side chain, were designed and synthesized. Both molecules exhibit good thermal stability, suitable energy levels, and ordered molecular packing. Replacing the alkyl chain with alkylthio increases the dihedral angle between the thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (TT) and benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) unit, and thus slightly decreases its intermolecular interactions leading to its blue-shift absorption in the solid state. The best devices based on DRBDT-TT and DRBDT-STT both exhibited power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) over 8% with high fill factors (FFs) over 0.70 under AM 1.5G irradiation (100 mW cm–2), which are attributed to their optimized morphologies with feature size of 20–30 nm and well-balanced charge transport properties. The devices based on DRBDT-STT exhibited relatively lower short-circuit current density (Jsc) and thus slightly lower PCE as compared to the devices of DRBDT-TT, mainly due to its relatively poorer absorption. These results demonstrate that thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene derivatives could be promising donor materials for obtaining high efficiencies and fill factors.
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Xiangjian Wan, Qian Zhang, Bin Kan and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 vol. 3(Issue 9) pp:4765-4776
Publication Date(Web):08 Jan 2015
DOI:10.1039/C4TA06452F
Solution processed small molecule based solar cells have become a competitive alternative to their polymer counterparts due to the advantages of their defined structure and thus less batch to batch variation. With a large and rigid planar conjugated structure, the benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) unit has become one of the most widely used and studied building blocks for high performance small molecule based photovoltaic devices. In this review article, we review the progress made in the field of small molecules containing BDT units for solution-processed organic photovoltaic cells. Insights into several important aspects regarding the design and synthesis of BDT based small molecules are also included.
Co-reporter:Huanran Feng, Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Kan, Yunchuang Wang, Yamin Zhang, Qian Zhang, Yi Zuo, Xuan Yang and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 vol. 3(Issue 32) pp:16679-16687
Publication Date(Web):07 Jul 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5TA01735A
The structure and performance relationship in photovoltaic cells is still not fully understood, particularly in the case of controlling/optimizing the fill factor (FF). Here a pair of molecules DR2TDTCz and DR3TCz with similar backbone structures and varying conjugated central units were designed and synthesized, and their photovoltaic performance was studied and compared. The molecule DR2TDTCz, containing dithieno[3,2-b;6,7-b]carbazole (DTCz) as the central building block, with a carbazole ring in the center and two fused thiophene rings at the two sides of carbazole, exhibits improved solar light absorption and slightly narrow band gap, compared with the analogue system DR3TCz which has carbazole and two un-fused thiophene rings in the central building block. More importantly, it is found that introducing DTCz with thiophene fused 2,7-carbazole to replace 2,7-carbazole achieves a better molecular packing and favorable orientation, thus benefiting charge transport. As a result, the DR2TDTCz based device exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 7.03% with an impressively high FF of 75%, while the DR3TCz based device shows a PCE of 4.08% with a much lower FF of 54%. The results indicate that the FF can be tuned directly by the molecular structures and enlarged conjugation central core units could be beneficial to achieve high FF for the devices based on the acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) type small molecules.
Co-reporter:Haijun Zhang, Qian Zhang, Miaomiao Li, Bin Kan, Wang Ni, Yunchuang Wang, Xuan Yang, Chenxia Du, Xiangjian Wan and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 vol. 3(Issue 48) pp:12403-12409
Publication Date(Web):12 Nov 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5TC02957K
Easily prepared and stable solution-processed carbon dots (CDs) have been used and systematically investigated as the electron transport layers (ETLs) for both small-molecule and polymer-based solar cells. Significantly enhanced device performance and lifetime are observed. The enhanced performance is mainly driven by the improvements of the short circuit current (Jsc) and the fill factor (FF), caused by decreasing the work function of Al electrodes and series resistance, increasing shunt resistances, and balancing electrons and hole mobility. Therefore, the devices with CDs as the ETLs have higher charge transport and collection efficiency. In addition, lifetimes of the devices with CDs as the ETLs are also significantly improved, due to the much better air-stability of CD materials compared to LiF as the ETLs. And another reason is that it can efficiently prevent the formation of an unstable cathode contact for the diffusion of Al ions at the interface. These results indicate that CDs, relatively cheap and stable materials, have great potential to be promising ETL materials for industrial-scale manufacture of organic solar cells.
Co-reporter:Qian Zhang, Yunchuang Wang, Bin Kan, Xiangjian Wan, Feng Liu, Wang Ni, Huanran Feng, Thomas P. Russell and Yongsheng Chen  
Chemical Communications 2015 vol. 51(Issue 83) pp:15268-15271
Publication Date(Web):19 Aug 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5CC06009E
A solution processed acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) small molecule with thieno[3,2-b]thiophene as the central building block and 2-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-rhodanine as the terminal unit, DRCN8TT, was designed and synthesized. The optimized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.11% was achieved, which is much higher than that of its analogue molecule DRCN8T. The improved performance was ascribed to the morphology which consisted of small, highly crystalline domains that were nearly commensurate with the exiton diffusion length.
Co-reporter:Yi Zuo, Xiangjian Wan, Guankui Long, Bin Kan, Wang Ni, Hongtao Zhang and Yongsheng Chen  
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2015 vol. 17(Issue 29) pp:19261-19267
Publication Date(Web):23 Jun 2015
DOI:10.1039/C5CP02783G
In order to understand the photovoltaic performance differences between the recently reported DR3TBTT-HD and DR3TBDT2T based solar cells, a modified two-diode model with Hecht equation was built to simulate the corresponding current–voltage characteristics. The simulation results reveal that the poor device performance of the DR3TBDTT-HD based device mainly originated from its insufficient charge transport ability, where an average current of 5.79 mA cm−2 was lost through this pathway at the maximum power point for the DR3TBDTT-HD device, nearly three times as large as that of the DR3TBDT2T based device under the same device fabrication conditions. The morphology studies support these simulation results, in which both Raman and 2D-GIXD data reveal that DR3TBTT-HD based blend films exhibit lower crystallinity. Spin coating at low temperature was used to increase the crystallinity of DR3TBDTT-HD based blend films, and the average current loss through insufficient charge transport at maximum power point was suppressed to 2.08 mA cm−2. As a result, the average experimental power conversion efficiency of DR3TBDTT-HD based solar cells increased by over 40%.
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li;Wang Ni;Huanran Feng;Bin Kan;Yamin Zhang;Xuan Yang ;Yongsheng Chen
Chinese Journal of Chemistry 2015 Volume 33( Issue 8) pp:852-858
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/cjoc.201500170

Abstract

A low band gap acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) small molecule donor material, named DR3TDTN, has been designed and synthesized for solution-processed organic solar cells. DR3TDTN shows narrow optical band gap with value of 1.49 eV and broad absorption spectrum from 300 to 820 nm. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels of DR3TDTN are −4.74 and −3.26 eV, respectively. The optimized photovoltaic device based on DR3TDTN:PCB71BBM blend film shows a power conversion efficiency of 3.03% with an open-circuit voltage of 0.67 V, a short-circuit current of 8.22 mA·cmP−2 and fill factor of 0.55.

Co-reporter:Wang Ni, Miaomiao Li, Xiangjian Wan, Huanran Feng, Bin Kan, Yi Zuo and Yongsheng Chen  
RSC Advances 2014 vol. 4(Issue 60) pp:31977-31980
Publication Date(Web):09 Jul 2014
DOI:10.1039/C4RA04862H
A small molecule (DR3TDOBDT) containing 4,8-dioctyl benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene as the central block and 3-(2-ethylhexyl)-rhodanine as the end-capping groups has been designed and synthesized. A power conversion efficiency of 8.26% was achieved through the active layer morphology optimization process combining thermal annealing and solvent vapor annealing.
Co-reporter:Wang Ni, Miaomiao Li, Bin Kan, Yi Zuo, Qian Zhang, Guankui Long, Huanran Feng, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Chen
Organic Electronics 2014 Volume 15(Issue 10) pp:2285-2294
Publication Date(Web):October 2014
DOI:10.1016/j.orgel.2014.06.012
•Two new small molecules DCAO3TF and DCAO3TCz were designed and synthesized.•Both molecules show deep HOMO levels and exhibit a high open-circuit voltage up to 1.07 V.•Power conversion efficiency of the OSCs based on DCAO3TCz as donor reached 3.63%.With the goal of increasing the open-circuit voltage, two new solution-processable A–D–A structure small molecule donor materials, named DCAO3TF and DCAO3TCz, using two weak electron-donating units, fluorene and carbazole as the central block have been designed and synthesized for photovoltaic applications. While bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices based on DCAO3TF:PC61BM and DCAO3TCz:PC61BM as the active layers exhibit moderate power conversion efficiencies of 2.38% and 3.63%, respectively, devices based on DCAO3TF:PC61BM do exhibit an impressively high open-circuit voltage (Voc) up to 1.07 V, which is one of the highest Voc in organic solar cells based on donor:PCBM blend films.Graphical abstract
Co-reporter:Guankui Long;Dr. Xiangjian Wan;Bin Kan;Zhicheng Hu;Xuan Yang;Yi Zhang;Dr. Mingtao Zhang; Hongbing Wu; Fei Huang; Shijian Su; Yong Cao; Yongsheng Chen
ChemSusChem 2014 Volume 7( Issue 8) pp:2358-2364
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/cssc.201402171

Abstract

Although the performance of polymer solar cells has been improved significantly recently through careful optimization with different interlayers for the same materials, more improvement is needed in this respect for small-molecule-based solar cells, particularly for the electron-transport layers (ETLs). In this work, three different solution-processed ETLs, PFN, ZnO nanoparticles, and LiF, were investigated and compared in the performance of small-molecule-based devices, and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 8.32, 7.30, and 7.38 % were achieved, respectively. The mechanism for the ETL-induced enhancement has been studied, and different ETLs have a significantly different impact on the device performance. The clearly improved performance of PFN is attributed to the combination of reduced bimolecular recombination and increased effective photon absorption in the active layer.

Co-reporter:Guankui Long;Bin Kan;Yongsheng Liu;Guangrui He;Zhi Li;Yawei Zhang;Yi Zhang;Qian Zhang;Mingtao Zhang;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Energy Materials 2013 Volume 3( Issue 5) pp:639-646
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/aenm.201300046

Abstract

Three quinquethiophene derivatives with different end groups of octyl 2-cyanoacetate (DCAO5T), 3-ethylrhodanine (DERHD5T) and 2H-indene-1,3-dione (DIN5T) are synthesized in order to obtain higher open circuit voltage (Voc) than their septithiophene analogs. The photovoltaic performance of these three molecules as donors and fullerene derivatives as the acceptors in bulk heterojunction solar cells are studied by using the simple solution spin-coating fabrication process. Among them, DERHD5T shows Voc as high as 1.08 volt and power conversion efficiency of 4.63% under AM 1.5G irradiation (100 mW cm−2). The reasons for the high Voc were investigated by the theoretical simulations and consistent results have been obtained in comparison with experimental measurements.

Co-reporter:Guangrui He, Zhi Li, Xiangjian Wan, Jiaoyan Zhou, Guankui Long, Shuzhong Zhang, Mingtao Zhang and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2013 vol. 1(Issue 5) pp:1801-1809
Publication Date(Web):29 Nov 2012
DOI:10.1039/C2TA00496H
Three new oligothiophene derivatives with an acceptor–donor–acceptor structure incorporating 1,3-indanedione or the derivative of 1,3-indanedione units as the terminal acceptor groups—DIN7T, DINCN7T and DDIN7T—have been designed and synthesized for solution-processable small molecule BHJ solar cells. The impacts of these different end dye moieties on the optical absorption, solubility, electrochemical properties, morphology, mobility and solar cell performance were studied. All three compounds exhibit broad and highly efficient solar absorption with a low bandgap. The DIN7T-based BHJ solar cell device achieved a PCE of 4.93% and a high fill factor of 0.72, under illumination of AM 1.5, 100 mW cm−2.
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Bin Kan, Xiangjian Wan, Long Zhang, Qian Zhang, Guankui Long, Yi Zuo and Yongsheng Chen  
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2013 vol. 15(Issue 43) pp:18973-18978
Publication Date(Web):26 Sep 2013
DOI:10.1039/C3CP53283F
We present an investigation of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with solution-processable graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as hole transport layers (HTLs). GQDs, with uniform sizes and good conductivity, are demonstrated to be excellent HTLs in both polymer solar cells (PSCs) and small-molecule solar cells (SMSCs) with the blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC61BM) and small molecule DR3TBDT:[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (DR3TBDT:PC71M) as the active layer, respectively. The PSCs and SMSCs based on GQDs yield power conversion efficiencies of 3.51% and 6.82%, respectively, both comparable to those of solar cells with PEDOT:PSS as the HTLs. In addition, the cells with GQDs as HTLs exhibit much more reproducible performance and longer lifetime. In light of the high stability, low cost and easy processing, these results indicate that GQDs can be potentially used to replace PEDOT:PSS for producing high-performance and stable organic photovoltaic cells.
Co-reporter:Guankui Long;Peng Yun;Jiaoyan Zhou;Yongsheng Liu;Miaomiao Li;Mingtao Zhang;Yongsheng Chen
Chinese Journal of Chemistry 2013 Volume 31( Issue 11) pp:1391-1396
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/cjoc.201300579

Abstract

Different approaches to brominate dialkyl isothianaphthene-5,6-dicarboxylate were tried and single crystals of target molecule and side product were obtained. A planar copolymer with the trans-ethene has been prepared, which shows good solubility in common organic solvents and broad absorption with edge to 967 nm in film.

Co-reporter:Zhi Li;Guangrui He;Yongsheng Liu;Jiaoyan Zhou;Guankui Long;Yi Zuo;Mingtao Zhang;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Energy Materials 2012 Volume 2( Issue 1) pp:74-77
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/aenm.201100572
Co-reporter:Guangrui He, Zhi Li, Xiangjian Wan, Yongsheng Liu, Jiaoyan Zhou, Guankui Long, Mingtao Zhang and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2012 vol. 22(Issue 18) pp:9173-9180
Publication Date(Web):14 Mar 2012
DOI:10.1039/C2JM30194F
Two new oligothiophene derivatives of the acceptor–donor–acceptor type, incorporating double rhodanine or 1,3-dimethylpyrimidine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione units as the terminal acceptor groups, D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T, have been designed and synthesized for solution-processable small molecule BHJ solar cells. The impacts of these different end dye moieties on their optical, electrochemical properties, morphology, mobility and solar cell performance were studied. Both compounds exhibit broad and highly efficient solar absorption with low bandgaps of 1.70 and 1.62 eV for D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T, respectively. The D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T based BHJ solar cell devices achieved a PCE of 2.46% and 4.05%, respectively, under the illumination of AM.1.5, 100 mW cm−2.
Co-reporter:Guankui Long;Jiaoyan Zhou;Yongsheng Liu;Zhi Li;Guangrui He;Mingtao Zhang;Yanhui Hou;Yongsheng Chen
Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 2012 Volume 213( Issue 15) pp:1596-1603
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/macp.201200142

Abstract

Two novel copolymers PBDT-DEAITN and PBDT-DOAITN containing the same backbone of isothianaphthene (ITN) quinoidal and benzodithiophene (BDT) donor units are synthesized and their organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are fabricated. Although these two polymers have rather low optical bandgaps, 1.52 and 1.58 eV for PBDT-DEAITN and PBDT-DOAITN, respectively, their OPV cells exhibit rather limited power conversion efficiencies of 1.25% and 1.20% under an AM1.5G simulated solar light. The reasons for the low OPV performance are investigated by structure modeling calculation. Based on this and the screening results for the representative quinoidal polymers in the literatures, a strategy of designing high- performance planar polymers based on ITN unit is proposed.

Co-reporter:Yongsheng Liu;Fei Wang;Jiaoyan Zhou;Guankui Long;Jianguo Tian;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Materials 2011 Volume 23( Issue 45) pp:5387-5391
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/adma.201102790
Co-reporter:Yongsheng Liu;Fei Wang;Jiaoyan Zhou;Guankui Long;Jianguo Tian;Jingbi You;Yang Yang;Yongsheng Chen
Advanced Energy Materials 2011 Volume 1( Issue 5) pp:771-775
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/aenm.201100230
Co-reporter:Xiangjian Wan, Xin Lv, Guangrui He, Ao Yu, Yongsheng Chen
European Polymer Journal 2011 Volume 47(Issue 5) pp:1018-1030
Publication Date(Web):May 2011
DOI:10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2011.02.017
Three stable polyradicals with large π-conjugated planar phenalenyl (PLY) radical units as side chain were synthesized. Due to the different conjugated backbones and the interactions between main chains and side chains, these polyradicals and their corresponding precursor polymers presented diverse optical and electrical properties, which were confirmed by UV–vis, fluorescence and CV detections. Besides, they showed excellent solubility in common organic solvents and good stability in the air. Considering their special characteristics, we have fabricated photovoltaic (PV) devices using these polyradicals or polymers as donor material and PCBM as acceptor material. The significant PV performance improvement was observed using a radical-based active layer in the PV devices.Three stable polyradicals with large π-conjugated planar phenalenyl (PLY) radical units as side chain were synthesized and characterized by UV–vis, fluorescence and CV. Bulk heterojunction organic solar cell employing these polyradicals or their corresponding precursor polymers as donor material and PCBM as acceptor have been fabricated. The significant photovoltaic performance improvement was observed using a radical-based active layer in the solar cell devices.
Co-reporter:Jiaoyan Zhou;Yongsheng Liu;Fei Wang;Guankui Long;Chenxi Li ;Yongsheng Chen
Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 2011 Volume 212( Issue 11) pp:1109-1114
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/macp.201100060
Co-reporter:Yongsheng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Yin, Jiaoyan Zhou, Guankui Long, Shougen Yin and Yongsheng Chen  
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2010 vol. 20(Issue 12) pp:2464-2468
Publication Date(Web):08 Feb 2010
DOI:10.1039/B925048D
A solution processed small molecule with low band gap, dicyanovinyl-substituted oligothiophene (DCN7T), was used as the donor in bulk heterojunctions solar cells and a power conversion efficiency of 2.45% has been obtained for the device using simply spin-coating without special treatment.
Co-reporter:Huaqiang Zhang;Xiaosong Xue;Yanqin Li;Ao Yu;Yongsheng Chen
European Journal of Organic Chemistry 2010 Volume 2010( Issue 9) pp:1681-1687
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/ejoc.200901167

Abstract

Carbazole-based donor–acceptor compounds with tunable HOMO–LUMO gaps were synthesized by Suzuki and Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions. Their optical and electrochemical properties were fully characterized. The results show that materials with different emission colors ranging from blue to green to orange could be obtained. The experimental results were also supported by theoretical calculations.

Co-reporter:Fei Wang;Yongsheng Liu;Jiaoyan Zhou;Guankui Long ;Yongsheng Chen
Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics 2010 Volume 211( Issue 23) pp:2503-2509
Publication Date(Web):
DOI:10.1002/macp.201000501
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Bin Kan, Xiangjian Wan, Long Zhang, Qian Zhang, Guankui Long, Yi Zuo and Yongsheng Chen
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2013 - vol. 15(Issue 43) pp:NaN18978-18978
Publication Date(Web):2013/09/26
DOI:10.1039/C3CP53283F
We present an investigation of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with solution-processable graphene quantum dots (GQDs) as hole transport layers (HTLs). GQDs, with uniform sizes and good conductivity, are demonstrated to be excellent HTLs in both polymer solar cells (PSCs) and small-molecule solar cells (SMSCs) with the blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC61BM) and small molecule DR3TBDT:[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (DR3TBDT:PC71M) as the active layer, respectively. The PSCs and SMSCs based on GQDs yield power conversion efficiencies of 3.51% and 6.82%, respectively, both comparable to those of solar cells with PEDOT:PSS as the HTLs. In addition, the cells with GQDs as HTLs exhibit much more reproducible performance and longer lifetime. In light of the high stability, low cost and easy processing, these results indicate that GQDs can be potentially used to replace PEDOT:PSS for producing high-performance and stable organic photovoltaic cells.
Co-reporter:Yi Zuo, Xiangjian Wan, Guankui Long, Bin Kan, Wang Ni, Hongtao Zhang and Yongsheng Chen
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2015 - vol. 17(Issue 29) pp:NaN19267-19267
Publication Date(Web):2015/06/23
DOI:10.1039/C5CP02783G
In order to understand the photovoltaic performance differences between the recently reported DR3TBTT-HD and DR3TBDT2T based solar cells, a modified two-diode model with Hecht equation was built to simulate the corresponding current–voltage characteristics. The simulation results reveal that the poor device performance of the DR3TBDTT-HD based device mainly originated from its insufficient charge transport ability, where an average current of 5.79 mA cm−2 was lost through this pathway at the maximum power point for the DR3TBDTT-HD device, nearly three times as large as that of the DR3TBDT2T based device under the same device fabrication conditions. The morphology studies support these simulation results, in which both Raman and 2D-GIXD data reveal that DR3TBTT-HD based blend films exhibit lower crystallinity. Spin coating at low temperature was used to increase the crystallinity of DR3TBDTT-HD based blend films, and the average current loss through insufficient charge transport at maximum power point was suppressed to 2.08 mA cm−2. As a result, the average experimental power conversion efficiency of DR3TBDTT-HD based solar cells increased by over 40%.
Co-reporter:Guangrui He;Zhi Li;Yongsheng Liu;Jiaoyan Zhou;Guankui Long;Mingtao Zhang;Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2012 - vol. 22(Issue 18) pp:
Publication Date(Web):2012/04/10
DOI:10.1039/C2JM30194F
Two new oligothiophene derivatives of the acceptor–donor–acceptor type, incorporating double rhodanine or 1,3-dimethylpyrimidine-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-trione units as the terminal acceptor groups, D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T, have been designed and synthesized for solution-processable small molecule BHJ solar cells. The impacts of these different end dye moieties on their optical, electrochemical properties, morphology, mobility and solar cell performance were studied. Both compounds exhibit broad and highly efficient solar absorption with low bandgaps of 1.70 and 1.62 eV for D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T, respectively. The D2R(8 + 2)7T and DTDMP7T based BHJ solar cell devices achieved a PCE of 2.46% and 4.05%, respectively, under the illumination of AM.1.5, 100 mW cm−2.
Co-reporter:Guangrui He, Zhi Li, Xiangjian Wan, Jiaoyan Zhou, Guankui Long, Shuzhong Zhang, Mingtao Zhang and Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2013 - vol. 1(Issue 5) pp:NaN1809-1809
Publication Date(Web):2012/11/29
DOI:10.1039/C2TA00496H
Three new oligothiophene derivatives with an acceptor–donor–acceptor structure incorporating 1,3-indanedione or the derivative of 1,3-indanedione units as the terminal acceptor groups—DIN7T, DINCN7T and DDIN7T—have been designed and synthesized for solution-processable small molecule BHJ solar cells. The impacts of these different end dye moieties on the optical absorption, solubility, electrochemical properties, morphology, mobility and solar cell performance were studied. All three compounds exhibit broad and highly efficient solar absorption with a low bandgap. The DIN7T-based BHJ solar cell device achieved a PCE of 4.93% and a high fill factor of 0.72, under illumination of AM 1.5, 100 mW cm−2.
Co-reporter:Wang Ni, Miaomiao Li, Bin Kan, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Qian Zhang, Hongtao Zhang, Thomas P. Russell and Yongsheng Chen
Chemical Communications 2016 - vol. 52(Issue 3) pp:NaN468-468
Publication Date(Web):2015/10/29
DOI:10.1039/C5CC07973J
A new small molecule named DTBTF with thiobarbituric acid as a terminal group was designed and synthesized as an acceptor for organic photovoltaic applications. DTBTF exhibits strong absorption in the visible region, and a relatively high lying LUMO energy level (−3.62 eV). All-small-molecule organic solar cells based on DR3TSBDT:DTBTF blend films show a considerable PCE of 3.84% with a high Voc of 1.15 V.
Co-reporter:Qian Zhang, Yunchuang Wang, Bin Kan, Xiangjian Wan, Feng Liu, Wang Ni, Huanran Feng, Thomas P. Russell and Yongsheng Chen
Chemical Communications 2015 - vol. 51(Issue 83) pp:NaN15271-15271
Publication Date(Web):2015/08/19
DOI:10.1039/C5CC06009E
A solution processed acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) small molecule with thieno[3,2-b]thiophene as the central building block and 2-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-rhodanine as the terminal unit, DRCN8TT, was designed and synthesized. The optimized power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.11% was achieved, which is much higher than that of its analogue molecule DRCN8T. The improved performance was ascribed to the morphology which consisted of small, highly crystalline domains that were nearly commensurate with the exiton diffusion length.
Co-reporter:Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Xiangjian Wan, Qian Zhang, Bin Kan and Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 - vol. 3(Issue 9) pp:NaN4776-4776
Publication Date(Web):2015/01/08
DOI:10.1039/C4TA06452F
Solution processed small molecule based solar cells have become a competitive alternative to their polymer counterparts due to the advantages of their defined structure and thus less batch to batch variation. With a large and rigid planar conjugated structure, the benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) unit has become one of the most widely used and studied building blocks for high performance small molecule based photovoltaic devices. In this review article, we review the progress made in the field of small molecules containing BDT units for solution-processed organic photovoltaic cells. Insights into several important aspects regarding the design and synthesis of BDT based small molecules are also included.
Co-reporter:Huanran Feng, Miaomiao Li, Wang Ni, Feng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Kan, Yunchuang Wang, Yamin Zhang, Qian Zhang, Yi Zuo, Xuan Yang and Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 - vol. 3(Issue 32) pp:NaN16687-16687
Publication Date(Web):2015/07/07
DOI:10.1039/C5TA01735A
The structure and performance relationship in photovoltaic cells is still not fully understood, particularly in the case of controlling/optimizing the fill factor (FF). Here a pair of molecules DR2TDTCz and DR3TCz with similar backbone structures and varying conjugated central units were designed and synthesized, and their photovoltaic performance was studied and compared. The molecule DR2TDTCz, containing dithieno[3,2-b;6,7-b]carbazole (DTCz) as the central building block, with a carbazole ring in the center and two fused thiophene rings at the two sides of carbazole, exhibits improved solar light absorption and slightly narrow band gap, compared with the analogue system DR3TCz which has carbazole and two un-fused thiophene rings in the central building block. More importantly, it is found that introducing DTCz with thiophene fused 2,7-carbazole to replace 2,7-carbazole achieves a better molecular packing and favorable orientation, thus benefiting charge transport. As a result, the DR2TDTCz based device exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 7.03% with an impressively high FF of 75%, while the DR3TCz based device shows a PCE of 4.08% with a much lower FF of 54%. The results indicate that the FF can be tuned directly by the molecular structures and enlarged conjugation central core units could be beneficial to achieve high FF for the devices based on the acceptor–donor–acceptor (A–D–A) type small molecules.
Co-reporter:Haijun Zhang, Qian Zhang, Miaomiao Li, Bin Kan, Wang Ni, Yunchuang Wang, Xuan Yang, Chenxia Du, Xiangjian Wan and Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2015 - vol. 3(Issue 48) pp:NaN12409-12409
Publication Date(Web):2015/11/12
DOI:10.1039/C5TC02957K
Easily prepared and stable solution-processed carbon dots (CDs) have been used and systematically investigated as the electron transport layers (ETLs) for both small-molecule and polymer-based solar cells. Significantly enhanced device performance and lifetime are observed. The enhanced performance is mainly driven by the improvements of the short circuit current (Jsc) and the fill factor (FF), caused by decreasing the work function of Al electrodes and series resistance, increasing shunt resistances, and balancing electrons and hole mobility. Therefore, the devices with CDs as the ETLs have higher charge transport and collection efficiency. In addition, lifetimes of the devices with CDs as the ETLs are also significantly improved, due to the much better air-stability of CD materials compared to LiF as the ETLs. And another reason is that it can efficiently prevent the formation of an unstable cathode contact for the diffusion of Al ions at the interface. These results indicate that CDs, relatively cheap and stable materials, have great potential to be promising ETL materials for industrial-scale manufacture of organic solar cells.
Co-reporter:Yongsheng Liu, Xiangjian Wan, Bin Yin, Jiaoyan Zhou, Guankui Long, Shougen Yin and Yongsheng Chen
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2010 - vol. 20(Issue 12) pp:NaN2468-2468
Publication Date(Web):2010/02/08
DOI:10.1039/B925048D
A solution processed small molecule with low band gap, dicyanovinyl-substituted oligothiophene (DCN7T), was used as the donor in bulk heterojunctions solar cells and a power conversion efficiency of 2.45% has been obtained for the device using simply spin-coating without special treatment.
Benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene, 4-octyl-8-(octyloxy)-
4H-Cyclopenta[2'',1'':5,6;3'',4'':5',6']diindeno[1,2-b:1',2'-b']dithiophene, 7,12-dihydro-4,4,7,7,12,12-hexaoctyl-
3-Thiophenecarboxylic acid, 2,2'-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diylbis-, 3,3'-diethyl ester
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[(9,9-dioctyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)bis[5,2-thiophenediyl-(Z)-methylidyne(3-oxo-1H-indene-2,1(3H)-diylidene)]]bis-
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[2,5-selenophenediylbis[(3,4',4''-trioctyl[2,2':5',2''-terthiophene]-5'',5-diyl)methylidyne(3-ethyl-4-oxo-5,2-thiazolidinediylidene)]]bis-
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[[4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)-2-thienyl]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl]bis[(3,3''-dioctyl[2,2':5',2''-terthiophene]-5'',5-diyl)methylidyne(3-octyl-4-oxo-5,2-thiazolidinediylidene)]]bis-
Thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, 2-(2-hexyldecyl)-
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[(3,3''',3'''',4'-tetraoctyl[2,2':5',2'':5'',2''':5''',2''''-quinquethiophene]-5,5''''-diyl)bis[methylidyne(3-ethyl-4-oxo-5,2-thiazolidinediylidene)]]bis-
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[(3,3'''',3''''',4'-tetraoctyl[2,2':5',2'':5'',2''':5''',2'''':5'''',2'''''-sexithiophene]-5,5'''''-diyl)bis[methylidyne(3-ethyl-4-oxo-5,2-thiazolidinediylidene)]]bis-
Propanedinitrile, 2,2'-[(3,3''''',3'''''',3''''''',4',4''-hexaoctyl[2,2':5',2'':5'',2''':5''',2'''':5'''',2''''':5''''',2'''''':5'''''',2'''''''-octithiophene]-5,5'''''''-diyl)bis[methylidyne(3-ethyl-4-oxo-5,2-thiazolidinediylidene)]]bis-