The Self-Assembly of Organic Semiconductor : Quantum Dot Blend Films for Solar Energy Harvesting

Rachel Kilbride^a, Daniel Toolan^a, Michael Weir^b, Ashish Sharma^c, Simon Dowland^d, Anastasia Leventis^d, Stephanie Montanaro^d, Hugo Bronstein^c, Akshay Rao^c, Jurjen Winkel^d, Neil Greenham^c, Richard Friend^c, Oleksandr Mykhaylyk^a, Richard Jones^e, Anthony Ryan^a

^aDepartment of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Brook Hill, Sheffield, S3 7HF, U.K.

^bSchool of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, U.K.

^cCavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K.

^dCambridge Photon Technology, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE, UK

^eJohn Owens Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2023 Conference (MATSUSFall23)

#ELMOL - The future of molecular electronics

Torremolinos, Spain, 2023 October 16th - 20th

Organizer: Rachel Kilbride

Invited Speaker, Rachel Kilbride, presentation 309
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsus.2023.309
Publication date: 18th July 2023

Solution-processed nanocomposite films comprising small molecule organic semiconductors (OSCs) and inorganic colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are promising systems for low-cost, high efficiency, solar energy harvesting technologies [1]. In these systems, OSCs capable of singlet fission (SF) offer a mechanism to surpass the radiative efficiency limits of single-junction photovoltaics (PV). The SF-generated triplet excitons can be harvested by the inorganic QDs, where they radiatively recombine to achieve photon multiplication, converting a single high-energy photon into two low-energy photons. Such a SF photon multiplication film (SF-PMF) has the potential to enhance the efficiency of the best Si-PV from 26.7% to 32.5%, a substantial gain [2]. For efficient SF-PMF, the ideal film nanomorphology consists of QDs that are highly dispersed throughout the OSC phase at a length scale comparable to the triplet exciton diffusion length. However, controlling QD dispersibility in OSC:QD blends is challenging given the strong tendency of QDs to aggregate and phase-separate due to the mismatch of their size, shape and surface energies. Understanding the self-assembly mechanisms of the organic and inorganic components during large-scale, high throughput film coating methods is therefore crucial for precise control of film nanomorphology [3]. This talk will demonstrate how in-situ grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS) offers direct insights into the self-assembly of OSC:QD blends during blade coating. It will outline some of our latest strategies to control structure formation in nanocomposite films via subtle changes in composition and processing conditions. The results provide routes for the structural design and optimization of solution-processed nanocomposites that are compatible with large-scale coating techniques, essential for driving the commercialisation of SF-PMF architectures for solar energy harvesting applications.

References:

[1] Allardice, J. et al. Ligand Directed Self-Assembly of Bulk Organic-Semiconductor/Quantum-Dot Blend Films Enables Near Quantitative Harvesting of Triplet Excitons. 2020

[2] Futscher, M. H., Rao, A. & Ehrler, B. The Potential of Singlet Fission Photon Multipliers as an Alternative to Silicon-Based Tandem Solar Cells. ACS Energy Lett. 3, 2587–2592, 2018.

[3] Toolan, D. T. W. et al. Insights into the kinetics and self-assembly order of small-molecule organic semiconductor/quantum dot blends during blade coating. Nanoscale Horiz. 8, 1090–1097, 2023.

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