Search for: All records

Abstract In this work, we develop an environmental-friendly approach to produce organic-inorganic hybrid MAPbBr 3 (MA = CH 3 NH 3 ) perovskite nanocrystals (PeNCs) and PMMA-MAPbBr 3 NC films with excellent compression-resistant PL characteristics. Deionized water is used as the solvent to synthesize MAPbBr 3 powder instead of conventionally-used hazardous organic solvents. The MAPbBr 3 PeNCs derived from the MAPbBr 3 powder exhibit a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 93.86%. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-MAPbBr 3 NC films made from the MAPbBr 3 PeNCs retain ∼97% and ∼91% of initial PL intensity after 720 h aging in ambient environment at 50 °C and 70 °C, respectively. The PMMA-MAPbBr 3 NC films also exhibit compression-resistant photoluminescent characteristics in contrast to the PMMA-CsPbBr 3 NC films under a compressive stress of 1.6 MPa. The PMMA-MAPbBr 3 NC film integrated with a red emissive film and a blue light emitting source achieves an LCD backlight of ∼114% color gamut of National Television System Committee (NTSC) 1953 standard. 

Carbon dots (C-dots) are a promising class of carbonaceous nanomaterials for bioimaging, catalysis, and optoelectronics. However, their applications are disrupted by recent reports that bright molecular fluorophores are co-produced in the synthesis of C-dots, in particular ones prepared through a bottom-up approach (carbon nanodots (CNDs)), commonly derived from citric acid precursors. The presence of highly emissive molecular fluorophore species obscures the true performance of CNDs and severely challenges the development of CNDs. Here we observe that the issue of molecular fluorophore impurity is still problematic for CNDs which are derived from a different type of precursor, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, low-oxygen-content CNDs and small molecular fluorophores are co-produced through hydrothermal condensation of nitropyrene. Extensive and systematic characterization following column chromatographic separation and solvent-induced extraction reveals that molecular fluorophores and CNDs are clearly dissimilar in structure and optical properties. This work highlights that rigorous separation and purification steps need to be taken not only for hydrophilic CNDs but also for low-oxygen-content CNDs. 

Chemical doping is widely used to manipulate the electrical and thermoelectric properties of organic semiconductors, yet intelligent design of polymer–dopant systems remains elusive. It is challenging to predict the electrical and thermoelectric properties of doped organic semiconductors due to the large number of variables impacting these properties, including film morphology, dopant and polymer energetics, dopant size, and degree of polaron delocalization. Herein, a series of dopants with varying sizes and electron affinities (EAs) are combined with polymers of differing ionization energies (IEs) to investigate how the difference between polymer IE and dopant EA influences the doping efficiency and electrical conductivity, and how the dopant size influences the thermoelectric properties. Our experiments demonstrate that at low doping levels the doping efficiency strongly depends on the difference between the polymer IE and dopant EA; the effectiveness of doping on increasing electrical conductivity drastically decreases at high loadings for the molybdenum dithiolene complexes, while FeCl 3 remains effective at high loadings; and the large molybdenum complexes lead to more delocalized polarons as compared to FeCl 3 . To take advantage of the complementary doping characteristics of the molybdenum complexes and FeCl 3 , both dopants are employed simultaneously to reach high power factors at relatively low dopant concentrations.