The primary challenge for the commercialization of hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is their chemical and thermal instability as compared to Si devices. Herein, we demonstrate that PSCs spray-coated with polystyrene retain 80% of their efficiency after 40 hours immersed in water or at 95 degrees C.

Microporous organic polymers that have three-dimensional connectivity stemming from monomers with tetrahedral or tetrahedron-like geometry can have high surface areas and strong fluorescence. There are however few examples of such polymers based on hindered biaryls, and their fluorescence has not been studied. Hypothesizing that the contortion in a hindered biphenyl moiety would modulate the optical properties of a polymer built from it, we synthesized a meta-enchained polyphenylene from a 2,2',6,6'-tetramethylbiphenyl-based monomer, in which the two phenyl rings are nearly mutually perpendicular. The polymer was microporous with S-BET = 495 m(2) g(-1). The polymer absorbed near-UV light and emitted blue fluorescence despite the meta-enchainment that would have been expected to break the conjugation. A related copolymer, synthesized from 2,2',6,6'-tetramethylbiphenyl-based and unsubstituted biphenyl-based monomers, was microporous but not fluorescent.

A series of heteroleptic Cu(I) diimine complexes with different ancillary ligands and 6,6'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'-dibenzoic acid (dbda) as the anchoring ligand were selfassembled on TiO2 surfaces and used as dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The binding to the TiO2 surface was studied by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for a brominecontaining complex, confirming the complex formation. The performance of all complexes was assessed and rationalized on the basis of their respective ancillary ligand. The DSSC photocurrent-voltage characteristics, incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectra, and calculated lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) distributions collectively show a push-pull structural dye design, in which the ancillary ligand exhibits an electron-donating effect that can lead to improved solar cell performance. By analyzing the optical properties of the dyes and their solar cell performance, we can conclude that the presence of ancillary ligands with bulky substituents protects the Cu(I) metal center from solvent coordination constituting a critical factor in the design of efficient Cu(I)-based dyes. Moreover, we have identified some components in the I-/I-3(-)-based electrolyte that causes dissociation of the ancillary ligand, i.e., TiO2 photoelectrode bleaching. Finally, the detailed studies on one of the dyes revealed an electrolyte-dye interaction, leading to a dramatic change of the dye properties when adsorbed on the TiO2 surface.

Single crystals of Spiro(TFSI)2 were grown, the optical and electronic properties were characterized and compared with neutral Spiro-OMeTAD. Density-functional theory was used to get insights into binding and band structure properties. The flat valence bands indicate a rather limited orbital overlap in Spiro(TFSI)2.

In this work, we have assessed coumarin as a quantitative probe for hydroxyl radical formation in heterogeneous photocatalysis. Upon reaction with the hydroxyl radical, coumarin produces several hydroxylated products, of which one, 7-OH-coumarin, is strongly fluorescent. The fluorescence emission is strongly affected by inner filtering due to the presence of coumarin. Therefore, we performed a series of calibration experiments to correct for the coumarin concentration. From the calibration experiments, we could verify that the inner-filtering effect can be attributed to the competing absorption of the fluorescence excitation light between coumarin and 7-OH-coumarin. Through judicious calibration for the inner-filtering effects, the corrected results for the photocatalytic system show that the rate of hydroxyl scavenging is constant with time for initial coumarin concentrations of ≥50 μM under the conditions of our experiments. The rate increases linearly with coumarin concentration, as expected from the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model. Within the coumarin concentration range used here, the photocatalyst surface does not become saturated. Given the fact that the highest coumarin concentration used (1 mM) in this work is quite close to the solubility limit, we conclude that coumarin cannot be used to assess the full photocatalytic capacity of the system, i.e., surface saturation is never reached. The rate of hydroxyl radical scavenging will, to a large extent, depend on the affinity to the surface, and it is therefore not advisable to use coumarin as a probe for photocatalytic efficiency when comparing different photocatalysts.

The excited state dynamics of Tris(2,2 '-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) hexafluorophosphate, [Ru(bpy)(3)(PF6)(2)], was investigated on the surface of bare and sensitized TiO2 and ZrO2 films. The organic dyes LEG4 and MKA253 were selected as sensitizers. A Stern-Volmer plot of LEG4-sensitized TiO2 substrates with a spin-coated [Ru(bpy)(3)(PF6)(2)] layer on top shows considerable quenching of the emission of the latter. Interestingly, time-resolved emission spectroscopy reveals the presence of a fast-decay time component (25 +/- 5 ns), which is absent when the anatase TiO2 semiconductor is replaced by ZrO2. It should be specified that the positive redox potential of the ruthenium complex prevents electron transfer from the [Ru(bpy)(3)(PF6)(2)] ground state into the oxidized sensitizer. Therefore, we speculate that the fast-decay time component observed stems from excited-state electron transfer from [Ru(bpy)(3)(PF6)(2)] to the oxidized sensitizer. Solid-state dye sensitized solar cells (ssDSSCs) employing MKA253 and LEG4 dyes, with [Ru(bpy)(3)(PF6)(2)] as a hole-transporting material (HTM), exhibit 1.2 % and 1.1 % power conversion efficiency, respectively. This result illustrates the possibility of the hypothesized excited-state electron transfer.

Due to ligand scrambling, the synthesis and investigation of the properties of heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes can be a challenging task. In this work, we have studied the optical and electrochemical properties of a series of homoleptic complexes, such as [Cu(dbda)(2)](+), [Cu(dmp)(2)](+), [Cu(Br-dmp)(2)](+), [Cu(bcp)(2)](+), [Cu(dsbtmp)(2)](+), [Cu(biq)(2)](+), and [Cu(dap)(2)](+) in solution, and those of their heteroleptics [Cu(dbda)(dmp)](+), [Cu(dbda)(Br-dmp)](+), [Cu(dbda)(bcp)](+), [Cu(dbda)(dsbtmp))(+), [Cu(dbda)(biq)](+), [Cu(dbda)(dap)](+) adsorbed on the surface of anatase TiO2 (dbda = 6,6'-dimethyl-2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'-dibenzoic acid; dmp = 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline; Br-dmp = 5-bromo 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline; bcp = bathocuproine or 2,9-dimethyl-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline; dsbtmp = 2,9-di(sec-butyl)-3,4,7,8-tetramethyl-1,10-phenanthroline; biq = 2,2'-biquinoline; dap = 2,9-dianisyl-1,10-phenanthroline). We show that the maximum absorption wavelengths of the heteroleptic complexes on TiO2 can be reasonably predicted from those of the homoleptic complexes in solution through a simple linear relation, whereas the prediction of their redox properties is less trivial. In the latter case, two different linear patterns emerge: one including the ligands bcp, biq, and dap and another one including the ligands dmp, Br-dmp, and dsbtmp. We offer an interpretation of the data based on the chemical structure of the ligands. On one hand, ligands bcp, biq, and dap possess a more extended pi-conjugated system, which gives a more prominent contribution to the overall redox properties of the ligand dbda. On the other hand, the ligands dmp, Br-dmp, and dsbtmp are all phenanthroline-based containing alkyl substituents and contribute less than dbda to the overall redox properties.

Lithium-ion-free tris(2,2 '-bipyridine) Co(ii/iii)-mediated electrolytes have previously been proposed for long-term stable dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Such redox systems also offer an impressive DSSC performance improvement under light soaking exposure, manifested by an increase in photocurrent and fill factor without the expense of decreasing photovoltage. Kinetic studies show that charge transfer and ion diffusion at the electrode/electrolyte interface are improved due to the light exposure. Control experiments reveal that the light effect is unambiguously associated with electrolyte components, [Co(bpy)(3)](3+) and the Lewis-base additive tert-butylpyridine (TBP). Electrochemical and spectroscopic investigation of the [Co(bpy)(3)](3+)/TBP mixtures points out that the presence of TBP, which retards the electrolyte diffusion, however causes an irreversible redox reaction of [Co(bpy)(3)](3+) upon light exposure that improves the overall conductivity. This discovery not only provides a new strategy to mitigate the typical J(sc)-V-oc trade-off in Co(ii/iii)-mediated DSSCs but also highlights the importance of investigating the photochemistry of a photoelectrochemical system.

Four different functional groups including amino (-NH2), phosphine (-PH2), hydroxyl (-OH), and thiol (-SH) were combined with POSS (polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane) molecules to investigate how functional groups affect the surface passivation of POSS systems. Results from density-functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that functional group amino (-NH2) with adsorption energy 86 (56) kJ mol(-1) is consistently better than that of thiol (-SH) with adsorption energy 68 (43) kJ mor(-1) for different passivation mechanisms. Theoretical studies on the analogous POSS-OH and POSS-PH2 systems show similar adsorption energies. Two of the systems were also investigated experimentally; aminopropyl isobutyl POSS (POSS-NH2) and mercaptopropyl isobutyl POSS (POSS-SH) were applied as passivation materials for MAPbI(3) (MA = methylammonium) perovskite and (FA)(0.85)(MA)(0.15)Pb(I-3)(0.85)(Br-3)(0)(.15)(FA = formamidinium) perovskite films. The same conclusion was drawn based on the results from contact angle studies, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the stability of solar cells in ambient atmosphere, indicating the vital importance of choice of functional groups for passivation of the perovskite materials.