The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of single‐junction organic solar cells (OSC) have now reached over 18%. This rapid recent progress can be attributed to the development of new nonfullerene ...electron acceptors (NFAs) that are paired with suitable high performing polymer electron donors. Substantial improvements in the PCEs and long‐term stability enabled by NFA OSCs have allowed the development and integration of these systems into many niche and novel applications. Here, the recent progress that has been made in understanding the device photophysics of high performing polymer:NFA blends is highlighted. As the bulk heterojunction morphology is intrinsically linked to the device photophysics, this review focuses on studies that have provided noteworthy morphological insights using advanced techniques such as solid‐state NMR and resonant soft X‐ray scattering. Through this, some of the major challenges that must be overcome to attain PCEs of over 20% in NFA OSCs are addressed.
The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of single‐junction organic solar cells have now reached over 18%. Recent progress that has been made in understanding the morphology and the device photophysics of high performing polymer:non‐fullerene acceptor blends and some of the major challenges that must be overcome to attain PCEs of over 20% are highlighted.
Efficient organic emitters in the deep‐red region are rare due to the “energy gap law”. Herein, multiple boron (B)‐ and nitrogen (N)‐atoms embedded polycyclic heteroaromatics featuring hybridized ...π‐bonding/ non‐bonding molecular orbitals are constructed, providing a way to overcome the above luminescent boundary. The introduction of B‐phenyl‐B and N‐phenyl‐N structures enhances the electronic coupling of those para‐positioned atoms, forming restricted π‐bonds on the phenyl‐core for delocalized excited states and thus a narrow energy gap. The mutually ortho‐positioned B‐ and N‐atoms also induce a multi‐resonance effect on the peripheral skeleton for the non‐bonding orbitals, creating shallow potential energy surfaces to eliminate the high‐frequency vibrational quenching. The corresponding deep‐red emitters with peaks at 662 and 692 nm exhibit narrow full‐width at half‐maximums of 38 nm, high radiative decay rates of ca. 108 s−1, ≈100 % photo‐luminescence quantum yields and record‐high maximum external quantum efficiencies of ca. 28 % in a normal planar organic light‐emitting diode structure, simultaneously.
Polycyclic heteroaromatics containing multiple embedded boron (B)‐ and nitrogen (N)‐atoms and featuring hybridized π‐bonding/ non‐bonding molecular orbitals are constructed. They have enhanced electronic coupling for deep‐red emission almost reaching the red‐corner of CIE coordinates diagram and an induced multiple resonance (MR) effect to create a shallow potential energy surface, fundamentally overcoming the energy gap law.
Thermally activated delayed fluorescence enables organic semiconductors with charge transfer-type excitons to convert dark triplet states into bright singlets via reverse intersystem crossing. ...However, thus far, the contribution from the dielectric environment has received insufficient attention. Here we study the role of the dielectric environment in a range of thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials with varying changes in dipole moment upon optical excitation. In dipolar emitters, we observe how environmental reorganization after excitation triggers the full charge transfer exciton formation, minimizing the singlet-triplet energy gap, with the emergence of two (reactant-inactive) modes acting as a vibrational fingerprint of the charge transfer product. In contrast, the dielectric environment plays a smaller role in less dipolar materials. The analysis of energy-time trajectories and their free-energy functions reveals that the dielectric environment substantially reduces the activation energy for reverse intersystem crossing in dipolar thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters, increasing the reverse intersystem crossing rate by three orders of magnitude versus the isolated molecule.
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) must be engineered to circumvent the efficiency limit imposed by the 3:1 ratio of triplet to singlet exciton formation following electron-hole capture. Here we ...show the spin nature of luminescent radicals such as TTM-3PCz allows direct energy harvesting from both singlet and triplet excitons through energy transfer, with subsequent rapid and efficient light emission from the doublet excitons. This is demonstrated with a model Thermally-Activated Delayed Fluorescence (TADF) organic semiconductor, 4CzIPN, where reverse intersystem crossing from triplets is characteristically slow (50% emission by 1 µs). The radical:TADF combination shows much faster emission via the doublet channel (80% emission by 100 ns) than the comparable TADF-only system, and sustains higher electroluminescent efficiency with increasing current density than a radical-only device. By unlocking energy transfer channels between singlet, triplet and doublet excitons, further technology opportunities are enabled for optoelectronics using organic radicals.
COVID19 coagulopathy in Caucasian patients Fogarty, Helen; Townsend, Liam; Ni Cheallaigh, Cliona ...
British journal of haematology,
June 2020, Letnik:
189, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Summary
Although the pathophysiology underlying severe COVID19 remains poorly understood, accumulating data suggest that a lung‐centric coagulopathy may play an important role. Elevated D‐dimer ...levels which correlated inversely with overall survival were recently reported in Chinese cohort studies. Critically however, ethnicity has major effects on thrombotic risk, with a 3–4‐fold lower risk in Chinese compared to Caucasians and a significantly higher risk in African‐Americans. In this study, we investigated COVID19 coagulopathy in Caucasian patients. Our findings confirm that severe COVID19 infection is associated with a significant coagulopathy that correlates with disease severity. Importantly however, Caucasian COVID19 patients on low molecular weight heparin thromboprophylaxis rarely develop overt disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). In rare COVID19 cases where DIC does develop, it tends to be restricted to late‐stage disease. Collectively, these data suggest that the diffuse bilateral pulmonary inflammation observed in COVID19 is associated with a novel pulmonary‐specific vasculopathy termed pulmonary intravascular coagulopathy (PIC) as distinct to DIC. Given that thrombotic risk is significantly impacted by race, coupled with the accumulating evidence that coagulopathy is important in COVID19 pathogenesis, our findings raise the intriguing possibility that pulmonary vasculopathy may contribute to the unexplained differences that are beginning to emerge highlighting racial susceptibility to COVID19 mortality.
Engineering a low singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE
) is necessary for efficient reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) in delayed fluorescence (DF) organic semiconductors but results in a small radiative ...rate that limits performance in LEDs. Here, we study a model DF material, BF2, that exhibits a strong optical absorption (absorption coefficient = 3.8 × 10
cm
) and a relatively large ΔE
of 0.2 eV. In isolated BF2 molecules, intramolecular rISC is slow (delayed lifetime = 260 μs), but in aggregated films, BF2 generates intermolecular charge transfer (inter-CT) states on picosecond timescales. In contrast to the microsecond intramolecular rISC that is promoted by spin-orbit interactions in most isolated DF molecules, photoluminescence-detected magnetic resonance shows that these inter-CT states undergo rISC mediated by hyperfine interactions on a ~24 ns timescale and have an average electron-hole separation of ≥1.5 nm. Transfer back to the emissive singlet exciton then enables efficient DF and LED operation. Thus, access to these inter-CT states, which is possible even at low BF2 doping concentrations of 4 wt%, resolves the conflicting requirements of fast radiative emission and low ΔE
in organic DF emitters.