Nanostructuring organic polymers and organic/inorganic hybrid materials and control of blend morphologies at the molecular level have become the prerequisites for organic photovoltaics (OPVs) that are widely perceived as low-cost alternative energy sources. To achieve all-around high performance, multiple organic and inorganic entities, each designed for specific functions, are commonly incorporated into a single device. Current state-of-the-art approaches to morphology control in these multi-component systems typically involve physical blending and optimization via thermal/solvent annealing. Such trial-and-error approaches are however highly system dependent, lack controllability on the molecular level and generally lead to morphologies at only thermodynamically meta-stable states. We present herein our efforts in developing a versatile toolbox employing supramolecular chemistry that is capable of precisely nanostructuring multi-component organic/inorganic hybrid materials through self-assembly processes. Specifically, we show that well-defined core-shell composite nanofibers (NFs) containing precisely placed conjugated polymers, inorganic quantum dots and fullerene derivatives, can be obtained through cooperation of orthogonal non-covalent interactions including conjugated polymer crystallization, fullerene aggregation, hydrogen bonding interactions and metal-ligand coordination.<sup>1-5 </sup>OPV devices applying these NFs display much improved efficiencies and stability over their conventional bulk heterojunction (BHJ) counterparts.

Bottom-up approaches for precisely nanostructuring hybrid organic/inorganic multi-component composites

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.