by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 21, 2026
Osaka Metropolitan College scientists have developed a single natural molecule that naturally kinds the interior p/n junctions wanted for changing daylight into electrical energy, providing a possible shortcut to extra environment friendly natural skinny movie photo voltaic cells. The examine exhibits how cautious molecular design and self meeting can generate steady nanoscale p/n heterojunctions with out the necessity to bodily combine separate p kind and n kind supplies.
Photo voltaic cells generate electrical energy when photons create cost carriers in a semiconductor and an inside electrical discipline at a p/n junction drives these expenses aside. In typical gadgets, these junctions kind on the interface between separate p kind and n kind supplies, however small variations in processing can disrupt the interface, resulting in inconsistent efficiency and decreased effectivity.
Natural skinny movie photo voltaic cells use carbon based mostly semiconductors as an alternative of silicon, making them light-weight, versatile and appropriate for printing onto window movies, constructing supplies and even materials. Regardless of these benefits, their energy conversion effectivity nonetheless trails that of silicon, partially as a result of it’s tough to reproducibly engineer an optimum interface between p kind and n kind domains on the nanoscale. Researchers can tune the digital properties and morphology of natural supplies, however the required precision stays difficult in actual gadgets.
To deal with this situation, the Osaka workforce explored a method that integrates each semiconductor sorts right into a single molecular system that self assembles into nanoscale p/n heterojunctions. In such single element techniques, refined variations in solvent or temperature can drive the formation of competing mixture constructions, making it tough to acquire nicely outlined and functionally optimum junction architectures. The researchers due to this fact targeted on controlling supramolecular meeting pathways to pick a particular nanoscale construction with fascinating digital conduct.
The workforce designed a donor acceptor donor molecule dubbed TISQ that mixes a squaraine based mostly p kind section with a naphthalene diimide n kind section in a single molecular spine. Amide linkages join these segments and promote hydrogen bonding, enabling TISQ molecules to arrange themselves into ordered aggregates. This structure was supposed to encourage the spontaneous formation of in-built nanoscale p/n heterojunctions via self meeting alone, with out exterior templating or complicated processing.
Experiments revealed that TISQ can self assemble into two distinct varieties of supramolecular aggregates relying on the solvent atmosphere. In polar solvents, TISQ kinds nanoparticle like J kind aggregates via a cooperative nucleation elongation course of. In much less polar solvents, the molecule as an alternative assembles into fibrous H kind aggregates by way of an isodesmic, stepwise mechanism wherein every added molecule contributes equally to the rising construction.
These totally different mixture morphologies exhibit markedly totally different digital conduct beneath illumination. Measurements confirmed that the J kind aggregates produce practically double the photocurrent response of the H kind aggregates, highlighting how nanoscale packing and supramolecular structure straight affect cost separation and transport. The outcomes hyperlink solvent managed self meeting to a measurable change in photoresponse in a single element natural materials.
To evaluate system relevance, the researchers included TISQ as the only photoactive element in natural skinny movie photo voltaic cells. In these take a look at gadgets, TISQ self assembled into nanoscale p/n heterojunctions, demonstrating that the molecular design can autonomously generate useful inside interfaces appropriate for photovoltaic operation. The work gives a proof of idea {that a} single, rigorously engineered molecule can provide each p kind and n kind performance and arrange itself into an electronically energetic junction.
The authors describe this as a backside up method to translating molecular stage self group into macroscale digital operate. By correlating particular supramolecular constructions with photocurrent responses, the examine gives a framework for utilizing self meeting to systematically join nanoscale p/n heterojunction architectures with system stage efficiency. This idea may lengthen past photo voltaic cells to different natural optoelectronic gadgets, together with photodetectors and lightweight harvesting techniques.
Though the facility conversion effectivity of the prototype TISQ gadgets stays low and isn’t but appropriate for sensible deployment, the work clarifies how refined adjustments in nanoscale self meeting can strongly have an effect on photocurrent in a single element natural system. The researchers goal to refine molecular design methods and meeting management to enhance each junction high quality and cost transport, thereby increasing the design area of natural skinny movie photo voltaic cells and associated optoelectronic supplies. The findings are reported in Angewandte Chemie Worldwide Version.
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Osaka Metropolitan University
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