No Arabic abstract
We investigate the electronic dynamics of model organic photovoltaic (OPV) system consisting of polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) oligomers and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) blend using a mixed molecular mechanics/quantum mechanics (MM/QM) approach. Using a heuristic model that connects energy gap fluctuations to the average electronic couplings and decoherence times, we provide an estimate of the state-to-state internal conversion rates within the manifold of the lowest few electronic excitations. We find that the lowest few excited states of a model interface are rapidly mixed by C=C bond fluctuations such that the system can sample both intermolecular charge-transfer and charge-separated electronic configurations on a time scale of 20fs. Our simulations support an emerging picture of carrier generation in OPV systems in which interfacial electronic states can rapidly decay into charge-separated and current producing states via coupling to vibronic degrees of freedom.
Metal-organic frameworks show both fundamental interest and great promise for applications in adsorption-based technologies, such as the separation and storage of gases. The flexibility and complexity of the molecular scaffold poses a considerable challenge to atomistic modeling, especially when also considering the presence of guest molecules. We investigate the role played by quantum and anharmonic fluctuations in the archetypical case of MOF-5, comparing the material at various levels of methane loading. Accurate path integral simulations of such effects are made affordable by the introduction of an accelerated simulation scheme and the use of an optimized force field based on first-principles reference calculations. We find that the level of statistical treatment that is required for predictive modeling depends significantly on the property of interest. The thermal properties of the lattice are generally well described by a quantum harmonic treatment, with the adsorbate behaving in a classical but strongly anharmonic manner. The heat capacity of the loaded framework - which plays an important role in the characterization of the framework and in determining its stability to thermal fluctuations during adsorption/desorption cycles - requires, however, a full quantum and anharmonic treatment, either by path integral methods or by a simple but approximate scheme. We also present molecular-level insight into the nanoscopic interactions contributing to the materials properties and suggest design principles to optimize them
We investigate the electronic dynamics of a model organic photovoltaic (OPV) system consisting of polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) oligomers and a [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) blend using a mixed molecular mechanics/quantum mechanics (MM/QM) approach. Using a heuristic model that connects energy gap fluctuations to the average electronic couplings and decoherence times, we provide and estimate of the state-to-state internal conversion rates within the manifold of the lowest few electronic excitations. We show that the electronic dynamics of the OPV are dramatically altered by varying the positions of the molecules simulated at the interface. The lowest few excited states of the model interface rapidly mix allowing low frequency C-C out of plain torsions to modulate the potential energy surface such that the system can sample both intermolecular charge-transfer and charge-separated electronic configurations on sub 100 fs time scales. Our simulations support an emerging picture of carrier generation in OPV systems in which interfacial electronic states can rapidly decay into charge-separated and current producing states via coupling to vibronic degrees of freedom.
The separation of liquid mixture has been studied for a long time. Separation proceeds based on the difference in physical properties including pore size and electrostatic interaction. Therefore, there are many difficulties in separation of materials having similar size or polarities in physical properties such as ethanol-water and 1,4-dioxane-water mixtures. While we still lack a universal generalization of these ideas to the separation, pervaporation based on a difference in transport rates by permeability through a membrane by the permeate was early suggested. Yet there is an existing technical gap to remove trace amounts of organics dissolved in water. Here, we report a novel separation strategy employing a metamaterial, called meta-separation using the exotic structural property of metamateirals rather than electrostatic characteristics. The structural properties of metamaterials provide various functions of super-hydrophobicity based on roughness of surface, the strong capillary effect based on nanopore, and huge void for great absorption of organics. It exhibited a water contact angle of 151.3{deg} and high adhesive property from nanopore. On the other hands, ethanol was immediately absorbed up to 93 wt%. This differences made it possible to quickly and easily eliminate organics dissolved in water. Furthermore, their applications are expected to achieve functions in environmental remediation, biofuel separation process, etc., without large scale facilities.
A general problem arising in computer simulations is the number of material and device parameters, which have to be determined by dedicated experiments and simulation-based parameter extraction. In this study we analyze measurements of the short-circuit current dependence on the active layer thickness and current-voltage curves in poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) based solar cells. We have identified a set of parameter values including dissociation parameters that describe the experimental data. The overall agreement of our model with experiment is good, however a discrepancy in the thickness dependence of the current-voltage curve questions the influence of the electric field in the dissociation process. In addition transient simulations are analyzed which show that a measurement of the turn-off photocurrent can be useful for estimating charge carrier mobilities.
We report investigations on the magnetotransport in LaSb, which exhibits extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR). Foremost, we demonstrate that the resistivity plateau can be explained without invoking topological protection. We then determine the Fermi surface from Shubnikov - de Haas (SdH) quantum oscillation measurements and find good agreement with the bulk Fermi pockets derived from first principle calculations. Using a semiclassical theory and the experimentally determined Fermi pocket anisotropies, we quantitatively describe the orbital magnetoresistance, including its angle dependence. We show that the origin of XMR in LaSb lies in its high mobility with diminishing Hall effect, where the high mobility leads to a strong magnetic field dependence of the longitudinal magnetoconductance. Unlike a one-band material, when a system has two or more bands (Fermi pockets) with electron and hole carriers, the added conductance arising from the Hall effect is reduced, hence revealing the latent XMR enabled by the longitudinal magnetoconductance. With diminishing Hall effect, the magnetoresistivity is simply the inverse of the longitudinal magnetoconductivity, enabling the differentiation of the electron and hole contributions to the XMR, which varies with the strength and orientation of the magnetic field. This work demonstrates a convenient way to separate the dynamics of the charge carriers and to uncover the origin of XMR in multi-band materials with anisotropic Fermi surfaces. Our approach can be readily applied to other XMR materials.