I Have a Research Support System

Based on two benchmark near-infrared systems, PCE10:IEICO-4F and PCE10:FNIC-4F, Xu Qiu prepared a series of gold (1 nm)/silver (10-20 nm) thin-layer metal electrodes with different thicknesses.

The final device results are not bad. The device efficiency of this double-layer thin-layer electrode structure is generally about 0.5%-1% higher than the original single-layer thin-layer electrode structure.

Among them, a more critical node is the double-layer electrode structure of 1 nanometer gold and 15 nanometer silver.

At this time, the device efficiency of the PCE10:IEICO-4F system can reach up to 10.25%, and the average visible light transmittance (AVT) can reach 32%. The two values ​​​​of the other system also reach 9.73% and 34% respectively.

The AVT is only 30%, which seems very low, but it is actually very good in semi-transparent devices based on thin-layer metal electrodes.

Take the metal thin-layer electrode with a total thickness of 16 nanometers as an example, it can absorb nearly 40%-50% of visible light by itself.

This also means that even if the effective layer is empty, the AVT is only 50%-60% at most.

In conversion, with an AVT of 30%, the AVT of the effective layer itself may reach more than 60%.

For these two systems, Xu Qiu intends to combine them and publish an article, which has both workload and highlights.

Highlights include "simultaneously achieved an efficiency of more than 10%, and the achievement of AVT breaking 30%", "developed a thin-layer electrode with a double-layer structure", and "the first non-fullerene semi-transparent device".

Of course, it is not easy to break the barriers and invest upwards in this work, because firstly, no new materials have been developed, and secondly, the efficiency is not the kind that breaks new highs, but only breaks a record in a subdivided field.

However, there is still a good chance for the water article AM.

Xu Qiu calculated the articles in his hand, five articles in the first district, one article that will become the first district when it leaves the division at the end of the year, and two articles in the first district, and counting the current system, it adds up to a total of Nine articles and one area.

There is only one article left to collect ten articles and one area to complete the advanced task of the system.

Xu Qiu pondered for a moment, then he had an idea and came up with an idea.

That is to cooperate with Blue River to prepare flexible, translucent, colorful, and fully solution-processed organic photovoltaic devices by scrape coating.

The devices prepared in this way have almost gathered all the "advantages" of organic photovoltaics, except that they are large-sized and roll-to-roll, which is full of gimmicks.

After this operation, as long as the efficiency does not stretch the hips, it can reach about 7% or 8%, and an AM is basically appropriate.

The first step is to select the acceptor material.

Since both near-infrared receptors IEICO-4F and FN-4F have been used, another IEICO-4Cl material is used.

The performance of this material is comparable to that of IEICO-4F. It is also an excellent near-infrared non-fullerene acceptor material, and the highest device efficiency is close to 12%.

The second step is to select the donor material.

In order to realize colorful devices, the acceptor has been fixed, so we can only make a fuss from the perspective of the donor.

Xu Qiu planned to choose three donor materials with different bandgap widths, and finally selected H43, J2 and PCE10, and the bandgap widths were around 2.0, 1.8, and 1.6, respectively.

To be honest, the system was selected, but just looking at the material name, Xu Qiu couldn't know what color the spin-coated film was.

So, he prepared a solution, spin-coated it himself, and tried it.

The results show that the film colors correspond to purple, blue and blue-green when IEICO-4Cl is used as acceptor and H43, J2 and PCE10 are used as donors.

It is easier to reverse the process when you know the result.

Xu Qiu checked the data, and the wavelength ranges corresponding to violet light, indigo light, and green light are 350-455 nanometers, 455-492 nanometers, and 492-577 nanometers, respectively.

The main light absorption ranges of H43, J2, and PCE10 are 450-650 nm, 500-700 nm, and 550-750 nm, respectively, while IEICO-4Cl covers light from 650-1000 nm.

The wavelength ranges of the final remaining unabsorbed light are 300-450 nanometers, 300-500 nanometers, and 300-550 nanometers, which just correspond to purple, blue and blue-green.

Since these films are translucent, whatever light is transmitted through the film will show what color.

Then the three films correspond to purple, blue and blue-green, which can be explained.

Xu Qiu handed over the specific exploration work to Simulation Lab III, but he doesn't have much hope for the time being, because the scraping machine copied before is still a toy concept machine.

He planned to take some time to go to Blue River to see if they had any latest progress, and then copy the new machine in.

After establishing the two directions of work, Xu Qiu actually wanted to find another research job on translucent devices as a reserve AM article.

This can be considered a rainy day.

Although Xu Qiu has no experience of being rejected so far, it is hard to say if he was unlucky that day, bumped into a little cutie while walking at night, and encountered all kinds of reviewers who deliberately targeted him.

Now it counts that there are ten articles and one section, and it would be embarrassing to find that one article is missing.

However, he thought about a lot of ideas in his heart, but he was not too satisfied with the idea, because there are not many points that can be excavated on the translucent device, and the previous two ideas have almost excavated the bright spots.

If there are no bright spots, AM articles are not so good, unless you synthesize new materials yourself, or borrow several new structures from Wu Shengnan, but in this case, the work cycle will be very long.

As for making some random highlights and writing a few small articles, Xu Qiu is not considering it for the time being.

He has raised the lower limit of his published articles to the levels of AM, JACS, Angew, EES, AEM, and NC, that is, the top journals in the first district.

This threshold is even higher than that of Wei Xingsi. Teacher Wei’s group basically has articles above the second district, and only Duan Yun posted the only article in the group, RSC Adv.

After all, Xu Qiu is a student, and every article he writes has to be coded out word by word, while Wei Xingsi only needs to change the article and hang up the newsletter, and the energy consumed is very different.

Therefore, if Xu Qiu spends his energy on writing articles for the second district, it will not be very cost-effective. Like the second district articles, it would be fine to directly follow the second works of other people in the research group, so as to increase the number of his own articles.

Moreover, when the number of articles reaches a certain level, others will pay more attention to how many AM and JACS top journals you have published, how your articles have been cited, and what are your masterpieces.

For example, based on Xu Qiu's current achievements, the scientific research influence is 10, and if he gets another three or five articles from the second district, the scientific research influence may increase to 10.1, which is not very meaningful.

In the end, Xu Qiu decided to finish the two tasks at hand first.

The current work is the most important, and you must not procrastinate in scientific research, otherwise your peers will teach you how to behave.

There has not been a translucent device based on non-fullerene acceptors yet, which does not mean that no one is doing it, maybe a colleague is doing it quietly.

There is a saying.

I want to be top-notch quietly and amaze everyone.

It's hard for anyone to tell, and a little-known research group will pop up somewhere, and suddenly produce a bunch of results.

For example, Xu Qiu and Wei Xingsi were unknown in the field of organic photovoltaics before, but recently they have both been on the list of major domestic organic photovoltaic research groups, and have been targeted by their peers.

Xu Qiu was just an undergraduate student before. Before Wei Xingsi returned to China, he worked as a small boss in NREL in the beautiful country. Although he published a few AM articles, he did PDI derivatives, which were relatively niche, not very efficient, and not very well-known.

In fact, if Wei Xingsi returned to China a few years later, based on his previous achievements, he may not be able to be rated as a "Qing Qian", and he may not be admitted to the Shanghai University.

At most, you can only enter an ordinary major, and then sign an agreement similar to a foreign assistant professor's six-year non-promotion agreement.

Over the years, the standards for "Qingqian" have become more and more stringent. Wei Xingsi was introduced in the second batch of Qingqian, that is, in 2012. At that time, the country was short of people, so the standards set were relatively low.

For example, in the batch of "Qingqian" who returned to China this year, several of them wrote more than a dozen JACS articles, and some even had a CNS article, which was very valuable.

In a few years, the lower limit of "Qingqian" may be more than a dozen AM and JACS articles.

I have to say that the academic circle is getting more and more voluptuous, from top to bottom.

Speaking of Xu Qiu, he now has a great first-mover advantage in making translucent devices.

However, this advantage will slowly fade over time. If he cannot continue to lead, he may be overtaken by others in a corner.

For example, many colleagues have already begun to conduct research on ITIC, and sooner or later they will put their goals in other derivative systems.

Of course, it takes time to change careers. Except for Gong Yuanjiang and Wei Xingsi, the speed of changing careers will not be too fast.

On the one hand, when other researchers switch from the traditional fullerene system to the non-fullerene system, in order to seek stability, it is impossible to take big steps at once.

There is a high probability that some benchmark systems will be selected first, such as Xu Qiu's ITIC and Xu Zhenghong's IDTBR, instead of derivatives such as IT-4F.

On the other hand, many research groups will not synthesize materials by themselves, but buy them from optoelectronic material companies. For example, the optoelectronic company in Shencheng has already started selling ITIC and IDTBR materials, but other types of ITIC derivatives are temporarily available on the market. There are no companies for sale yet.

This is because optoelectronic material companies also know that "researchers will start with the benchmark system when they change careers", so the synthesized benchmark materials must have a market.

Moreover, benchmark materials such as ITIC have a high probability of being popular for a long time, similar to P3HT, C-60 and other first-generation organic photovoltaic donors and acceptors, which have been used for more than ten years and are still in use now. Even if better PCE10 and PCBM are developed later, they will still be used as standard samples by some research groups.

Therefore, a few grams or tens of grams of ITIC are synthesized and stored there, and there is no worry about not being able to sell them for a while.

But other derivative materials are hard to say. For example, Xu Qiu and the others have produced more than ten kinds of systems. It is impossible for all of these systems to be ignited. In the end, no one bought it, so it was all thrown away.

This is also one of the reasons why materials such as ITIC derivatives do not apply for patents in the scientific research circle, because the iteration of materials is too fast.

If you want to apply for a patent for a certain molecule, first of all, during the patent application process, you cannot publish an article. Once the structure is published, it will be considered as giving up the patent;

Secondly, the patent application time is at least a few months, and it may be a year. After a year has passed, the patent may not be applied for yet, and others have already reported this structure. Publicity, the patent application is also directly invalidated.

Even if this molecular structure has not been discovered by others, it may be because others have found better materials and better systems, then it is meaningless to hold this patent.

Taking a step back, even if such a patent is applied for, it doesn't make much sense.

It is a big deal for others not to use the material you developed to develop new materials. You can't apply for patents for all related materials.

And doing so, not only has no benefit to be gained, but also is not conducive to the development of this field, and will arouse the resentment of other scientific researchers.

After careful calculation, it is a matter of negative returns.

Therefore, very few people apply for this type of patent, and they only apply for patents in the field of application, or apply for patents for the molecular structure of some complex drugs.