Highly efficient plastic based single layer Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) require the design of luminophores having complete spectral separation between absorption and emission spectra (large Stokes shift). We describe the design, synthesis and characterization of a new perylene dye possessing Stokes shift as high as 300 meV, fluorescent quantum yield in the LSC slab of 70% and high chemical and photochemical stability.
We demonstrate an organic photodetector showing high detectivity (3.4×1012 Hz0.5 cm/W) at a wavelength of 700 nm, based on squaraine/phenyl-C61-butyric-acid-methyl-ester bulk-heterojunction active material. This result is achieved by suppressing the device dark currents while simultaneously preserving its external quantum efficiency, as high as 15% at 700 nm. To this aim, a thin cross-linked film based on poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene] is exploited to suppress electron injection from the device anode into the organic blend, thus reducing the dark currents by a factor of 30, to the extremely low value of 2 nA/cm2. Also, the detector bandwidth (∼1 MHz) is unaffected by the introduction of a blocking layer.
Conjugated electrochromic (EC) polymers for flexible EC devices (ECDs) generally lack a fully colorless bleached state. A strategy to overcome this drawback is the implementation of a new sidechain‐modified poly(3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene) derivative that can be deposited in thin‐film form in a customized high‐throughput and large‐area roll‐to‐roll polymerization process. The sidechain modification provides enhanced EC properties in terms of visible light transmittance change, Δτv = 59% (ΔL* = 54.1), contrast ratio (CR = 15.8), coloration efficiency (η = 530 cm² C−1), and color neutrality (L* = 83.8, a* = −4.3, b* = −4.1) in the bleached state. The intense blue‐colored polymer thin films exhibit high cycle stability (10 000 cycles) and fast response times. The design, synthesis, and polymerization of the modified 3,4‐ethylene dioxythiophene derivative are discussed along with a detailed optical, electrochemical, and spectroelectrochemical characterization of the resulting EC thin films. Finally, a flexible see‐through ECD with a visible light transmittance change of Δτv = 47% (ΔL* = 51.9) and a neutral‐colored bleached state is developed.