I Have a Research Support System

Monday morning, 9:20.

Wei Xingsi rarely summoned Xu Qiu and Chen Wanqing to the office before the group meeting, holding a paper document that was just printed out and exuding the smell of ink, and said with a complex expression:

"In the newly published "Nature" big newspaper, "Nature·Materials", Xu Zhenghong and his group of South China University developed a new type of ADA-type non-fuller derivative receptor called IDTBR, which is the highest photoelectric device The conversion efficiency is more than 10%, please take a look."

Both Xu Qiu and Chen Wanqing were surprised.

Professor Xu Zhenghong is very well-known in the field of organic photovoltaics. Although he is not an academician, he is also a top Yangtze River scholar. He is the earliest leader in the field of organic photovoltaics in China. His research group has three small bosses, dozens of graduate students, and There are many postdoctoral fellows, the kind of large research group that can be used to irrigate AM, and the scientific research results are remarkable.

Now there is a big news silently, which directly raises the upper limit of the efficiency of the non-fullerene system to 10%, which is almost 12% of the fullerene derivative system.

Xu Qiuxin said that last Monday she asked the senior sister not to stand up and beware of the misfortunes coming out of her mouth.

'The publication of Xu Zhenghong's "Nature·Materials" article has the greatest impact on the school sister's system. Originally, with the highest record of 6% in the ADA system, the school sister had a 5% efficiency. 80 to 90% probability. ’

'Now the upper limit has changed to 10%, then this 5% is not so glamorous. The probability of being able to post AM is directly cut to 40-50%. In addition, the senior sister’s writing level is relatively stale, and an additional 10% of the success is deducted The rate is only 30-40%. Even if the efficiency of her system can be increased from 5% to 6%, it will probably only increase the success rate by 20%, which adds up to 50% or 60%, which is far less stable than before. . ’

'Moreover, it does not rule out that their group has other IDTBR derivatives-related work on the way. If they are asked to publish a few more ADA system articles with efficiency of 7%, 8%, and 9%, the advantages of the IDT-ICIN system will be Smaller. '

'However, the impact of this article on me is not that great. On the one hand, my system is PDI. Although it is also regarded as a non-fullerene receptor field, it belongs to two sub-fields with the ADA system. Like the senior sister, I will be directly impacted; on the other hand, my efficiency is 8.4% after all, which is not so far away from 10%. ’

'Although it is a little sudden, the facts have already happened, and it can only be accepted. After all, the world does not revolve around a certain person. How can I say that there are hundreds of researchers in the field of organic photovoltaics. What breakthrough development is there. ’

‘The top priority is to find a way to minimize your losses, or to gain something from it. ’

After secretly calculating, Xu Qiu and the senior sister looked through the documents in their hands.

He has seen the efficiency data, "greater than 10%", is directly written on the title, "a planar non-fullerene acceptor for high-efficiency organic photovoltaic devices, photoelectric conversion efficiency of 10%."

Leaving aside efficiency, Xu Qiu is most concerned about the molecular structure. He turned to the second page of the paper. The first picture is the molecular structure and synthesis route.

The central D unit of IDT-BR is IDT, which is the same unit used in the IDT-ICIN system. The A unit "BR" connected at both ends is composed of "B" and "R".

Among them, "B" refers to the BT unit, which is a common receptor A unit in the field of organic photovoltaics. For example, the PCE11 material developed by Xu Qiu before is composed of BT units and thiophene units in the main chain;

The "R" refers to the Rao Danning end group commonly used in ADA receptors. This unit was first used by Zhenghong Xu's group three or four years ago, and thus created the subdivision of ADA-type non-fullerene receptors. Later, they developed a series of ADA receptors based on Rao Danning. Several research groups also started to follow the trend and do some related derivative studies. The 6% previous world record was set by the Xu Zhenghong group a year ago.

In general, this IDT-BR is not an ADA molecule in the traditional sense. It is a variant developed by Xu Zhenghong’s group based on the molecular structure of the original ADA. Strictly speaking, it should be regarded as A1-A2-D-A2- The structure of A1, but the two A units "B" and "R" can be regarded as a whole, which is an ADA molecule.

There is no detailed description in the text of the synthetic route, and a few key steps are listed:

In the first step, the IDT unit reacts with n-butyllithium at low temperature, and then reacts with trimethyltin chloride. Trimethyltin units are introduced at both ends of the IDT to obtain the IDT units substituted by trimethyltin. The reaction mechanism is similar. The reaction that Yu Xuejie did before to introduce the aldehyde group was that after the hydrogen removal from n-butyllithium, trimethyltin chloride was used on trimethyltin instead of DMF.

In the second step, the IDT unit substituted by trimethyltin reacts with the BT unit substituted by bromine and aldehyde groups to generate BT-IDT-BT units substituted by dialdehyde groups on both sides. The reaction type is Stille coupling reaction.

The third step is to react the aldehyde substitution reaction product of the previous step with Rao Danning to obtain the final R-BT-IDT-BT-R molecule, referred to as IDT-2BR, IDT-BR or IDTBR. The reaction in this step is synthesized by the senior The last step of IDT-ICIN is similar, the aldehyde group is converted into a carbon-carbon double bond and connected to the end group.

"They all seem to be common reactions, we should not be difficult to repeat them," Xu Qiu made a preliminary judgment and said to Chen Wanqing:

"You can also try this idea later. Try to insert a new unit into the original ADA structure. They insert a small-sized A unit BT, maybe other A units or even D units, such as simple thiophene units, can also be optimized. Material properties."

"Um..." Chen Wanqing thought for a moment and said: "This can be listed in the next optimization plan."

Chen Wanqing turned her head and asked Teacher Wei: "Then what should I do with my current IDT-ICIN system?"

Wei Xingsi spread his hands together, saying that he was stunned when he got the news, and he didn't know what to do, "We have already done this. Let's sort out the article first."

In fact, this article was not retrieved and downloaded by him on his own initiative, but was sent by a small boss in Xu Zhenghong's group. Generally, the research team will find people everywhere to actively promote it when they publish such large articles. "Share" their joy, on the other hand, it is also telling others to "cite our article".

Moreover, although the main journals of "Nature" and "Science" and the major journals of "Nature" are indeed influential, it is generally difficult for people to publish articles on them, especially in some less popular fields, which may take one year. Only a few articles can be posted on it.

Therefore, for other researchers, the frequency of reviewing these journals will not be very high, and there may be a long delay in getting news of articles published.

Materials such as AM, JACS, and chemistry top journals are different. Basically, there are related articles published in each issue, so you have to read each issue. If you publish an article in these journals, it will be faster by other journals. The researcher learned.

Wei Xingsi suddenly asked, "By the way, how efficient is it now, do you have a chance to get 6%?"

"Currently it is 5.86%," Xu Qiu arranged for simulation experimenters in the simulation laboratory to optimize the senior sister's system, and then said: "It should not be difficult to get 6%."

Wei Xingsi nodded and caught a glimpse of Chen Wanqing's depression. He said with a rare comfort: "We can't interfere with what others are doing. Just do our own work. Don't think too much."

"Hmm." Chen Wanqing responded in a low voice, her expression relaxed a lot.

Wei Xingsi glanced at the time. It was already early 9:30. He did not disturb Xu Qiu and Chen Wanqing, and went to 216 to summon other people himself.

Xu Qiu sat with the senior sister and continued to look at the text of the article.

Chen Wanqing suddenly pointed to a place in the article and said in surprise: "Xu Qiu, isn't this your material, PCE11?"

Xu Qiu followed the senior sister's instructions, "It's really ah, the efficiency is not low, it's 9.5%."

He did not expect to be able to see other people's materials developed by himself in top journals such as "Nature·Materials", and he did not change the name of the material. He directly used his original name, which shows that he has obtained this material. Recognized by peers.

Chen Wanqing analyzed: "It has been a long time since the non-fullerene field has been published in the "Nature" big magazine. The influence of this article is certainly not small. Among them, they helped you to promote your materials. UU Reading www.uukahnshu.com As a new material, PCE10 and P3HT are side by side with two other celebrity materials that have been well-known for a long time. It is estimated that your AM article will have a lot more citations. Maybe it will take off. The whole high is cited. "

Xu Qiu suspiciously said: "Can it really be so fierce?"

Chen Wanqing chuckled, "Who knows, I just guessed it casually."

The two spent a few minutes browsing the text of the article.

The characterization methods used in the article are all conventional ones, and the main highlight is the IDTBR material itself.

The IDTBR receptor can not only achieve 10.2% photoelectric conversion efficiency in combination with PCE10 donor, but the performance is still not bad when combined with other donors, including PCE11 developed by Xu Qiu, and traditional benchmark donor material P3HT, the former's efficiency It reached 9.5% and the latter was 6.2%.

The two points of "high adaptability to a variety of donors" and "high efficiency in combination with low-cost P3HT donor materials" are the icing on the cake.

In addition, they also tested the air stability of the IDTBR system. When exposed to the air for up to 1200 hours, the efficiency can still be maintained at about 80% of the initial value, while the traditional fullerene derivative system, under the same storage conditions, The device efficiency is almost zero, indicating the excellent device stability of the IDTBR system.

After reading this document, Xu Qiu has two gains.

One is in the design of ADA-type molecular structure, you can consider inserting small structural units between the DA units of ADA;

The other is to explore whether the device stability of the IDTBR system can be extended to other ADA systems, such as the IDT-ICIN system of the school sister.

Not long after, Teacher Wei brought other people to 218.