title: One-Pot Large-Scale Synthesis of Carbon Quantum Dots: Efficient Cathode Interlayers for Polymer Solar Cells.
abstract: Cathode interlayers (CILs) with low-cost, low-toxicity, and excellent cathode modification ability are necessary for the large-scale industrialization of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this contribution, we demonstrated one-pot synthesized carbon quantum dots (C-dots) with high production to serve as efficient CIL for inverted PSCs. The C-dots were synthesized by a facile, economical microwave pyrolysis in a household microwave oven within 7 min. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) studies showed that the C-dots possessed the ability to form a dipole at the interface, resulting in the decrease of the work function (WF) of cathode. External quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements and 2D excitation-emission topographical maps revealed that the C-dots down-shifted the high energy near-ultraviolet light to low energy visible light to generate more photocurrent. Remarkably improvement of power conversion efficiency (PCE) was attained by incorporation of C-dots as CIL. The PCE was boosted up from 4.14% to 8.13% with C-dots as CIL, which is one of the best efficiency for i-PSCs used carbon based materials as interlayers. These results demonstrated that C-dots can be a potential candidate for future low cost and large area PSCs producing.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuzhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4802-0812
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wenlang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jiemei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhongke
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fangyan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Dingshan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2913-2432
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology , Guangzhou 510640, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhenguo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Polymeric Composite and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education of China, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for High-performance Organic and Polymer Photoelectric Functional Films, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Resin-based Composites, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9499-5421
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: carbon quantum dots; cathode interlayer; inverted polymer solar cells; large-scale industrialization; microwave pyrolysis