Project Description

Organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskites are emerging semiconductor materials with excellent optical and electronic properties. Over the last several years, there has been tremendous progress in the development of high performance solar cells and light emitting diodes using these materials. Because of the ionic nature of the chemical bonding and the great solubility in common organic solvents, low-temperature solution-processing approach is usually employed to process the materials and fabricate the devices. This is dramatically different from traditional inorganic materials. At such mild conditions, controlling the crystal and thin film growth and defects formation are critically important. In addition to tuning the growth parameters (e.g. temperature, precursor concentration, choice of solvents, etc.), using additives during the crystal growth is another promising way to achieve better perovskite materials. But this approach has not been well-investigated. In this joint project, we propose to use polyelectrolytes (including DNA and synthetic polymers) to guide the perovskite growth and improve their electronic properties. The combination of halide perovskites with charged polymers may lead to new type of photo-active hybrid materials with better mechanical flexibility as well as superior charge transport properties for a wide range of applications, including photovoltaics, displays, skin sensors, etc. 

Start Date

07/01/2019

Postdoc Qualifications