IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v4y2013i1d10.1038_ncomms3679.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Harvesting singlet fission for solar energy conversion via triplet energy transfer

Author

Listed:
  • John R. Tritsch

    (Texas Materials Institute, University of Texas
    Present address: Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Oregon 97124, USA)

  • Wai-Lun Chan

    (Texas Materials Institute, University of Texas
    Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA)

  • Xiaoxi Wu

    (Columbia University)

  • Nicholas R. Monahan

    (Columbia University)

  • X-Y. Zhu

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

The efficiency of a conventional solar cell may be enhanced if one incorporates a molecular material capable of singlet fission, that is, the production of two triplet excitons from the absorption of a single photon. To implement this, we need to successfully harvest the two triplets from the singlet fission material. Here we show in the tetracene (Tc)/copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) model system that triplets produced from singlet fission in the former can transfer to the later on the timescale of 45±5 ps. However, the efficiency of triplet energy transfer is limited by a loss channel due to faster formation (400±100 fs) and recombination (2.6±0.5 ps) of charge transfer excitons at the interface. These findings suggest a design principle for efficient energy harvesting from singlet fission: one must reduce interfacial area between the two organic chromophores to minimize charge transfer/recombination while optimizing light absorption, singlet fission and triplet rather than singlet transfer.

Suggested Citation

  • John R. Tritsch & Wai-Lun Chan & Xiaoxi Wu & Nicholas R. Monahan & X-Y. Zhu, 2013. "Harvesting singlet fission for solar energy conversion via triplet energy transfer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3679
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3679
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms3679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3679. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.