Three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructures, a method of making them, and their application in quantum dot-polymer nanocomposite photodetectors and photovoltaics
First Claim
1. A nanocomposite layered device, comprising:
- a three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure including at least two materials with a first material formed on a substrate so that a surface of the first material completely covers a surface of the substrate, a second material located on the first material, said first and second materials each having a structure and morphology that includes protrusions with substantially no islands, the first material and the second material each being spatially continuous, the protrusions from said first material penetrate into said second material and said protrusions from said second material penetrate into said first material to form an irregular interpenetrating interface between said first and second materials, the protrusions from the first material being opposite the surface of the first material that completely covers the surface of the substrate;
at least one of said first and second materials includes at least one of a plurality of visible-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles and/or at least one of a plurality of infrared-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles; and
wherein upon absorption of light by said visible and/or infrared-absorbing quantum dot nanoparticles, an electron-hole pair is formed which drifts to said interpenetrating interface wherein said the electron-hole pair is separated.
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Abstract
The present invention provides of a three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure, a method of producing same, and the application of this structure towards the realization of photodetecting and photovoltaic devices working in the visible and the near-infrared. The three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure includes two interpenetrating layers which are spatially continuous, they are include only protrusions or peninsulas, and no islands. The method of producing the three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure relies on forming an essentially planar continuous bottom layer of a first material; forming a layer of this first material on top of the bottom layer which is textured to produce protrusions for subsequent interpenetration with a second material, coating this second material onto this structure; and forming a final coating with the second material that ensures that only the second material is contacted by subsequent layer. One of the materials includes visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles, and one of materials is a hole conductor and the other is an electron conductor.
266 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A nanocomposite layered device, comprising:
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a three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure including at least two materials with a first material formed on a substrate so that a surface of the first material completely covers a surface of the substrate, a second material located on the first material, said first and second materials each having a structure and morphology that includes protrusions with substantially no islands, the first material and the second material each being spatially continuous, the protrusions from said first material penetrate into said second material and said protrusions from said second material penetrate into said first material to form an irregular interpenetrating interface between said first and second materials, the protrusions from the first material being opposite the surface of the first material that completely covers the surface of the substrate; at least one of said first and second materials includes at least one of a plurality of visible-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles and/or at least one of a plurality of infrared-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles; and wherein upon absorption of light by said visible and/or infrared-absorbing quantum dot nanoparticles, an electron-hole pair is formed which drifts to said interpenetrating interface wherein said the electron-hole pair is separated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification