Ultra high amorphous silicon passivation quality of crystalline silicon surface using in‐situ post‐deposition treatments

A parametric study of post‐deposition hydrogen plasma treatment of intrinsic a:Si:H films is performed. We demonstrate a significant improvement in passivation of c‐Si(100) promoting epitaxy after an in‐situ hydrogen plasma treatment depending mainly on the pressure and slightly on the power. Plasma diagnostic indicates an increase of H_α* signal with high power and low pressure. However, our analysis reveals a better hydrogen incorporation with high pressure and a slight increase in monohydride with high power. Longer H₂ plasma duration up to 50 s shows no detrimental effect on the passivation quality. Optimizing the in‐situ H₂ plasma treatment, high minority carrier lifetime over 15 ms was achieved after short thermal annealing. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Photonic nanostructures for advanced light trapping in silicon solar cells: the impact of etching on the material electronic quality

Dry plasma etching, commonly used by the Photonics community as the etching technique for the fabrication of photonic nanostructures, could be a source of device performance limitations when used in the frame of silicon photovoltaics. So far, the lack of silicon solar cells with state‐of‐the‐art efficiencies utilizing nanophotonic concepts shows how challenging their integration is, owing to the trade‐off between optical and electrical properties. In this study we show that dry plasma etching results in the degradation of the silicon material quality due to (i) a high density of dangling bonds and (ii) the presence of sub‐surface defects, resulting in high surface recombination velocities and low minority carrier lifetimes. On the contrary, wet chemical anisotropic etching used as an alternative, leads to the formation of inverted nanopyramids that result in low surface recombination velocity and low density of dangling bonds. The proposed inverted nanopyramids could enable high efficiency photonic assisted solar cells by offering the potential to achieve higher short‐circuit current without degrading the open circuit voltage. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Radical cation formation in characterization of novel C3-symmetric disks and their precursors by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Four C3-symmetrical tris(dipeptide) disks and their precursors were characterized using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI TOF MS). The C3-symmetrical disks were based on a benzene-1,3,5-triscarboxamide core extended by oligopeptides with trialkoxyanilide tails. The results indicate that MALDI TOF MS is a powerful and straightforward analytical technique for characterizing C3-symmetrical disks and their precursors. Clear (pseudo)-molecular ion peaks could readily be identified. It is remarkable that strong radical ion signals were observed for all the compounds, including the anilines that were expected to be protonated prior to laser irradiation using acidic MALDI matrixes. Possible mechanisms for radical ion formation were investigated with the employment of radical scavengers, with various matrixes and with direct laser desorption/ionization (LDI). Most likely the radicals are formed by losing one electron from the aniline nitrogen and stabilized by conjugation through the phenyl ring. It appears that direct photo/thermal ionization of analytes is an important route for the radical ion formation of the compounds with trialkoxy aniline/anilide groups.     

Chiral poly(ureidophthalimide) foldamers in water

Poly(ureidophthalimide)s decorated with hydrophilic side chains, that ensure solubility in aqueous media, have been synthesized and characterized by UV/Vis and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Temperature and concentration dependent CD measurements in water have revealed an almost temperature and concentration independent Cotton effect, indicative for a strong intramolecular organization. Similar studies in THF demonstrate the dynamic nature of the secondary architecture, a characteristic of foldamers. In addition, the bisignated Cotton effect in water is opposite in sign to that in THF, suggestive for a solvent-dependent preference for one helical handedness. Mixing experiments prove the dominance of water in determining the handedness of the helical architecture. The solvent allows for control over the helical architecture and thus governs the supramolecular synthesis.     

Metal-Free Electrocatalytic Diacetoxylation of Alkenes

1,2-Dioxygenation of alkenes leads to a structural motif ubiquitous in organic synthons, natural products and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Straightforward and green synthesis protocols starting from abundant raw materials are required for facile and sustainable access to these crucial moieties. Especially industrially abundant aliphatic alkenes have proven to be arduous substrates in sustainable 1,2-dioxygenation methods. Here, we report a highly efficient electrocatalytic diacetoxylation of alkenes under ambient conditions using a simple iodobenzene mediator and acetic acid as both the solvent and an atom-efficient reactant. This transition metal-free method is applicable to a wide range of alkenes, even challenging feedstock alkenes such as ethylene and propylene, with a broad functional group tolerance and excellent faradaic efficiencies up to 87 %. In addition, this protocol can be extrapolated to alkenoic acids, resulting in cyclization of the starting materials to valuable lactone derivatives. With aromatic alkenes, a competing mechanism of direct anodic oxidation exists which enables reaction under catalyst-free conditions. The synthetic method is extensively investigated with cyclic voltammetry.