{"id":5236,"date":"2025-10-10T11:34:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/?p=5236"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:34:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:34:39","slug":"nanosensors-afm-probes-enable-nanoscale-insights-into-organic-photovoltaics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/nanosensors-afm-probes-enable-nanoscale-insights-into-organic-photovoltaics\/","title":{"rendered":"NANOSENSORS\u2122 AFM Probes Enable Nanoscale Insights into Organic Photovoltaics"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their 2023 Nature Communications article, \u201cPrecise synthesis and photovoltaic properties of giant molecule acceptors,\u201d<\/a>Hongmei Zhuo, Xiaojun Li, Jinyuan Zhang, Can Zhu, Haozhe He, Kan Ding, Jing Li, Lei Meng, Harald Ade, and Yongfang Li<\/strong><\/em> report a transformative advance in organic solar cell design. By precisely linking multiple small-molecule acceptors into \u201cgiant molecule acceptors\u201d (GMAs), the researchers enhanced exciton diffusion and charge transport. Their three-unit GMA reached an impressive power conversion efficiency of 16.32%, highlighting how molecular architecture directly influences photovoltaic performance.
\nTo unravel how these novel GMAs self-assemble, the team turned to photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM) using a VistaScope system from Molecular Vista, Inc. PiFM provides chemical contrast at the nanoscale, allowing direct visualization of donor\u2013acceptor phase separation \u2014 a critical factor in solar cell efficiency.
\nAt the core of these PiFM measurements were NANOSENSORS\u2122 gold PPP-NCHAu<\/a>. Specifically engineered for dynamic AFM modes, the PPP-NCHAu probes combine sharp, stable silicon tips with reflective gold coatings<\/a>. This design ensures excellent signal-to-noise ratio and robust laser alignment, making them ideally suited for detecting near-field photoinduced forces. Paired with an infrared excitation source (Laser Tune IR, Block Engineering), the probes enabled domain-specific chemical mapping of the active layers.
\nThe synergy of advanced PiFM instrumentation and the high-performance NANOSENSORS\u2122 PPP-NCHAu<\/a> cantilevers was pivotal in linking synthetic chemistry with device physics. By making nanoscale phase behavior visible, these probes helped demonstrate how precise molecular design translates into real-world solar cell performance.
\nThis study exemplifies how precision AFM probes from NANOSENSORS\u2122 empower researchers to reveal hidden nanoscale phenomena \u2014 accelerating innovation in materials science and organic electronics.<\/p>\n

Fig. 6: PiFM images of the blend films.<\/strong>
\n\"PiFM<\/a>
\nThe PiFM images of the PM6:acceptors blend films at the characteristic IR wavenumbers of 1640\u2009cm\u22121 for the a donor PM6 and of 1540\u2009cm\u22121 for the b acceptors YDT, DY, TY, QY and PY-IT. c the combined images of the corresponding a and b for PM6:YDT, PM6:DY, PM6:TY, PM6:QY and PM6:PY-IT blend films.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article contains images reused from Jia et al., Nature Communications 14, 1394 (2023), licensed under CC BY 4.0.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their 2023 Nature Communications article, \u201cPrecise synthesis and photovoltaic properties of giant molecule acceptors,\u201dHongmei Zhuo, Xiaojun Li, Jinyuan Zhang, Can Zhu, Haozhe He, Kan Ding, Jing Li, Lei Meng, Harald Ade, and Yongfang Li report a transformative advance in organic solar cell design. By precisely linking multiple small-molecule acceptors into \u201cgiant molecule acceptors\u201d (GMAs),… Read More »NANOSENSORS\u2122 AFM Probes Enable Nanoscale Insights into Organic Photovoltaics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,16],"tags":[77,1198,312,1197,27,213],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nanosensors-news","category-science-technology","tag-nanosensors","tag-photo-included-force-microscopy","tag-photovoltaics","tag-pifm","tag-pointprobe-plus-ppp","tag-ppp-nchau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5245,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions\/5245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nanosensors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}