I Have a Research Support System

On Monday, at the group meeting, Wei Xingsi first notified everyone:

"The 'Organic Photovoltaic Symposium' led by us will be held next Monday and Tuesday, that is, December 13th and 14th."

"Teachers from other schools, including Feng Shengdong who flew over from Sweden, will come one after another on Sunday or Monday. We need to do some preparations."

"Wu Feifei is mainly responsible for this aspect, including hotel reservations, and I will send you the summary of other teachers' reports later, and you will design the poster and post it in advance."

"Okay." Wu Feifei nodded in agreement.

"Yeah." Wei Xingsi looked around: "Let's start the meeting."

Wu Feifei and Sun Wo reported first.

Now the perovskite team mainly has two works, semi-transparent devices based on two-dimensional perovskite materials, and stacked devices.

Among them, the processing technology of the translucent two-dimensional perovskite device has been further improved, and the device efficiency has been optimized to 7.5%, which needs to be further improved.

Another stacked two-dimensional perovskite device is not going very well.

Because the effective layer materials of two-dimensional perovskite and organic photovoltaics, as well as the corresponding transmission layer materials, the solvents and processing methods used in the preparation are very different, and it can even be said to be completely reversed.

For example, the active layer material of perovskite uses solvents such as DMF and DMSO with high polarity, and the transport layer uses relatively low polar solvents such as chlorobenzene; while the active layer of organic photovoltaic materials uses chlorobenzene , chloroform and other low polar solvents, the transport layer uses methanol, formic acid and other high polar solvents.

As a result, Wu Feifei and the others could not fully refer to their experience in the preparation of organic photovoltaic stacked devices, and needed to explore the processing technology of perovskite stacked devices by themselves.

Although there are many international peer-reviewed literatures for research on perovskite stacked devices, it still takes time to transform other people's methods into our own.

The last thermoelectric work that Duan Yun submitted before was not rejected by the ACSAMI journal, but received a minor revision opinion. The article was successfully accepted last week and received a bonus of 1,000 yuan.

Now Duan Yun's graduation thesis has been written, and all the work in hand has been handed over and processed.

Although I am still struggling with where to develop after that, I basically don't have to worry about not being able to find a job.

Therefore, he is leisurely and leisurely all day long, which can be regarded as enjoying the last campus time.

According to Duan Yun, apart from about seven or eight unlucky ones who have delayed their graduation, among the doctoral students at the same level as him, most of them have more or less received offers.

Although it is a material major in the four major tiankengs, it is still quite popular to graduate with a Ph.D. from Modu Comprehensive University.

For a big factory like Warwick, in the past two years, about 5%-10% of the master's and doctoral students in the Department of Materials have passed each year, and this proportion is not low.

There are also some companies invested by large capital with strong funds. The company opened in Shencheng, and then went to Shanghai to "buy goods", that is, to the top domestic 985/211 universities such as Shanghai University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Tongji University. Recruiting in batches involves dozens or hundreds of people in one move, with unified training and high salaries.

Although Guangdong Province has two first-tier cities, the quality of colleges and universities is still inferior to that of Kyoto and Shanghai.

Tian Qing continued to work on "Research on the charge transport mechanism of non-fullerene systems with linear changes in the three HOMO energy levels", and began to write an article based on the test results of Feng Shengdong in Sweden.

However, because this work has neither new materials, high device performance to support, nor too disruptive discoveries, so I can only publish a small article and plan to submit to ACSAMI.

Chen Wanqing brought some news about Blue River Company.

Now, the "first-generation thin-film printing instrument" of Blue River's main company has been tested, and various procedures have been completed, and it is officially launched for sale.

At present, the function of this machine is relatively simple, and it can only perform the most basic scraping and coating operations. It is still far from the blue river's vision of "using one instrument to realize various forms of film printing".

Therefore, the price of the instrument is not set too high, and it is 5,000 soft sister coins for the time being.

Of course, for things like instruments, if the cost of research and development is excluded and only the cost of materials is counted, the gross profit is very high.

For example, the core components of this "first-generation thin film printing machine" are a heating table, a control chip, a special ceramic scraper, a set of stainless steel frame and a plastic casing, and the total material cost is only a few hundred dollars.

R\u0026D costs are the big ones. It took less than half a year to develop this instrument, staff salaries, site rental fees, material loss during the R\u0026D process, etc., all of which cost more than six figures.

Moreover, scientific research instruments can basically only be sold to university research groups or research institutes in specific fields. The audience is relatively narrow, and it is difficult to make small profits but quick turnover.

Therefore, instrument manufacturers are basically asking for prices, and they can sell one.

Similarly, all kinds of high-end instruments monopolized by foreign countries, whether it is a lithography machine, an electron microscope, or a nuclear magnetic resonance instrument, cost several million, tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions. Asking price", the cost itself may be less than 10% of the selling price, and the after-sales service is also very expensive.

The same is true for drugs, and there is a big premium.

These are the rules of the game in a world where peace is the main theme due to the existence of nuclear deterrence.

Western developed countries have become "gentle", no longer using hot weapons to conquer the world, but harvesting the world's wealth through technological advantages.

In order to sell instruments, Blue River and the others started part-time sales, and went to various laboratories to carry out on-site promotion. At present, it is more convenient to start with major universities and research institutes in Shanghai.

For this kind of small start-up company, the initial stage is indeed very difficult, and everyone has to act as a generalist.

Only when the team grows gradually, can the division of responsibilities be more detailed, such as setting up pre-sales, after-sales, R\u0026D and other departments.

Wei Xingsi directly contacted Lanhe to buy a "first-generation thin film printing machine". The instrument cost 5,000 yuan, which is not expensive.

Moreover, Blue River also offered a 32% discount, which was less than 4,000 yuan after tax.

However, this hanging ladder instrument will volatilize solvents during use, so it must be put into a fume hood or a glove box. There is really no place to put it in Handan, so it can only be temporarily put in the Jiangwan campus to eat ashes and wait for the laboratory. It can only be used after the overall relocation.

In addition, Blue River Optoelectronic Materials Company has acquired a new customer, and several old customers will occasionally repurchase.

Although it has not yet achieved profitability, it is able to add one or two customers sporadically every week. The situation is gradually improving, and the types of materials have gradually become more abundant.

Finally it was Xu Qiu's turn, and he had two important news to report.

On the first page of the PPT, Xu Qiu directly put the results of the J-V curve and the device structure diagram: "Stacked devices, the efficiency is 14.02%!"

"Hey, this is amazing, 14%, breaking the world record." Wei Xingsi stood up excitedly, looked at the image on the projection screen, and nodded repeatedly.

"Yang Yang's group was very good at making stacked devices before, and I visited their research group, and their equipment is very good." Wei Xingsi looked at Xu Qiu with a smile, and said, "To be honest, making stacked devices The threshold is still relatively high. I didn’t have much hope for the stacked devices in the group before, but now I didn’t expect to break through, which is very good.”

Xu Qiu nodded in response. It is really troublesome to make laminated devices, and the processing technology is very complicated. He is still in the process of exploring, but he has a scientific research auxiliary system, so he still has a great advantage in exploring this processing technology.

For example, the current 14% result, the simulation laboratory saved him at least one month of experiment time.

Xu Qiu continued to report on the prospect of stacked devices: "Next, I plan to apply the 1D/2A ternary system to the bottom cell of the stacked device, by regulating the non-fullerene acceptors and fullerene receptors in the ternary system. The ratio of the ene acceptor PCBM can precisely control the current density of the bottom cell and the top cell, so as to obtain a stacked device with a more suitable current density and achieve a further breakthrough in efficiency..."

Wei Xingsi was slightly taken aback when he heard the words "Triple System".

But when he finished Xu Qiu's report carefully, sat back on the chair and thought for a while, he figured out the joints, and said with satisfaction: "Wonderful, this method is really good, it's worth a try."

Xu Qiu let out a "hmm", turned the page of the PPT, and threw out another big news: "Based on the Y series receptors, the J4:Y3 system has an efficiency of 14.5%!"

"How much? 14.5%?!" Wei Xingsi just sat down, jumped up from the chair again, stared at the projection screen carefully for a long time, and even asked slightly nervously: "Is there no water in this data?"

"Without moisture, they are all real data," Xu Qiu replied seriously: "Based on this system, the efficiency value does not fluctuate much. With 70% of the data points, the efficiency has reached more than 14%."

"Huh——" Wei Xingsi took a long breath, tilted his head, reached out and kept stroking his non-existent beard, and muttered: "The short-circuit current density is 25.31 milliamps per square centimeter, the open-circuit voltage is 0.82 volts, and the fill factor is 0.70. Photoelectric conversion Efficiency 14.53%..."

After about half a minute, Wei Xingsi faltered in stroking his beard, and said to Xu Qiu, "That's it for now. After the group meeting, Xu Qiu, come to my office and discuss it together."

Afterwards, he looked around and said in a stern tone: "You must keep this result a secret, and you must not disclose it to anyone other than the research team, understand?"

After finishing speaking, Wei Xingsi looked at Mo Wenlin and the four new undergraduates in turn, and after getting their nods in response, he signaled that the group would continue.

Seeing Wei Xingsi's state, Xu Qiu couldn't help but mutter inwardly. Fortunately, Teacher Wei has no heart problems, otherwise it would be bad if he was shocked by the result.

It seems that we should not continue to surprise Mr. Wei in the future, we need a buffer.

The optoelectronic performance data based on the Y series acceptor device is indeed very powerful, especially in terms of short-circuit current density.

For traditional PCBM-based devices, the short-circuit current density can reach 20 mA per square centimeter, which is a very rare result. Generally, it is 18 or 19. If it exceeds 20 mA per square centimeter, it is considered to be "explosive", and in this The open circuit voltage in this case is usually not high, maybe only 0.6 or 0.7 volts.

Now, not only the short-circuit current density is more than 25 mA per square centimeter, but the open-circuit voltage can also reach 0.8 volts, and the final device efficiency is naturally very high.

Xu Qiu speculates that one of the reasons for this situation is that the ITIC series, and even the later Y series of non-fullerene materials, do not require a high "driving force" to achieve good charge splitting and transport.

For the PCBM series, the driving force is generally above 0.3 electron volts, which corresponds to an open circuit voltage loss of 0.3 volts or more on the device.

Now, non-fullerene systems only need an energy level difference of less than 0.1 electron volts to achieve good charge splitting.

In other words, other things being equal, the open-circuit voltage of these non-fullerene systems is inherently higher than that of the traditional fullerene system by about 0.2 volts.

Although it is only 0.2 volts, it feels very little. If the base is 0.6 volts, if it is increased to 0.8 volts, it is equivalent to a full one-third increase.

Reflected in the device efficiency, it may be changed from the original 10% to the current 13.3%. This increase is still very exaggerated.

Han Jiaying finished writing the AM article on J4 donor material and dropped it last Thursday. Next, she began to write an article on H5 material, the target journal JMCA, and at the same time performed related performance characterization of PTQ1 material.

Now the junior girl's ability to write articles has also improved a lot, and she doesn't need Xu Qiu's help to rewrite long paragraphs. Her English foundation is relatively good.

In language learning, the foundation laid in the early stage is still very important, and it is relatively difficult to improve and improve the day after tomorrow.

For example, senior sister Chen Wanqing has written so many articles back and forth, and Xu Qiu still finds the articles that are published now a bit irritating.

Speaking of which, many people in China suggest reducing the proportion of English in the middle school curriculum, lowering the scores of English subjects in the college entrance examination, canceling the English test, and so on.

Some people think that English is useless for most students, but it takes up a lot of study time for students.

Some people think that English is a language subject that requires talent, and if you don't have talent, you can't learn it well.

Another claimed: "If it wasn't because I only scored 50 points in the English test of the college entrance examination, I would have gone to Qingbei University, and now I can only go to an ordinary 211."

But the reality is that for top students, the subject that can finally widen the gap in college entrance examination scores is actually Chinese.

Look at the score structure of Xueba with a score of around 700. Mathematics is almost a full score of 150. The most wrong choice is 145. English is generally 140+, Chinese 120-140, and comprehensive 280+.

Among them, the score difference in Chinese is the largest and the most difficult to raise.

English, on the other hand, is probably the only subject that continues to make a big difference after leaving the university.

Not to mention those who choose to study in graduate school, the importance of English is even more than that of professional courses.

If you choose employment, proficiency in English can also give you another way to break the internal pressure, that is to go out and earn foreign exchange.

Moreover, many job opportunities require proficiency in English, but almost no one has heard of requirements for proficiency in mathematics, Chinese, physics, chemistry, and biology.

Of course, the influence of other subjects on people is invisible. For example, mathematics, physics and chemistry can improve logical thinking ability, Chinese can improve eloquence, etc., but these abilities are difficult to exist as a threshold.

However, English is a real threshold for certain industries, such as high-end service industries and foreign companies.

Most people are ordinary people, and there is actually not much difference in ability. Even if a 985 undergraduate is taken out to compete with nine Pudong undergraduates, excluding the consideration of school background, that 985 student may not be able to stand out.

But in the actual job hunting process, "985" may win out of these ten people.

Proficiency in English is similar.

On the one hand, Wu Shengnan tutored two undergraduates last week to carry out experiments on the synthesis, characterization and device testing of FOIC materials.

On the other hand, I am busy writing the application for the Jieqing Fund. The application is roughly divided into three progressive parts-the development of near-infrared receptor materials, semi-transparent devices, and laminated devices. Now these three parts have Preliminary work is used as support.

Writing a fund application is still a troublesome thing. Writing a notebook is more labor-intensive than writing a large SCI article. After all, the quality of the notebook is directly related to whether you can apply for funding, so in all aspects Do everything to the extreme.

Fortunately, Xu Qiu was only responsible for putting forward some guiding opinions, so it was relatively easy.

Mo Wenlin's stacked devices achieved 13.5%+12.3%=14.0% this week, which is quite a breakthrough.

However, Xu Qiu has said everything that needs to be said. She just reported the progress of her ternary system. Based on the J2:PCE10:IEICO-4F system, the efficiency is 12%+.

Finally, it was the turn of the four undergraduates to report.

Although they are all newcomers, they are very motivated and full of energy to learn. Now they have been in the group for nearly two and a half months, and they can basically be counted as half of their labor.

This is mainly because they only come to the research group for two or three days a week. If they work for five or six days, each of them can be equivalent to a Sun Wo.

After all, the threshold for scientific research is high or low.

In terms of individual experimental operations, in fact, there is not much technical content. If the skilled workers on the assembly line are brought in for training for one or two months, basically they can learn everything that should be learned.

The most important thing is to look at the scientific thinking and ideas behind it.

This is why when posting an article, the person who gave the idea and the article is usually considered to have made a greater contribution and will be listed as the first work, while the contribution of the person who actually does the work and the experiment is relatively small and will be listed as the second work.

After the group meeting, Xu Qiu followed Mr. Wei to Caiyi 218.

Wei Xingsi handed Xu Qiu a bottle of Perrier, then pulled away the swivel chair next to the desk, and said with a smile: "Come, sit here, and talk about the two systems whose efficiency broke 14% in detail."

Xu Qiu was not too polite, unscrewed the cap of the Perrier bottle, took a sip, and moistened his throat.

Isn't this soda, with a faint lime flavor...

It seems that there is nothing wrong with it. What they sell is indeed soda.

Xu Qiu explained in detail the process of optimizing stacked devices and Y-series materials, as well as the subsequent planning:

"...After that, my experimental plan..."

"The Y series receptors are mainly to modify the central DAD unit, keep the D unit unchanged, modify the A unit, and plan to use BT, NTT and other structural units to replace NT..."

"For laminated devices, in addition to using the active layer of the ternary system as the bottom cell, adjusting the blending ratio of the ternary system, and the thickness of the top cell and bottom cell, I plan to improve the transport layer material at the same time..."

"For the specific solution, I found a better transmission layer material, M-PEDOT, which can replace the ordinary PEDOT used before..."

Xu Qiu didn't intend to completely rely on Mo Wenlin for these tasks. It was fine to let her do the preliminary experiments, but he had to rely mainly on himself for the subsequent experiments.

After all, Mo Wenlin is just a newcomer who has just started. Most of the time, she will only passively execute instructions and cannot improve independently.

Xu Qiu set a small goal for himself. Before the winter vacation, at least one of the two systems must achieve a breakthrough, and the efficiency should reach more than 15%.

Although in the current simulation experiment system, the performance of the Y series has reached 14.8%, which is a line higher than the 14.5% of the laminated system, but Xu Qiu is more optimistic about the laminated system, because the Y series materials, if you want to change the molecular structure, the workload bigger.

The laminated system only needs to adjust the process, which is relatively easier to give full play to the advantages of the system.

Wei Xingsi couldn't help nodding, and his eyes sparkled when he heard the last word: "So, the efficiency of both systems is expected to increase by 15%?"

"Well, very promising." Xu Qiu said confidently: "I'm going to try to hit the CNS."

"No wonder you asked me how much bonus I get for posting CNS. It turns out that I have already figured it out." Wei Xingsi smiled, and suggested: "How about combining the two paths together and using the Y series as a stack? Will this be okay?" It will be more secure, and the results will be faster."

Xu Qiu thought for a moment and responded: "I plan to use only the ITIC series for stacking. On the one hand, it is a perfect ending for the ITIC series. On the other hand, the stacked devices mainly consider the bottom cell and the top cell. The complementarity of the system does not mean that the performance of the binary system is necessarily suitable for stacking."

"Hmm... okay, I'm just impatient, just proceed according to your idea." Wei Xingsi changed the subject: "By the way, next Monday's 'Organic Photovoltaic Symposium', I plan to let you represent our research group at the conference Can you give a presentation on the Internet?"

Xu Qiu was stunned for a moment, he had never thought that Teacher Wei would let him speak at all.

The standard of the report this time is still relatively high, no less than the meeting organized by Gong Yuanjiang last time, and he is still the host of the meeting, so if it messes up, it will be a big shame.

However, this is a very good opportunity to exercise, and it can also be regarded as a preview before going to the beautiful country to participate in the MRS conference.

Thinking of this, Xu Qiu responded, "I can."

"Okay." Wei Xingsi nodded: "Then you prepare the PPT, which lasts about half an hour, and then confirm the specific session arrangement with Wu Feifei."