Porous materials for energy conversion and storage applications

McCarron, Liam (2020) Porous materials for energy conversion and storage applications. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

In recent years the field of organic electronics has seen rapid development, with both
academic and industrial relevance. Many organic electronic technologies rely on the self
assembly of the active materials to form appropriate channels/phases to either pass or
extract charges. The term ‘morphology’ is used to describe the self-assembled
channels/phases in the active layer and is key to the performance of organic electronic
devices. Porous building blocks can be used to direct the self-assembly of organic materials.

The first chapter provides an introduction to the working principles and underlying physics
of organic semiconductors, including an overview of band theory. This is followed by a
discussion of recent technologies within the field, with a particular focus on bulk
heterojunction solar cells.

The second chapter describes the use of triptycene based materials for bulk heterojunction
solar cells. The first part of this chapter details the use of triptycene and chemically
modified triptycenes as additives in PTB7:fullerene solar cells. Building on from the additive
work, the second part of this chapter describes the synthesis and characterisation of a new
library of benzothiadiazole and thiophene derived triptycene, p-type ‘donor’ materials. The
optoelectronic properties of these materials were studied, primarily by Uv-Vis
spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry, and the solid state packing of the materials (and
intermediates) were investigated by single crystal X-ray diffractometry. Many of the
synthesised materials were successfully incorporated into solar cell devices.

In chapter 3, two ‘V’ shaped Trögers base dyes were synthesised and characterised for use
in dye-sensitised solar cells. The Trögers base moiety has been utilised as a building block
in several materials for optoelectronic applications. By utilising the ‘V’ shape, it could be
possible to engineer rigid di-anchored dyes for dye sensitised solar cells.

Finally, chapter 4 describes the synthesis and characterisation of triptycene based cathode
materials for lithium ion batteries. The cathode materials were studied by single crystal X
ray diffractometry and incorporated into lithium ion batteries. In this chapter a first
attempt at synthesising tris-flavins around the triptycene framework is described.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Due to copyright issues the electronic version of this thesis is not available for viewing.
• Keywords: organic, organic semiconductors, organic electronics, porosity, solar cells, bulk heterojunction, lithium ion battery, triptycene.
• Subjects: Q Science > QD Chemistry
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Chemistry
• Supervisor's Name: Cooke, Professor Graeme
• Date of Award: 2020
• Embargo Date: 1 June 2023
• Depositing User: Dr Liam McCarron
• Unique ID: glathesis:2020-81401
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 01 Jun 2020 09:46
• Last Modified: 23 Jan 2023 13:43
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/81401

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