TY - JOUR A1 - Meyer, S. A1 - Timmel, S. A1 - Richter, S. A1 - Werner, M. A1 - Gläser, M. A1 - Swatek, S. A1 - Braun, Ulrike A1 - Hagendorf, C. T1 - Silver nanoparticles cause snail trails in photovoltaic modules N2 - After some months of operation, a number of PV modules develop a discolouration defect called 'snail trails', or 'snail traces', which appear as irregular dark stripes across the cells. Whereas these traces were soon identified as discoloured silver contacts along the cell edges or at micro cracks, the chemical and mechanistic reasons for this phenomenon have not yet been resolved in detail. In this work we show that silver nanoparticles accumulating within the encapsulation foil cause the brownish discolouration, and that certain additives of encapsulation and back sheet foils trigger the formation of these nanoparticles. KW - Snail trails KW - Cell cracks KW - Encapsulation foil KW - Ag contact finger KW - Nanoparticles PY - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.11.013 SN - 0927-0248 VL - 121 SP - 171 EP - 175 PB - Elsevier B.V. CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-30059 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holzweber, Markus A1 - Heinrich, T. A1 - Kunz, V. A1 - Richter, S. A1 - Traulsen, C.H.-H. A1 - Schalley, C.A. A1 - Unger, Wolfgang T1 - Principal component analysis (PCA)-assisted time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS): a versatile method for the investigation of self-assembled monolayers and multilayers as precursors for the bottom-up approach of nanoscaled devices N2 - The production of high-quality self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) followed by layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly of macrocycles is essential for nanotechnology applications based on functional surface films. To help interpret the large amount of data generated by a standard ToF-SIMS measurement, principal component analysis (PCA) was used. For two examples, the advantages of a combination of ToF-SIMS and PCA for quality control and for the optimization of layer-by-layer self-assembly are shown. The first example investigates how different cleaning methods influence the quality of SAM template formation. The second example focuses on the LbL self-assembly of macrocycles and the corresponding stepwise surface modification. KW - ToF-SIMS KW - Principal component analysis KW - Self assembled monolayer KW - Layer by layer PY - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/ac500059a SN - 0003-2700 SN - 1520-6882 VL - 86 IS - 12 SP - 5740 EP - 5748 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-30963 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinrich, Thomas A1 - Traulsen, Christoph Hans-Henning A1 - Darlatt, Erik A1 - Richter, S. A1 - Poppenberg, J. A1 - Traulsen, N.L. A1 - Linder, I. A1 - Lippitz, Andreas A1 - Dietrich, Paul A1 - Dib, B. A1 - Unger, Wolfgang A1 - Schalley, C.A. T1 - The versatility of 'Click' reactions at surfaces: Molecular recognition at interfaces N2 - In order to investigate molecular recognition on surfaces, an azide-functionalized monolayer was deposited on gold. The monolayer was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and angle-resolved near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) experiments and the decomposition of the azide upon irradiation with X-ray beams was investigated. Subsequently, various alkyne-functionalized host and guest molecules were attached to the azide by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. These modified surfaces and their host–guest chemistry were analysed by XPS and angle-resolved NEXAFS. The reversibility of guest binding was shown for one example as a proof of principle. KW - 'Click' reaction KW - Azide-terminated surfaces KW - SAMs KW - Host guest molecules KW - Molecular recognition at interfaces PY - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-306463 SN - 2046-2069 VL - 4 IS - 34 SP - 17694 EP - 17702 PB - RSC Publishing CY - London AN - OPUS4-30646 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -