Visibly transparent photovoltaic devices are disclosed, such as those are transparent to visible light but absorb near-infrared light and/or ultraviolet light. The photovoltaic devices make use of transparent electrodes and near-infrared absorbing and/or ultraviolet absorbing visibly transparent photoactive compounds, which may be useful as photoactive materials, optical materials, and/or buffer materials.

An electronically pure carbon nanotube ink, includes a population of semiconducting carbon nanotubes suspended in a liquid, the ink being essentially free of metallic impurities and organic material, and characterized in that when incorporated as a carbon nanotube network in a metal/carbon nanotube network/metal double diode, a nonlinear current-bias curve is obtained on application of a potential from 0.01 V to 100 V. The ink can be used to prepare air-stable n-type thin film transistors having performances similar to current thin film transistors used in flat panel displays amorphous silicon devices and high performance p-type thin film transistors with high- dielectrics.

The present teachings relate to various embodiments of an hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system that can be readily transportable and assemblable and provide for maintaining a minimum inert gas volume and maximal access to various devices and apparatuses enclosed therein. Various embodiments of an hermetically-sealed gas enclosure assembly and system of the present teachings can have a gas enclosure assembly constructed in a fashion that minimizes the internal volume of a gas enclosure assembly, and at the same time optimizes the working space to accommodate a variety of footprints of various OLED printing systems. Various embodiments of a gas enclosure assembly so constructed additionally provide ready access to the interior of a gas enclosure assembly from the exterior during processing and readily access to the interior for maintenance, while minimizing downtime.

A method for using a vacuum apparatus that includes a vacuum chamber and a pump, the vacuum chamber housing an object, the pump reducing an internal pressure of the vacuum chamber, the method including: ventilating inside the vacuum chamber by introducing a gas into the vacuum chamber and discharging the gas from the vacuum chamber by causing the pump to reduce the internal pressure of the vacuum chamber. In the ventilating, a discharge rate at which molecules of the gas per unit volume are discharged is at least 3.310.sup.5 mol/(s.Math.L), and the temperature in the vacuum chamber is at least 15 C. and at most 80 C.

Described is an active layer having a first surface region and a bulk region, the active layer comprising a small molecule component and a polymer component, wherein the relative concentration of the small molecule component is lower in the first surface than in the bulk region. Also described is a method of producing a surface-modified active layer comprising the steps of providing a pristine active layer comprising a small molecule component and a polymer component; applying an adhesive to the exposed surface of the pristine active layer to produce an adhesive-bound active layer; and removing the adhesive from the adhesive-bound active layer, and a method of producing electrical energy from sunlight, such as sunlight deposited over bodies of water.

Visibly transparent photovoltaic devices are disclosed, such as those are transparent to visible light but absorb near-infrared light and/or ultraviolet light. The photovoltaic devices make use of transparent electrodes and near-infrared absorbing visibly transparent photoactive compounds, optical materials, and/or buffer materials.

According to example embodiments, a method includes dispersing carbon nanotubes in a mixed solution containing a solvent, the carbon nanotubes, and a dispersant, the carbon nanotubes including semiconducting carbon nanotubes, the dispersant comprising a polythiophene derivative including a thiophene ring and a hydrocarbon sidechain linked to the thiophene ring. The hydrocarbon sidechain includes an alkyl group containing a carbon number of 7 or greater. The hydrocarbon sidechain may be regioregularly arranged, and the semiconducting carbon nanotubes are selectively separated from the mixed solution. An electronic device includes semiconducting carbon nanotubes and the foregoing described polythiophene derivative.

A method for making electronic devices based on derivatized ladder polymer poly(benzo-isimidazobenzophenanthroline) (BBL) including photovoltaic modules and simple thin film transistors in planar and mechanically flexible and stretchable constructs.

A method for manufacturing an organic electroluminescent (EL) display panel through a printing process of applying a raw material liquid between banks disposed on a board, the raw material liquid containing an organic EL material. The method includes, before the printing process: a detection process of detecting a contaminant A present on the board; an information generation process of generating, when the contaminant A is detected, position information indicating a position of the contaminant A; and a resin application process of applying an inhibitory resin to at least one of the contaminant A and a region in the vicinity of the contaminant A based on the position information.

High-performance carbon nanotube (CNT) based millimeter-wave transistor technologies and demonstrate monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs) based thereon, and methods and processes for the fabrication thereof are also provided. CNT technologies and MMICs demonstrate improved power efficiency, linearity, noise and dynamic range performance over existing GaAs, SiGe and RF-CMOS technologies. Methods and processes in CNT alignment and deposition, material contact and doping are configured to fabricate high quality CNT arrays beyond the current state-of-the-art and produce high performance RF transistors that are scalable to wafer size to enable fabrication of monolithic integrated circuits based on CNTs.