Dr Chris McNeill - Researcher Profile

Biography

Chris McNeill joined the Materials Engineering Department in March 2011.  He has a PhD in experimental physics, with five and a half years post-doctoral research experience working at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.  His interested include organic electronic devices such as polymer solar cells and organic field-effect transistors, as well as structural characterisation of organic semiconductor films using synchrotron-based techniques.  He has been awarded a number of high-profile fellowships including an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship to support his work in Cambridge, and an ARC Future Fellowship and VESKI Innovation Fellowship to enable him to establish his research activities in Australia.

Keywords

Conjugated polymers, Device physics, NEXAFS, Organic field-effect transistors, Organic semiconductors, Polymer solar cells, Synchrotron radiation, X-ray microscopy

Qualifications

PHD

Institution: University of Newcastle

Year awarded: 2005

SCIENCE (HONS)

Institution: University of Newcastle

Year awarded: 2000

MATHEMATICS

Institution: University of Newcastle

Year awarded: 1999

Publications

Journal Articles

Collins, B.A., Li, Z., Tumbleston, J.R., Gann, E., McNeill, C.R., Ade, H., 2013, Absolute measurement of domain composition and nanoscale size distribution explains performance in PTB7:PC71BM solar cells, Advanced Energy Materials [P], vol 3, issue 1, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co, Weinheim Germany, pp. 65-74.

Tang, Y., McNeill, C.R., 2013, All-polymer solar cells utilizing low band gap polymers as donor and acceptor, Journal Of Polymer Science Part B-Polymer Physics [P], vol 51, issue 6, Wiley-Blackwell, New York USA, pp. 403-409.

Schuettfort, T., Thomsen, L., McNeill, C.R., 2013, Observation of a distinct surface molecular orientation in films of a high mobility conjugated polymers, Journal Of The American Chemical Society [P], vol 135, issue 3, ACS Publications, Washington DC USA, pp. 1092-1101.

Yan, H., Collins, B., Gann, E., Wang, C., Ade, H., McNeill, C., 2012, Correlating the efficiency and nano-morphology of polymer blend solar cells utilizing resonant soft x-ray scattering, Acs Nano [P], vol 6, issue 1, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 677-688.

Friend, R., Phillips, M., Rao, A., Wilson, M., Li, Z., McNeill, C., 2012, Excitons and charges at organic semiconductor heterojunctions, Faraday Discussions [P], vol 155, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 339-348.

Watts, B., McNeill, C., Raabe, J., 2012, Imaging nanostructures in organic semiconductor films with scanning transmission X-ray spectro-microscopy, Synthetic Metals [P], vol 161, issue 23-24, Elsevier Science SA, Switzerland, pp. 2516-2520.

Yan, H., Schuettfort, T., Kronemeijer, A.J., McNeill, C.R., Ade, H., 2012, Influence of dielectric-dependent interfacial widths on device performance in top-gate P(NDI2OD-T2) field-effect transistors, Applied Physics Letters [P], vol 101, issue 9, American Institute of Physics, Melville NY USA, pp. 1-4.

Schuettfort, T., Watts, B., Thomsen, L., Lee, M., Sirringhaus, H., McNeill, C., 2012, Microstructure of polycrystalline PBTTT films: Domain mapping and structure formation, Acs Nano [P], vol 6, issue 2, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 1849-1864.

McNeill, C., 2012, Morphology of all-polymer solar cells, Energy & Environmental Science [P], vol 5, issue 2, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 5653-5667.

Pilet, N., Raabe, J., Stevenson, S.E., Romer, S., Bernard, L., McNeill, C.R., Fink, R., Hug, H.J., Quitmann, C., 2012, Nanostructure characterization by a combined x-ray absorption/scanning force microscopy system, Nanotechnology [P], vol 23, issue 47, IOP Publishing, Bristol UK, pp. 1-8.

Gwinner, M., Brenner, T., Lee, J., Newby, C., Ober, C., McNeill, C., Sirringhaus, H., 2012, Organic field-effect transistors and solar cells using novel high electron-affinity conjugated copolymers based on alkylbenzotriazole and benzothiadiazole, Journal Of Materials Chemistry [P], vol 22, issue 10, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 4436-4439.

Collins, B.A., Cochran, J.E., Yan, H., Gann, E., Hub, C., Fink, R., Wang, C., Schuettfort, T., McNeill, C.R., Chabinyc, M., Ade, H., 2012, Polarized x-ray scattering reveals non-crystalline orientational ordering in organic films, Nature Materials [P], vol 11, issue 6, Nature Publishing Group, London UK, pp. 536-543.

He, X., Collins, B.A., Watts, B., Ade, H., McNeill, C.R., 2012, Studying polymer/fullerene intermixing and miscibility in laterally patterned films with x-ray spectromicroscopy, Small [P], vol 8, issue 12, Wiley-VCH Verlag GMBH, Weinheim Germany, pp. 1920-1927.

Brenner, T.J., Vaynzof, Y., Li, Z., Kabra, D., Friend, R.H., McNeill, C.R., 2012, White-light bias external quantum efficiency measurements of standard and inverted P3HT: PCBM photovoltaic cells, Journal of Physics D - Applied Physics [P], vol 45, issue 41, IOP Publishing, Bristol UK, pp. 1-10.

Li, Z., Gao, F., Greenham, N., McNeill, C., 2011, Comparison of the operation of polymer/fullerene, polymer/polymer, and polymer/nanocrystal solar cells: a transient photocurrent and photovoltage study, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 21, issue 8, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 1419-1431.

Collins, B., Li, Z., McNeill, C., Ade, H., 2011, Fullerene-dependent miscibility in the silole-containing copolymer PSBTBT-08, Macromolecules [P], vol 44, issue 24, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 9747-9751.

McNeill, C., 2011, Imaging the domain structure of organic semiconductor films, Journal Of Polymer Science Part B-Polymer Physics [P], vol 49, issue 13, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 909-919.

Dalgleish, S., Labram, J., Li, Z., Wang, J., McNeill, C., Anthopoulos, T., Greenham, N., Robertson, N., 2011, Indole-subsituted nickel dithiolene complexes in electronic and optoelectronic devices, Journal Of Materials Chemistry [P], vol 21, issue 39, The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge UK, pp. 15422-15430.

Friedel, B., Brenner, T., McNeill, C., Steiner, U., Greenham, N., 2011, Influence of solution heating on the properties of PEDOT:PSS colloidal solutions and impact on the device performance of polymer solar cells, Organic Electronics: physics, materials, applications [P], vol 12, issue 10, Elsevier Science BV, The Netherlands, pp. 1736-1745.

Yan, H., Wang, C., Garcia, A., Swaraj, S., Gu, Z., McNeill, C., Schuettfort, T., Sohn, K., Kramer, E., Bazan, G., Nguyen, T., Ade, H., 2011, Interfaces in organic devices studied with resonant soft x-ray reflectivity, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 110, issue 10, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-9.

Watts, B., Schuettfort, T., McNeill, C., 2011, Mapping of domain orientation and molecular order in polycrystalline semiconducting polymer films with soft x-ray microscopy, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 21, issue 6, Wiley-VCH Verlag GMbH & Co, Germany, pp. 1122-1131.

Moore, J., Albert-Seifried, S., Rao, A., Massip, S., Watts, B., Morgan, D., Friend, R., McNeill, C., Sirringhaus, H., 2011, Polymer blend solar cells based on a high-mobility naphthalenediimide-based polymer acceptor: Device physics, photophysics and morphology, Advanced Energy Materials [P], vol 1, issue 2, Wiley, Malden MA USA, pp. 230-240.

Brenner, T., McNeill, C., 2011, Spatially resolved spectroscopic mapping of photocurrent and photoluminescence in polymer blend photovoltaic devices, Journal of Physical Chemistry C [P], vol 115, issue 39, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 19364-19370.

Asadi, K., Wondergem, H., Moghaddam, R., McNeill, C., Stingelin, N., Noheda, B., Blom, P., de Leeuw, D., 2011, Spinodal decomposition of blends of semiconducting and ferroelectric polymers, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 21, issue 10, Wiley-Blackwell, USA, pp. 1887-1894.

Schuettfort, T., Huettner, S., Lilliu, S., MacDonald, E., Thomsen, L., McNeill, C., 2011, Surface and bulk structural characterization of a highly-mobility electron-transporting polymer, Macromolecules [P], vol 44, issue 6, ACS Publications, USA, pp. 1530-1539.

Gelinas, S., Pare-Labrosse, O., Brosseau, C., Albert-Seifried, S., McNeill, C., Kirov, K., Howard, I., Leonelli, R., Friend, R., Silva, C., 2011, The binding energy of charge-transfer excitons localized at polymeric semiconductor heterojuctions, Journal of Physical Chemistry C [P], vol 115, issue 14, ACS Publications, USA, pp. 7114-7119.

Li, Z., McNeill, C., 2011, Transient photocurrent measurements of PCDTBT:PC70BM and PCPDTBT:PC70BM solar cells: Evidence for charge trapping in efficient polymer/fullerene blends, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 109, issue 7, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-7.

Oosterbaan, W., Bolsee, J., Gadisa, A., Vrindts, V., Bertho, S., D'Haen, J., Cleij, T., Lutsen, L., McNeill, C., Thomsen, L., Manca, J., Vanderzande, D., 2010, Alkyl-chain-length-independent hole mobility via morphological control with poly(3-alkylthiophene) nanofibers, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 20, issue 5, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 792-802.

Brenner, T., Hwang, I., Greenham, N., McNeill, C., 2010, Device physics of inverted all-polymer solar cells, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 107, issue 11, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 114501-1-114501-9.

Friedel, B., McNeill, C.R., Greenham, N.C., 2010, Influence of alkyl side-chain length on the performance of poly(3-alkylthiophene)/polyfluorene all-polymer solar cells, Chemistry Of Materials [P], vol 22, issue 11, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 3389-3398.

Yan, H., Swaraj, S., Wang, C., Hwang, I., Greenham, N., Groves, C., Ade, H., McNeill, C., 2010, Influence of annealing and interfacial roughness on the performance of bilayer donor/acceptor polymer photovoltaic devices, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 20, issue 24, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 4329-4337.

Collins, B., Gann, E., Guignard, L., He, X., McNeill, C., Ade, H., 2010, Molecular miscibility of polymer-fullerene blends, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters [E], vol 1, issue 21, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 3160-3166.

Swaraj, S., Wang, C., Yan, H., Watts, B., Luning, J., McNeill, C., Ade, H., 2010, Nanomorphology of bulk heterojunction photovoltaic thin films probed with resonant soft x-ray scattering, Nano Letters [P], vol 10, issue 8, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 2863-2869.

Watts, B., McNeill, C., 2010, Simultaneous surface and bulk imaging of polymer blends with x-ray spectromicroscopy, Macromolecular Rapid Communications [P], vol 31, issue 19, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 1706-1712.

McNeill, C., Asadi, K., Watts, B., Blom, P., de Leeuw, D., 2010, Structure of phase-separated ferroelectric/ semiconducting polymer blends for organic non-volatile memories, Small [P], vol 6, issue 4, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 508-512.

Flesch, H., Resel, R., McNeill, C., 2009, Charge transport properties and microstructure of polythiophene/polyfluorene blends, Organic Electronics: physics, materials, applications [P], vol 10, issue 8, Elsevier B.V., The Netherlands, pp. 1549-1555.

McNeill, C., Greenham, N., 2009, Conjugated-polymer blends for optoelectronics, Advanced Materials [P], vol 21, issue 38-39, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 3840-3850.

Hwang, I., McNeill, C., Greenham, N., 2009, Drift-diffusion modeling of photocurrent transients in bulk heterojunction solar cells, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 106, issue 9, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-10.

Friedel, B., Keivanidis, P., Brenner, T., Abrusci, A., McNeill, C., Friend, R., Greenham, N., 2009, Effects of layer thickness and annealing of PEDOT:PSS layers in organic photodetectors, Macromolecules [P], vol 42, issue 17, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 6741-6747.

McNeill, C., Watts, B., Thomsen, L., Belcher, W., Greenham, N., Dastoor, P., Ade, H., 2009, Evolution of laterally phase-separated polyfluorene blend morphology studied by x-ray spectromicroscopy, Macromolecules [P], vol 42, issue 9, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 3347-3352.

McNeill, C., Hwang, I., Greenham, N., 2009, Photocurrent transients in all-polymer solar cells: Trapping and detrapping effects, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 106, issue 2, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-8.

McNeill, C., Abrusci, A., Hwang, I., Ruderer, M., Muller-Buschbaum, P., Greenham, N., 2009, Photophysics and photocurrent generation in polythiophene/polyfluorene copolymer blends, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 19, issue 19, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 3103-3111.

Burke, K., Belcher, W., Thomsen, L., Watts, B., McNeill, C., Ade, H., Dastoor, P., 2009, Role of solvent trapping effects in determining the structure and morphology of ternary blend organic devices, Macromolecules [P], vol 42, issue 8, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 3098-3103.

Swaraj, S., Wang, C., Araki, T., Mitchell, G., Liu, L., Gaynor, S., Deshmukh, B., Yan, H., McNeill, C.R., Ade, H., 2009, The utility of resonant soft x-ray scattering and reflectivity for the nanoscale characterization of polymers, European Physical Journal-Special Topics [P], vol 167, EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, France, pp. 121-126.

Marsh, R., McNeill, C., Abrusci, A., Campbell, A., Friend, R., 2008, A unified description of current-voltage characteristics in organic and hybrid photovoltaics under low light intensity, Nano Letters [P], vol 8, issue 5, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 1393-1398.

McNeill, C., Greenham, N., 2008, Charge transport dynamics of polymer solar cells under operating conditions: Influence of trap filling, Applied Physics Letters [P], vol 93, issue 20, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-3.

McNeill, C., Halls, J., Wilson, R., Whiting, G., Berkebile, S., Ramsey, M., Friend, R., Greenham, N., 2008, Efficient polythiophene/polyfluorene copolymer bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices: Device physics and annealing effects, Advanced Functional Materials [P], vol 18, issue 16, Wiley-VCH, Germany, pp. 2309-2321.

McNeill, C., Watts, B., Swaraj, S., Ade, H., Thomsen, L., Belcher, W., Dastoor, P., 2008, Evolution of the nanomorphology of photovoltaic polyfluorene blends: Sub-100 nm resolution with x-ray spectromicroscopy, Nanotechnology [P], vol 19, issue 42, IOP Publishing Ltd, UK, pp. 1-7.

Campbell, A., Hodgkiss, J., Westenhoff, S., Howard, I., Marsh, R., McNeill, C., Friend, R., Greenham, N., 2008, Low-temperature control of nanoscale morphology for high performance polymer photovoltaics, Nano Letters [P], vol 8, issue 11, American Chemical Society, Washington DC USA, pp. 3942-3947.

Zaumseil, J., McNeill, C., Bird, M., Smith, D., Ruden, P., Roberts, M., McKiernan, M., Friend, R., Sirringhaus, H., 2008, Quantum efficiency of ambipolar light-emitting polymer field-effect transistors, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 103, issue 6, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-10.

McNeill, C., Abrusci, A., Zaumseil, J., Wilson, R., McKiernan, M., Burroughes, J., Halls, J., Greenham, N., Friend, R., 2007, Dual electron donor/electron acceptor character of a conjugated polymer in efficient photovoltaic diodes, Applied Physics Letters [P], vol 90, issue 19, American Institute of Physics, USA, pp. 1-3.

McNeill, C., Westenhoff, S., Groves, C., Friend, R., Greenham, N., 2007, Influence of nanoscale phase separation on the charge generation dynamics and photovoltaic performance of conjugated polymer blends: Balancing charge generation and separation, Journal of Physical Chemistry C [P], vol 111, issue 51, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 19153-19160.

Dastoor, P., McNeill, C., Frohne, H., Foster, C., Dean, B., Fell, C., Belcher, W., Campbell, W., Officer, D., Blake, I., Thordarson, P., Crossley, M., Hush, N., Reimers, J., 2007, Understanding and improving solid-state polymer/C60-fullerene bulk-heterojunction solar cells using ternary porphyrin blends, Journal of Physical Chemistry C [P], vol 111, issue 42, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 15415-15426.

McNeill, C., Watts, B., Thomsen, L., Ade, H., Greenham, N., Dastoor, P., 2007, X-ray microscopy of photovoltaic polyfluorene blends: Relating nanomorphology to device performance, Macromolecules [P], vol 40, issue 9, American Chemical Society, USA, pp. 3263-3270.

McNeill, C., Watts, B., Thomsen, L., Belcher, W., Greenham, N., Dastoor, P., 2006, Nanoscale quantitative chemical mapping of conjugated polymer blends, Nano Letters [P], vol 6, issue 6, American Chemical Society, Washington DC, USA, pp. 1202-1206.

McNeill, C., Dastoor, P., 2006, Photocurrent pattern formation in polymer/methanofullerene blends imaged by near-field scanning photocurrent microscopy, Journal Of Applied Physics [P], vol 99, issue 3, American Institute of Physics, New York, USA, pp. 033502-1-033502-7.

McNeill, C., Watts, B., Thomsen, L., Belcher, W., Kilcoyne, A., Greenham, N., Dastoor, P., 2006, X-ray spectromicroscopy of polymer/ fullerene composites: Quantitative chemical mapping, Small [P], vol 2, issue 12, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, pp. 1432-1435.

McNeill, C., Fell, C., Holdsworth, J., Dastoor, P., 2005, Screening for artifacts in near-field scanning photocurrent microscopy images of polymer solar cells, Synthetic Metals [P], vol 153, issue 1-3, Elsevier BV, Switzerland, pp. 85-88.

McNeill, C., Frohne, H., Holdsworth, J., Dastoor, P., 2004, Direct influence of morphology on current generation in conjugated polymer:methanofullerene solar cells measured by near-field scanning photocurrent microscopy, Synthetic Metals [P], vol 147, issue 1-3, Elsevier Science SA, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 101-104.

McNeill, C., Frohne, H., Holdsworth, J., Furst, J., King, B., Dastoor, P., 2004, Direct photocurrent mapping of organic solar cells using a near-field scanning optical microscope, Nano Letters [P], vol 4, issue 2, American Chemical Society, Washington DC, USA, pp. 219-223.

Frohne, H., McNeill, C., Wallace, G., Dastoor, P., 2004, Enhancement of polymer electronics via surface states on highly doped polymeric anodes, Journal of Physics D - Applied Physics [P], vol 37, issue 2, IOP Publishing Ltd, Bristol UK, pp. 165-170.

McNeill, C., Frohne, H., Holdsworth, J., Dastoor, P., 2004, Near-field scanning photocurrent measurements of polyfluorene blend devices: directly correlating morphology with current generation, Nano Letters [P], vol 4, issue 12, American Chemical Society, Washington DC, USA, pp. 2503-2507.

Frohne, H., McNeill, C., Dastoor, P., 2004, Photoenhanced injection currents in organic solar cells, Applied Physics Letters [P], vol 85, issue 6, American Institute of Physics, New York, USA, pp. 1042-1044.

McNeill, C., Clifton-Smith, M., Quinton, J., King, B., Hotta, S., Dastoor, P., 2004, The photovoltaic properties of phenyl-capped thiophene oligomers, Current Applied Physics [P], vol 4, issue 2-4, Elsevier Science BV, The Netherlands, pp. 335-338.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Improving efficiency of dye sensitzed solar cell.

Supervisors:

Cheng, Y (Main), Mcneill, C (Associate).