No abstract

We demonstrate that intercalation of fullerene derivatives between the side chains of conjugated polymers can be controlled by adjusting the fullerene size and compare the properties of intercalated and nonintercalated poly(2,5-bis(3-hexadecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (pBTTT):fullerene blends. The intercalated blends, which exhibit optimal solar-cell performance at 1:4 polymer:fullerene by weight, have better photoluminescence quenching and lower absorption than the nonintercalated blends, which optimize at 1:1. Understanding how intercalation affects performance will enable more effective design of polymer:fullerene solar cells.Polymer:fullerene bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 6.8% and are attracting a great deal of attention as a potential lowcost alternative to traditional inorganic photovoltaics.

We compare the solar cell performance of several polymers with the conventional electron acceptor phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) to fullerenes with one to three indene adducts. We find that the multiadduct fullerenes with lower electron affinity improve the efficiency of the solar cells only when they do not intercalate between the polymer side chains. When they intercalate between the side chains, the multiadduct fullerenes substantially reduce solar cell photocurrent. We use X-ray diffraction to determine how the fullerenes are arranged within crystals of poly-(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PBTTT) and suggest that poor electron transport in the molecularly mixed domains may account for the reduced solar cell performance of blends with fullerene intercalation.