Investigation of structural, optical, and electrical properties of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)/fullerene blend nanocomposites for organic solar cells

Boland, Patrick; Sunkavalli, Sri Sabarinadh; Chennuri, Sampath; Foe, Kurniawan; Abdel‐Fattah, Tarek M.; Namkoong, Gon

doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2009.11.065

Cited by 35 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The origins of these variations are not fully resolved, but most probably related to details of device fabrication (for example, photoactive layer and electrode composition) and experimental measurement conditions (for example, light exposure, temperature, pre-evaluation initial device annealing). For example, our own studies have indicated that the longer lifetimes reported in Bertho et al 32 are most probably related to the use a pre-evaluation annealing step, so excluding any initial performance degradation from their study, and due to the use of PC 70 BM as an electron acceptor (which is reported to have superior morphological stability in blend films than PC 60 BM 35,36 ). The stability data we report herein is clearly limited in scope and timescale, but unequivocally demonstrates that light exposure can have a positive impact upon thermal stability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Performance enhancement of fullerene-based solar cells by light processing

et al. 2013

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A key challenge to the commercialization of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells is the achievement of morphological stability, particularly under thermal stress conditions. Here we show that a low-level light exposure processing step during fabrication of blend polymer:PC 60 BM solar cells can result in a 10-fold increase in device thermal stability and, under certain conditions, enhanced device performance. The enhanced stability is linked to the light-induced oligomerization of PC 60 BM that effectively hinders their diffusion and crystallization in the blend. We thus suggest that light processing may be a promising, general and cost-effective strategy to optimize fullerene-based solar cell performance. The low level of light exposure required suggests not only that this may be an easily implementable strategy to enhance performance, but also that light-induced PC 60 BM oligomerization may have inadvertently influenced previous studies of organic solar cell device behaviour.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Performance enhancement of fullerene-based solar cells by light processing

et al. 2013

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“…The PTB7 film showed two intense vibronic peaks at 620 and 670 nm. The photon absorption of the PC 71 BM film was larger than that of the PC 61 BM film in the visible light wavelength range between 400 and 600 nm [42]. Figure 4 shows the UV-vis spectra of the PTB7:PC 61 BM:PC 71 BM blend films with different PC 61 BM weight fractions ranging from 0 to 100%.…”

Section: Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The surface can absorb as many as six electrons, suggesting that PC 61 BM is a good electron acceptor. PC 71 BM has been widely investigated, as it exhibits significantly high photon absorption within the visible light wavelengths, resulting in high power conversion efficiency solar cells [42]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bulk-heterojunction Solar Cells Based on Ternary Blend Active Layers of PTB7, PC<sub>61</sub>BM, and PC<sub>71</sub>BM

Qiu

Kiriishi

Hashiba

et al. 2015

J. Photopol. Sci. Technol.

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Bulk-heterojunction solar cells were fabricated using ternary blend dichlorobenzene solutions of poly [4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC 61 BM):[6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC 71 BM) with different weight ratios between PC 61 BM and PC 71 BM. In all the solar cells, the overall weight ratio of polymer to fullerene was maintained at 1:1.5, while the composition of the fullerene component (PC 61 BM:PC 71 BM) was varied. The ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra of these ternary blend films showed that the photon absorptions at wavelengths between 300 and 800 nm continuously decreased with the increase of the PC 61 BM weight fraction in the PC 61 BM and PC 71 BM total weight. The measurement results of the solar cell performance showed that the open-circuit voltage notably increased for PC 61 BM weight fractions between 10% and 90%, while it decreased at 100%. The short-circuit current showed the most significant increase in the PC 61 BM weight fraction range between 50% and 60%. A power conversion efficiency of 3.4% was achieved when the PC 61 BM weight fraction was between 50% and 60%. These results may suggest that the transport of the photoexcited electrons between the cathode and the PC 61 BM/PC 71 BM nanodomains was enhanced.

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“…This result was achieved through optimisation of the morphology by various treatments, such as thermal annealing [9][10][11][12], solvent annealing [13,14], substrate annealing [15] or the use of additives [16,17], which can lead to a molecular rearrangement of the spin-coated film. Metal oxide nanostructures, such as titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) [18,19], zinc oxide (ZnO) [20][21][22][23], and tin dioxide (SnO 2 ) [24], possess unique properties such as high conductivity, mobility and good stability in comparison with their PCBM counterpart.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiment details 2.1 Materials and chemicals Regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (rr-P3HT) polymer (molecular weight ~ 64,000 gmol − 1 ; regioregularity > 98.5% for head-to-tail), buckminsterfullerene-C 60 (99.5% purity grade), PCBM (99.5% purity grade), zinc nitrate, potassium hydroxide (KOH), indium tin oxide (ITO) (coated on a 1 mm glass substrate (surface resistivity [8][9][10][11][12] Ω/sq −1 )) and chloroform (anhydrous, ≥99%) solution were purchased from SigmaAldrich and silicon (Si) (100) with resistivity of 1-30 Ω/cm, thickness of 375 ± 25 μm, was purchased from Semiconductor Wafer, Inc. All chemicals were used as received without any purification.…”

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confidence: 99%

Annealing effect of hybrid solar cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) and zinc-oxide nanostructures

et al. 2013

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Motaung, D. et al. (2013). Annealing effect of hybrid solar cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) and zinc-oxide nanostructures. Thin Solid Films, Abstract:The structural growth and optical and photovoltaic properties of the organic-inorganic hybrid structures of zinc oxide (ZnO)-nanorods/poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) and two variations of organic polymer blends of ZnO/ P3HT:C60 fullerene and ZnO/P3HT:6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester were studied in detail during thermal annealing. The ordering of the P3HT nanocrystals increased during annealing, which also improved hole transport in the hybrid structures. The optical constants of the ZnO/P3HT:[6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) films elevated with annealing temperature due to the improved crystallisation induced by the formation of P3HT crystalline domains. As a result, a maximum power conversion efficiency of approximately 1.03% was achieved for the annealed ZnO/P3HT:PCBM device at 140 °C. These findings indicate that ZnOnanorods/P3HT:PCBM films are stable at temperatures up to 160 °C. IntroductionSince the discovery of their electroluminescence [1], conjugated polymers have been extensively studied for a wide range of opto-electronic applications such as polymer light emitting diodes [2] and organic photovoltaic devices [3]. The advantage of conjugated polymers over other electronic materials is that they can be readily processed into thin films from solution using techniques such as spincoating or inkjet printing [4], thereby offering the prospect of low cost manufacturing processes. However, the morphology of a bulk heterojunction consisting of a binary blend cannot be easily controlled. The formation of the final blended structure is affected by several parameters, such as the blend composition, viscosity, solvent evaporation rate [5] and substrate surface energy, all of which present difficulties in the achievement of the desired blend morphology for maximum charge generation and transport [6].

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Investigation of structural, optical, and electrical properties of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)/fullerene blend nanocomposites for organic solar cells

Cited by 35 publications

References 16 publications

Performance enhancement of fullerene-based solar cells by light processing

Performance enhancement of fullerene-based solar cells by light processing

Bulk-heterojunction Solar Cells Based on Ternary Blend Active Layers of PTB7, PC<sub>61</sub>BM, and PC<sub>71</sub>BM

Annealing effect of hybrid solar cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) and zinc-oxide nanostructures

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