Manipulating the crystal structure of a conjugated polymer for efficient sequentially processed organic solar cells

Nanoscale
Ahra YiHyo Jung Kim

Abstract

Recently, the sequential (Sq) process, which forms nanoscale network structures from quasi-solid-state inter-diffusion through swelling and annealing, is considered to be one of the most efficient methods for fabricating organic solar cells and blend films. Here, we examined the effect of the crystallinity and orientation of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) molecules on the formation of the nanostructure by carrying out a Sq process using various solvents with different boiling points. We showed that the moderate crystallinity promoted suitable inter-diffusion between the donor (P3HT) and acceptor ([6,6]-pentadeuterophenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester, PC60BM), and hence was important for achieving high-performance solar cells using Sq processing. Nanostructure formation by inter-diffusion was investigated and visualized by taking a combination of grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) measurements. In addition, our Sq-processed solar cell yielded a device efficiency as high as 3.25%, and was also impressive because it was made with an eco-friendly solvent and using a short-duration annealing process, in contrast to the conventional BHJ process. The pre...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Jun 22, 2021·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Ming HuYiwang Chen

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray
transmission electron microscopy
atomic force microscopy

Software Mentioned

GIWAXS

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