Peculiarity of Two Thermodynamically-Stable Morphologies and Their Impact on the Efficiency of Small Molecule Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Scientific Reports
Nuradhika HerathValeria Lauter

Abstract

Structural characteristics of the active layers in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices play a critical role in charge generation, separation and transport. Here we report on morphology and structural control of p-DTS(FBTTh2)2:PC71BM films by means of thermal annealing and 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) solvent additive processing, and correlate it to the device performance. By combining surface imaging with nanoscale depth-sensitive neutron reflectometry (NR) and X-ray diffraction, three-dimensional morphologies of the films are reconstituted with information extending length scales from nanometers to microns. DIO promotes the formation of a well-mixed donor-acceptor vertical phase morphology with a large population of small p-DTS(FBTTh2)2 nanocrystals arranged in an elongated domain network of the film, thereby enhancing the device performance. In contrast, films without DIO exhibit three-sublayer vertical phase morphology with phase separation in agglomerated domains. Our findings are supported by thermodynamic description based on the Flory-Huggins theory with quantitative evaluation of pairwise interaction parameters that explain the morphological changes resulting from thermal and solvent treatments. Our study reveals that vertical...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 5, 2017·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Mithun ChowdhuryIfor D W Samuel
Mar 31, 2017·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Yun LongIfor D W Samuel
Nov 17, 2016·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Manohar Reddy BusireddyJayathirtha Rao Vaidya

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
x-ray diffraction
neutron scattering
atomic
X-ray
AFM
thermal treatment
neutron reflectometry
Atomic Force microscopy

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