Nano-domain behaviour in P3HT:PCBM nanoparticles, relating material properties to morphological changes

Holmes, Natalie P.; Burke, Kerry B.; Sista, Prakash; Barr, Matthew G.; Magurudeniya, Harsha D.; Stefan, Mihaela C.; Kilcoyne, A. L. D.; Zhou, Xiaojing; Dastoor, Paul C.; Belcher, Warwick J.

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2013.06.003

Cited by 66 publications

(110 citation statements)

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“…To achieve stable aqueous NP dispersions, chloroform (utilized to form the miniemulsion) was completely removed after heating at 60 °C for 3 hr and o-xylene was evaporated by heating at 75 °C for 6 hr, To achieve well performing solar devices using water dispersed NPs, it is imperative to achieve good morphology of the active layer. [44][45] Due to the particulate shape and the coreshell structure of NPs prepared through miniemulsion method 25,37 , the coalescing of NPs could ideally tune the morphology of the active layer and is thus desirable for better charge transport and extraction. 21,46 To coalesce NPs without inducing defects in the film, thermalannealing was introduced, which is widely applied to both NP and BHJ solar devices to improve the morphology of the active layer, therefore enhancing the performance of devices.…”

Section: Property Of Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[18][19][20] OPVs with active layers processed from a water or alcohol based nanoparticle dispersion has been reported in recent years. [21][22][23][24] These nanoparticles are processed from donor-acceptor blends either through a miniemulsion process with the presence of surfactant [25][26][27][28] or a precipitation method [21][22][23]29 . Furthermore, conjugated polymer nanoparticles were also reported to be synthesized by direct Suzuki-Miyaura dispersion polymerization.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…S4), it is known that the nanoparticles have a coreshell structure with a PTNT-rich NP shell and a PC 71 BM-rich NP core. As such, the nanoparticles should start to coalesce only when PTNT in the polymer-rich shell reaches the rubbery state 55 similarly to P3HT:PCBM NPs 25 . Thus, the significant drop in the E' observed using DMTA agrees well with the coalescence of the nanoparticles in thin films observed using SEM.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Environmentally friendly preparation of nanoparticles for organic photovoltaics

Pan

Sharma

Gedefaw

et al. 2018

Organic Electronics

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Aqueous nanoparticle dispersions were prepared from a conjugated polymer poly(2,5-thiophene-alt-4,9-bis(2-hexyldecyl)-4,9-dihydrodithieno[3,2-c:3',2'-h][1,5]naphthyridine-5,10-dione) (PTNT) and fullerene blend utilizing chloroform as well as a non-chlorinated and environmentally benign solvent, o-xylene, as the miniemulsion dispersed phase solvent. The nanoparticles (NPs) in the solid-state film were found to coalesce and offered a smooth surface topography upon thermal annealing. Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) with photoactive layer processed from the nanoparticle dispersions prepared using chloroform as the miniemulsion dispersed phase solvent were found to have a power conversion efficiency M A N U S C R I P T A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT2 (PCE) of 1.04%, which increased to 1.65% for devices utilizing NPs prepared from o-xylene.Physical, thermal and optical properties of NPs prepared using both chloroform and o-xylene were systematically studied using dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and correlated to their photovoltaic properties. The PL results indicate different morphology of NPs in the solid state were achieved by varying miniemulsion dispersed phase solvent.

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Section: Property Of Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Environmentally friendly preparation of nanoparticles for organic photovoltaics

Pan

Sharma

Gedefaw

et al. 2018

Organic Electronics

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“…The materials may be processed from aqueous dispersions eliminating the safety and cost issues associated with large scale processing from organic solvents [1,2]. More importantly, the nanoparticulate structure offers the opportunity to control the semi-conducting polymer and blend morphology on the nanoscale [3,4]. Consequently, NP organic thin films are increasingly finding application in areas such as thin film transistors [5], light-emitting diodes [6], and in particular photovoltaics [7,8] where roll to roll printing of NP OPV devices has been demonstrated [9,10] and power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of up to 2.5% have already been achieved for small area devices [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of mesomorphology upon the performance of nanoparticulate organic photovoltaic devices

Dam

Holmes

Andersen

et al. 2015

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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a b s t r a c tScanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) compositional mapping has been used to probe the mesomorphology of nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized from two very different polymer:fullerene blends: poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and poly[4,8-bis(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzo(1,2-b:4,5-b′)dithiophene-alt-5, 6-bis(octyloxy)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-5,5′-diyl] (PSBTBT): PCBM. The STXM data shows that both blends form core-shell NP structures with similar shell compositions, but with different polymer:fullerene ratios in the core regions. P3HT:PCBM and PSBTBT:PCBM NP organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices have been fabricated and exhibit similar device efficiencies, despite the PSBTBT being a much higher performing low band gap material. By comparing the measured NP shell and core compositions with the optimized bulk heterojunction (BHJ) compositions, we show that the relatively higher performance of the P3HT:PCBM NP device arises from the fact that its shell composition is much closer to the optimal BHJ value than that of the PSBTBT:PCBM NP device.Crown

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“…Indeed, this work provided an explanation for the lower efficiency of the annealed P3HT:PCBM OPV devices, since thermal processing of the NP film results in an effectively "over-annealed" structure with gross phase segregation occurring, thus disrupting charge generation and transport. Holmes et al reported both the intra-and inter-particle morphology of P3HT:PCBM nanoparticles before and after thermal annealing treatment, as a function of P3HT molecular weight [37]. The morphological changes resulting from thermal annealing were shown to be highly dependent upon the molecular weight of the polymer (Figure 6).…”

Section: The P3ht:pcbm Npopv Materials Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Paint: From Synthesis to Printing

2014

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Abstract:Water-based polymer nanoparticle dispersions (solar paint) offer the prospect of addressing two of the main challenges associated with printing large area organic photovoltaic devices; namely, how to control the nanoscale architecture of the active layer and eliminate the need for hazardous organic solvents during device fabrication. In this paper, we review progress in the field of nanoparticulate organic photovoltaic (NPOPV) devices and future prospects for large-scale manufacturing of solar cells based on this technology.

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Nano-domain behaviour in P3HT:PCBM nanoparticles, relating material properties to morphological changes

Cited by 66 publications

References 27 publications

Environmentally friendly preparation of nanoparticles for organic photovoltaics

Environmentally friendly preparation of nanoparticles for organic photovoltaics

The effect of mesomorphology upon the performance of nanoparticulate organic photovoltaic devices

Solar Paint: From Synthesis to Printing

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