Nanoparticle-Tuned Self-Organization of a Bulk Heterojunction Hybrid Solar Cell with Enhanced Performance

Abstract

We demonstrate here that the nanostructure of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT/PCBM) bulk heterojunction (BHJ) can be tuned by inorganic nanoparticles (INPs) for enhanced solar cell performance. The self-organized nanostructural evolution of P3HT/PCBM/INPs thin films was investigated by using simultaneous grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) technique. Including INPs into P3HT/PCBM leads to (1) diffusion of PCBM molecules into aggregated PCBM clusters and (2) formation of interpenetrating networks that contain INPs which interact with amorphous P3HT polymer chains that are intercalated with PCBM molecules. Both of the nanostructures provide efficient pathways for free electron transport. The distinctive INP-tuned nanostructures are thermally stable and exhibit significantly enhanced electron mobility, external quantum efficiency, and photovoltaic device performance. These gains over conventional P3HT/PCBM directly result from newly demonstrated nanostructure. This work provides an attractive strategy for manipulating the phase-separated BHJ layers and also increases insight into nanostructural evolution when INPs are incorporated into BHJs.

Organic solar cells with plasmonic layers formed by laser nanofabrication

“…8,9 Furthermore recent studies demonstrated that the NPs can lead to an enhancement of the OPV device structural stability as well. [10][11][12] Methods to synthesize and incorporate MNPs are in abundance. Chemical synthesis can give precise control of size, however, it produces a lot of hazardour wastes, 13,14 with a requirement of an additional process step for deposition.…”

Improvement of the photovoltaic properties for P3HT:PCBM system annealed at the temperature in liquid crystalline regions induced by liquid crystal molecules

“…The lamellar spacing of P3HT crystallites after annealing at 130°C is larger than that annealed at lower temperatures, as evidenced by the shift of peak toward low angles. It is suggested that the expansion effect is due to the intercalation of PCBM or 8OCB molecules between lamellar layers [38].…”

Morphological Control Agent in Ternary Blend Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

“…This work was subsequently investigated by employing powerful grazing incidence wide/small angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS/GISXAS) technique (Figure 7c) to explore the morphological evolutions and mechanisms in which the findings beyond the knowledge at that time were pointed out [63]. The GIWAXS/GISAXS technique with modeling has been intensively utilized to quantitatively characterize the nanostructures of BHJ blend films [24,64,65]. Referring to the established insights into the P3HT/PC61BM BHJ system [64], the P3HT/PC61BM blend film is generally comprised of three kinds of structures: (1) P3HT crystallites; (2) PC61BM clusters with size of 10-20 nm and (3) meso-scaled domains of amorphous P3HT chains intercalated with PC61BM molecules (denoted as PC61BM/amorphous P3HT).…”

“…Inorganic nanocrystals (INCs) can also be included into BHJ film, which is an extensively adopted strategy to enhance device performances [65][66][67][68][69]. The main focus lies on their unique plasma effects for enhancing light scattering path within the thin films.…”

“…In our previous work, we successfully doped Cu2S inorganic nanoparticles (INPs) with diameter of 4-5 nm as morphological control agents [65]. The nano-organized nanostructure of P3HT/PC61BM can be controlled by the INPs with finely tuned concentrations.…”