Photovoltaic solar cells using poly(3,3-didodecylquaterthiophene)

Enhanced device performance of organic solar cells via reduction of the crystallinity in the donor polymer

“…Solar cells based on PQT-12, underwent macrophase separation in the active layer, and the device performance dropped when the active films were annealed at high temperatures (>90 C). 14,15 Application of thermal annealing dramatically changed the performance of P3HT:PCBM solar cells even at low temperatures (<100 C). 18,19 However, annealed devices based on PPVQT-C8 yielded high efficiencies until the annealing temperature reached 120 C. The result of this systematic thermal treatment study demonstrated that PPVQT-C8:PCBM active layers were more thermostable than a crystalline PQT-12 or P3HT case at low temperatures (<100 C).…”

“…However, the photovoltaic properties of conjugated polymers with higher carrier mobilities are not always good due to macrophase separation of the active layers during postfabrication treatment process. [12][13][14][15] Furthermore, the performances of solar cell devices based on highly crystalline materials depend strongly on the processing conditions, such as the residual solvents, 16 additives, 17 and post-fabrication treatment methods, 18,19 which increase the complexity of device processing.…”

“…10 However, the photovoltaic performances of PQT and PC 60 BM-based devices are very poor (<1%). 14,15 Even if PQT:PC 60 BM-based devices are thermally treated under mild conditions ($50 C), macrophase separation of the active layers, which results in low photocurrent and a poor FF, occurs due to the PQTs' high crystallinity. 14 In this paper, we describe a new p-type conjugated copolymer (PPVQT-C8) composed of alternating p-divinylene phenylene and 3,3-dialkylquaterthiophene units for use in organic solar cell applications.…”

A solid-state CdSe quantum dot sensitized solar cell based on a quaterthiophene as a hole transporting material

“…Solution-processable and regioregular 3,3 0 0 0 -dialkyl-quaterthiophenes (QTs) have shown good performance when casted in air, without further precautions, as thin film transistors (TFTs) 26 and in a few precedent bulk heterojunction solar cells. 27,28 Their unsubstituted thienylene moieties induce a deviation from coplanarity along the main oligomer chain due to a certain level of rotational freedom. It cuts the p-conjugation providing enough oxidative stability (ionization potential around 0.4 eV higher than for regioregular P3HT) 29 but still good functionality.…”

Bimolecular crystal instability and morphology of bulk heterojunction blends in organic and perovskite solar cells

“…[14][15][16] However, this is not a good photovoltaic material, showing a low power conversion efficiency (PCE) of only ~0.4%. [17,18] Whether the poor performance is a result of the intrinsic properties of PQT or the morphology is an open question. To address this, we performed morphological studies on the bimolecular crystallization PQT of monoand bis-fullerene adducts using scattering and imaging methods and correlated this to their performance in organic solar cells.…”