Polymer solar cells

Greenham, Neil C.

doi:10.1098/rsta.2011.0414

Cited by 11 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…Solution-cast thin-film polymer composites find a wide range of applications, such as in the photoactive layer of organic solar cells. − The performance of this layer crucially relies on its phase-separated morphology, in which the size of the domains of the electron donating and accepting components is ideally of the order of the exciton-diffusion length. On top of that efficient charge-carrier extraction requires the two components be in direct contact with the opposite electrodes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Surface Enrichment in Drying Thin-Film Binary Polymer Solutions

2017

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Solution-cast, thin-film polymer composites find a wide range of applications, such as in the photoactive layer of organic solar cells. The performance of this layer crucially relies on its phase-separated morphology. Efficient charge-carrier extraction requires each of the components to preferentially wet one of the two electrodes. It is often presumed that the experimentally observed surface enrichment required for this is caused by specific interactions of the active ingredients with each surface. By applying a generalized diffusion model, we find the dynamics to also play an important role in determining which component accumulates at which surface. We show that for sufficiently fast evaporation the component with the smallest cooperative diffusivity accumulates at the free interface. Counterintuitively, depending on the interactions between the various components, this may be the smaller solute. Our comprehensive numerical and analytical study provides a tool to predict and control phase-separated morphologies in thin-film polymer composites.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Surface Enrichment in Drying Thin-Film Binary Polymer Solutions

2017

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“…Charge carrier trapping and recombination represents a significant loss channel in the photovoltaic cycle of conjugated polymer donor/acceptor (D/A) thin film blend solar cells. , Despite significant improvements in photovoltaic performance in recent years through more efficient light harvesting (i.e., low energy band gap polymers) as well as better understanding and control of donor/acceptor interface morphologies, , much remains to be understood about molecular structural and micro- to mesoscale morphological factors regulating charge recombination mechanisms and yields. For example, chemical and structural defects, phase boundaries, crystals, etc., have been proposed as recombination centers, but direct spatial correlations between submicroscopic morphological features and ensemble charge recombination signatures have proven more difficult to obtain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectroscopic and Intensity Modulated Photocurrent Imaging of Polymer/Fullerene Solar Cells

Gao

Wise

Thomas

et al. 2015

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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Molecular spectroscopic and intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) imaging techniques are used to map morphology-dependent charge recombination in organic polymer/fullerene solar cells. IMPS uses a small (∼10%) sinusoidal modulation of an excitation light source and photocurrent responses are measured while modulation frequencies are swept over several decades (∼1 Hz-20 kHz). Solar cells consisting of either poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(2-methoxy-5-(3'-7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MDMO-PPV) blended with a soluble fullerene derivative, [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) are used as targets. The morphologies of these polymer/fullerene systems are distinctly different due to PCBM miscibility in various polymer conformers. IMPS responses of both blend solar cells show unique morphology-dependent charge generation, transport and extraction signatures that can be spatially correlated to microscopic variations in local composition and packing by constructing IMPS images along with corresponding molecular spectroscopic imaging over the same scan area. We find that boundaries separating enriched polymer and fullerene domains promote nongeminate charge recombination appearing as positive phase shifts in the IMPS response. These zones are susceptible to degradation and we propose the approaches herein can be used to probe material and device degradation in situ under various conditions, such as oxygen content, temperature and ionizing radiation.

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“…A major advantage of OPVs is that they can be produced from solution by printing technologies at low temperature and at low cost, without involving high‐vacuum or high‐temperature deposition processes. Despite impressive progress over the last decade, OPVs are still some way behind other thin‐film technologies harvesting solar energy because of low efficiencies and short lifetimes . Materials for OPVs such as the semiconducting polymers, transparent electrodes, substrates, and encapsulant materials are not cheap enough to be competitive for large‐area power generation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[ 5 ] Materials for OPVs such as the semiconducting polymers, transparent electrodes, substrates, and encapsulant materials are not cheap enough to be competitive for large-area power generation. Despite impressive progress over the last decade, OPVs are still some way behind other thin-fi lm technologies harvesting solar energy because of low effi ciencies and short lifetimes.…”

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confidence: 99%

All‐Inkjet‐Printed, All‐Air‐Processed Solar Cells

Jung

Sou

Banger

et al. 2014

Advanced Energy Materials

151

112

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deposition processes. Despite impressive progress over the last decade, OPVs are still some way behind other thin-fi lm technologies harvesting solar energy because of low effi ciencies and short lifetimes. [ 5 ] Materials for OPVs such as the semiconducting polymers, transparent electrodes, substrates, and encapsulant materials are not cheap enough to be competitive for large-area power generation. Nevertheless, there are small-scale, energy harvesting applications where OPVs are required to be locally printed to provide electric power to the system. For example, system-in-foil devices could include sensor components, OPVs for energy harvesting, a thin fi lm battery for energy storage, and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) array as a display and electronic circuitry on a single substrate. [ 6 ] To date, no route is available for monolithically integrating solar cells into a system in which other components such as transistors, sensors, or displays are already fabricated.Here, we report for the fi rst time the fabrication and measurement of all-inkjet-printed, all-air-processed organic solar cells with the structure poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythi ophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/poly[N-9′heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′benzothiadiazole)]:[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PCDTBT:PC 70 BM)/ZnO/Ag. A schematic diagram of the printed solar cell structure and the energy level diagram of its components is presented in Figure 1 . Among the various printing methods, inkjet-printing technology has been selected here for the fabrication of all-printed bulk-heterojunction solar cells because of its capability to locally deposit small volumes of functional inks without a mask and with high positional accuracy and low cost. Inkjet printing has proven effective in fabrication of OLEDs, [ 7 ] thin-fi lm transistors, [ 8 ] and photodetectors, [ 9,10 ] and was recently applied to fabricate either an active layer or an anode of OPVs. [11][12][13][14] We demonstrate a high-effi ciency solar cell with a homogeneous inkjet-printed donor-acceptor thin fi lm which was achieved by engineering the semiconducting blend ink with a tailored ternary solvent. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS), and transient absorption spectroscopy are used to explore surface morphology, fi lm microstructure, and polaron dynamics in both inkjet-printed and spin-coated PCDTBT:PCBM fi lms. The results have shown that our inkjet-printed blend layer exhibits similar nanoscale structure and excited state dynamics to its spin-coated counterparts.The prospective of using direct-write printing techniques for the manufacture of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has made these techniques highly attractive. OPVs have the potential to revolutionize small-scale portable electronic applications by directly providing electric power to the systems. However, no route is available for monolithically integrating the energy-harvesting units into a system in which other components, suc...

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Polymer solar cells

Cited by 11 publications

References 34 publications

Dynamic Surface Enrichment in Drying Thin-Film Binary Polymer Solutions

Dynamic Surface Enrichment in Drying Thin-Film Binary Polymer Solutions

Spectroscopic and Intensity Modulated Photocurrent Imaging of Polymer/Fullerene Solar Cells

All‐Inkjet‐Printed, All‐Air‐Processed Solar Cells

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