Comparative Study of Spectral and Morphological Properties of Blends of P3HT with PCBM and ICBA
Journal
Organic Electronics
Journal Volume
13
Journal Issue
11
Pages
2333-2341
Date Issued
2012-11
Author(s)
You-Heng Lin
Yu-Tang Tsai
Chih-Hung Tsai
Chien-Hung Chiang
Hsiu-Fu Hsu
Jey-Jau Lee
Ching-Yuan Cheng
Abstract
We report a comparative study on spectral and morphological properties of two blend systems for polymer solar cells: the donor material poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) in combination with the acceptor material of either [6,6]-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or indene-C60 bisadduct (ICBA) that was reported to enhance efficiencies of polymer solar cells. Optical microscopy and grazing incidence X-ray scattering reveal the stronger tendency of PCBM to from larger and more ordered domains/grains than ICBA either in pure or blend films. Compared to PCBM, the presence of ICBA also substantially perturbs the organization and longer-range ordering of P3HT in increasing the ICBA ratio in blends. With larger and more ordered phase-separated domains, the P3HT/PCBM blend films exhibit significant optical scattering at higher PCBM ratios. Yet, such optical scattering is not significant for P3HT/ICBA blends (even with high ICBA ratios). Overall, results here suggest the reported higher efficiencies of P3HT/ICBA solar cells (vs. P3HT/PCBM cells) cannot be attributed to larger and/or more ordered phase-separated donor-acceptor domains and other characteristics play more important roles in this case. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Subjects
Fullerene; GIXS; Morphology; Poly(3-hexylthiophene); Polymer solar cells
SDGs
Other Subjects
Butyric acid; Carrier mobility; Efficiency; Fullerenes; Light scattering; Morphology; Polymer solar cells; Polymers; X ray scattering; Comparative studies; GIXS; Grazing-incidence x-ray scattering; Higher efficiency; Morphological properties; Optical scattering; Poly (3-hexylthiophene); [6 ,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl esters; Solar cells
Type
journal article