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- Bergqvist, Jonas, et al.
(author)
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Sub-glass transition annealing enhances polymer solar cell performance
- 2014
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In: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2050-7488. ; 2:17, s. 6146-6152
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Thermal annealing of non-crystalline polymer: fullerene blends typically results in a drastic decrease in solar cell performance. In particular aggressive annealing above the glass transition temperature results in a detrimental coarsening of the blend nanostructure. We demonstrate that mild annealing below the glass transition temperature is a viable avenue to control the nanostructure of a non-crystalline thiophene-quinoxaline copolymer: fullerene blend. Direct imaging methods indicate that coarsening of the blend nanostructure can be avoided. However, a combination of absorption and luminescence spectroscopy reveals that local changes in the polymer conformation as well as limited fullerene aggregation are permitted to occur. As a result, we are able to optimise the solar cell performance evenly across different positions of the coated area, which is a necessary criterion for large-scale, high throughput production.
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| 2. |
- Ma, Zaifei, et al.
(author)
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Structure-Property Relationships of Oligothiophene-Isoindigo Polymers for Efficient Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells
- 2014
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In: energy and environmental science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1754-5692. ; 17:1, s. 361-369
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A series of alternating oligothiophene (nT)-isoindigo (I) copolymers (PnTI) were synthesized to investigate the influence of the oligothiophene block length on the photovoltaic (PV) properties of PnTI:PCBM bulk-heterojunction blends. Our study indicates that the number of thiophene rings (n) in the repeating unit alters both, polymer crystallinity and polymer-fullerene interfacial energetics, which results in a decreasing open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the solar cells with increasing n. The short-circuit current density (Jsc) of P1TI:PCBM devices is limited by the absence of a significant driving force for electron transfer. Instead, blends based on P5TI and P6TI feature large polymer domains, which limit charge generation and thus Jsc. The best PV performance with a power conversion efficiency of up to 6.9% was achieved with devices based on P3TI, where a combination of favorable morphology and optimal interface energy level offset ensures efficient exciton separation and charge generation. The structure-property relationship demonstrated in this work is a valuable guideline for the design of high performance polymers with small energy losses during the charge generation process, allowing for the fabrication of efficient solar cells that combine a minimal loss in Voc with a high Jsc.
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