| 1. |
- Bergqvist, Jonas, et al.
(författare)
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Sub-glass transition annealing enhances polymer solar cell performance
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2050-7488. ; 2:17, s. 6146-6152
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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. |
- Bergqvist, J., et al.
(författare)
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Sub-glass transition annealing enhances polymer solar cell performance
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 2:17, s. 6146-6152
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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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| 3. |
- Campoy-Quiles, M., et al.
(författare)
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On the complex refractive index of polymer:fullerene photovoltaic blends
- 2014
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Ingår i: Thin Solid Films. - : Elsevier BV. - 0040-6090 .- 1879-2731. ; 571:P3, s. 371-376
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a detailed investigation of the refractive index of polymer:fullerene blends for photovoltaic applications. The donor polymers poly[2,7-(9,9-dioctylfluorene)-alt-5,5-(4,7-di-2-thienyl-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (APFO3), poly[2,3-bis-(3-octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-diyl] (TQ1), and poly[2,7-(9,9-dioctylfluorene)-alt-5,5-(5,10-di-2-thienyl-2,3,7,8-tetraphenyl-pyrazino[2,3-g]quinoxaline)] (APFO-Green9) were blended with either [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) or [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). We measured variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry for three systems, namely APFO3:PCBM, TQ1:PC71BM and APFO-Green9:PC71BM, as a function of composition and analyze the data employing a number of models. We found that Bruggeman effective medium approximations (EMA) are not precise for the description of the optical properties of these blends. This is due to a number of reasons. First, we find that there are energy shifts associated to changes in conjugation length that cannot be accounted for using EMA. Second, blending results in a strong reduction of anisotropy. Finally, our data suggest that there is some degree of vertical segregation between components. Therefore, our results support the idea that the optical properties of polymer:fullerene mixtures should be treated as alloys rather than non-interacting blends.
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| 4. |
- Diaz de Zerio Mendaza, Amaia, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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A Fullerene Alloy Based Photovoltaic Blend with a Glass Transition Temperature above 200 °C
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 5:8, s. 4156-4162
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organic solar cells with a high degree of thermal stability require bulk-heterojunction blends that feature a high glass transition, which must occur considerably above the temperatures encountered during device fabrication and operation. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a polymer : fullerene blend with a glass transition temperature above 200 °C, which we determine by plasmonic nanospectroscopy. We achieve this strong tendency for glass formation through the use of an alloy of neat, unsubstituted C60 and C70, which we combine with the fluorothieno-benzodithiophene copolymer PTB7. A stable photovoltaic performance of PTB7 : C60 : C70 ternary blends is preserved despite annealing the active layer at up to 180 °C, which coincides with the onset of the glass transition. Rapid deterioration of the power conversion efficiency from initially above 5% only occurs upon exceeding the glass transition temperature of 224 °C of the ternary blend.
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| 5. |
- Diaz de Zerio Mendaza, Amaia, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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High-Entropy Mixtures of Pristine Fullerenes for Solution-Processed Transistors and Solar Cells
- 2015
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Ingår i: Advanced Materials. - : Wiley. - 0935-9648 .- 1521-4095. ; 27:45, s. 7325-7331
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The solubility of pristine fullerenes can be enhanced by mixing C60 and C70 due to the associated increase in configurational entropy. This "entropic dissolution" allows the preparation of field-effect transistors with an electron mobility of 1 cm2 V-1 s-1 and polymer solar cells with a highly reproducible power-conversion efficiency of 6%, as well as a thermally stable active layer.
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| 6. |
- Diaz de Zerio Mendaza, Amaia, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Neat C60:C70 buckminsterfullerene mixtures enhance polymer solar cell performance
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 2:35, s. 14354-14359
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We demonstrate that bulk-heterojunction blends based on neat, unsubstituted buckminsterfullerenes (C60, C70) and a thiophene–quinoxaline copolymer (TQ1) can be readily processed from solution. Atomic force and transmission electron microscopy as well as photoluminescence spectroscopy reveal that thin films with a fine-grained nanostructure can be spin-coated, which display a good photovoltaic performance. Replacement of substituted fullerenes with C60 or C70 only results in a small drop in open-circuit voltage from 0.9 V to about 0.8 V. Thus, a power conversion efficiency of up to 2.9% can be maintained if C70 is used as the acceptor material. Further improvement in photovoltaic performance to 3.6% is achieved, accompanied by a high internal quantum efficiency of 75%, if a 1 : 1 C60:C70 mixture is used as the acceptor material, due to its improved solubility in ortho-dichlorobenzene.
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| 7. |
- George, Zandra, 1985, et al.
(författare)
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Two-in-one : Cathode modification and improved solar cell blend stability through addition of modified fullerenes
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Chemistry A. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2050-7488 .- 2050-7496. ; 4:7, s. 2663-2669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The synthesis of dual purpose modified fullerenes with pyridine-as well as amine-functional groups is reported. Addition of these fullerenes to a polymer : fullerene bulk-heterojunction blend based on a thiophene-quinoxaline donor polymer is found to modify the active layer/cathode interface of inverted solar cells (glass/ITO/active layer/MoO3/Al). In particular the open-circuit voltage of devices is increased from 0.1 V to about 0.7 V, which results in a drastic rise in photovoltaic performance with a power conversion efficiency of up to 3%. At the same time, presence of the functionalised fullerene additives prevents the detrimental formation of micrometre-sized fullerene crystals upon annealing at 140 degrees C. As a result, the device performance is retained, which promises significantly increased thermal stability of the bulk-heterojunction blend nanostructure.
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| 8. |
- Henriksson, Patrik, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Stability study of quinoxaline and pyrido pyrazine based co-polymers for solar cell applications
- 2014
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Ingår i: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. - : Elsevier BV. - 0927-0248 .- 1879-3398. ; 130, s. 138-143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present two co-polymer families; one based on a thiophene-quinoxaline unit and one on a thiophene-pyrido pyrazine unit. Co-polymerization of these monomers with thiophene-hexylthiophene was performed to create polymers with an optical absorption that fully covers the visible part of the solar spectrum with the aim to enhance the solar cell performances of these polymers. We have also studied how increasing the fraction of thiophene-hexylthiophene affects the photo-oxidative stability of these polymers. Thiophene-pyrido pyrazine solar cells displayed increased device efficiency upon addition of the thiophene-hexylthiophene and, in addition, the stability is retained upon inclusion of these units. In contrast, we found that for the thiophene-quinoxaline based co-polymer, both device efficiency and stability decreased with increasing thiophene-hexylthiophene fraction. Moreover, our results indicate that the photo-oxidative stability of the thiophene-quinoxaline co-polymer is independent of the polymer molecular weight as well as of the film thickness.
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| 9. |
- Hou, Lintao, et al.
(författare)
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Lateral Phase Separation Gradients in Spin-Coated Thin Films of High-Performance Polymer: Fullerene Photovoltaic Blends
- 2011
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Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley. - 1616-3028 .- 1616-301X. ; 21:16, s. 3169-3175
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, it is demonstrated that a finer nanostructure produced under a rapid rate of solvent removal significantly improves charge separation in a high-performance polymer: fullerene bulk-heterojunction blend. During spin-coating, variations in solvent evaporation rate give rise to lateral phase separation gradients with the degree of coarseness decreasing away from the center of rotation. As a result, across spin-coated thin films the photocurrent at the first interference maximum varies as much as 25%, which is much larger than any optical effect. This is investigated by combining information on the surface morphology of the active layer imaged by atomic force microscopy, the 3D nanostructure imaged by electron tomography, film formation during the spin coating process imaged by optical interference and photocurrent generation distribution in devices imaged by a scanning light pulse technique. The observation that the nanostructure of organic photovoltaic blends can strongly vary across spin-coated thin films will aid the design of solvent mixtures suitable for high molecular-weight polymers and of coating techniques amenable to large area processing.
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| 10. |
- Kroon, Renee, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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A New Tetracyclic Lactam Building Block for Thick, Broad-Bandgap Photovoltaics
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society. - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 136:33, s. 11578-11581
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A new tetracyclic lactam building block for polymer semiconductors is reported that was designed to combine the many favorable properties that larger fused and/or amide-containing building blocks can induce, including improved solid-state packing, high charge carrier mobility, and improved charge separation. Copolymerization with thiophene resulted in a semicrystalline conjugated polymer, PTNT, with a broad bandgap of 2.2 eV. Grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering of PTNT thin films revealed a strong tendency for face-on pi-stacking of the polymer backbone, which was retained in PTNT:firllerene blends. Corresponding solar cells featured a high open-circuit voltage of 0.9 V, a fill factor around 0.6, and a power conversion efficiency as high as 596 for greater than200 nm thick active layers, regardless of variations in blend stoichiometry and nanostructure. Moreover, efficiencies of greater than4% could be retained when thick active layers of similar to 400 rim were employed. Overall, these values are the highest reported for a conjugated polymer with such a broad bandgap and are unprecedented in materials for tandem and particularly ternary blend photovoltaics. Hence, the newly developed tetracyclic lactam unit has significant potential as a conjugated building block in future organic electronic materials.
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