Multi-Thermal Techniques to Enhance Performance of Thick P3HT:PCBM Photovoltaics

Distinct multi-thermal treatments comprising cycling, aging, and seeding were introduced to prepare very thick bulk heterojunction (BHJ) active layers (ca. 800 nm) of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) photovoltaic cells. To this end, various P3HT48800 -based rod-coil block copolymers having the coily blocks of polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were synthesized. The grazing incidence X-ray scattering, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses proved that the dielectric coily blocks, which were excluded from the P3HT crystalline structure, accumulated on the crystals surface without decreasing the crystal quality and formed hairy crystals. The multi-thermal techniques facilitatedcrystals, thereby, this dimension was improved from 5–27 nm for conventionally prepared BHJs to 53–265 nm for multi-thermally developed ones. The hydrophobic coily blocks were capable of neutralizing the influence of the PCBM molecules presence in the growth environment, which resulted in the larger P3HT crystals in a similar condition. By switching the conventional spin coating approach to the cycling, aging, and seeding methods, the P3HT crystals and the PCBM clusters were gradually coarsened and the respective d-spacings decreased. This trend enhanced the hole mobility (= 8.8 x 10-5 cm2/Vs), electron mobility (= 2.5 x 10-3 cm2/Vs), short circuit current density (Jsc = 12.02 mA/cm2), fill factor (FF = 69%), and power conversion efficiency (PCE = 4.39%) up to the maximum values for seeding approach. Moreover, the higher percentages of face-on orientation were detected in the BHJs with lower d-spacings in the hexyl side chain direction. Hairy P3HT48800 -b-PS crystals developed by seeding method possessed the highest face-on orientation (~ 5.5%).

Keywords:

Cycling , aging , seeding , P3HT , PC71BM , rod-coil block copolymer , hairy crystals