In situ measurement of power conversion efficiency and molecular ordering during thermal annealing in P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Materials Dept. and Materials Research Lab.
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Materials Dept.
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
- Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Depts. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials and Materials Research Lab.
Bulk heterojunction organic solar cells hold much promise as commercially viable sources of renewable energy due to their relatively inexpensive fabrication. Developing a fundamental knowledge of how processing conditions influence solar power conversion efficiency will enable rational and efficient design, optimization, and control of new organic solar cell materials. In this report, we use a combination of in situ current–voltage measurements and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering experiments at elevated temperature to correlate the changes in photoconversion efficiency to the changes in the molecular ordering of a poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) bulk heterojunction active layer. In situ measurements of current–voltage characteristics were used to optimize the power conversion efficiency and the resulting thermal processing was in agreement with studies from repeated heating and cooling cycles. The improvements in short circuit current with thermal annealing were correlated to an increase in the population of face-on oriented crystallites of P3HT rather than improvements in molecular ordering of PCBM.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Energy Efficient Materials (CEEM)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001009
- OSTI ID:
- 1065763
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Materials Chemistry, Vol. 21, Issue 39; Related Information: CEEM partners with the University of California, Santa Barbara (lead); Purdue University; Los Alamos National Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; ISSN 0959-9428
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
solar (photovoltaic)
solid state lighting
phonons
thermoelectric
bio-inspired
energy storage (including batteries and capacitors)
electrodes - solar
defects
charge transport
materials and chemistry by design
optics
synthesis (novel materials)
synthesis (self-assembly)
synthesis (scalable processing)