Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices
Abstract
The fabrication of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) from non-hazardous nanoparticulate (NP) inks offers considerable promise for the development of ecofriendly large-scale printed solar modules. However, the typical NP core-shell morphology (driven by the different donor/acceptor affinities for the surfactant used in NP synthesis) currently hinders the photovoltaic performance. As such, surfactant engineering offers an elegant approach to synthesizing a more optimal intermixed NP morphology and hence an improved photovoltaic performance. In this work, the morphology of conventional sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 2-(3-thienyl) ethyloxybutylsulfonate (TEBS)-stabilized poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) donor:phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) acceptor NPs is probed using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. While the SDS-stabilized NPs exhibit a size-independent core-shell morphology, this work reveals that TEBS-stabilized NPs deliver an intermixed morphology, the extent of which depends on the particle size. Consequently, by optimizing the TEBS-stabilized NP size and distribution, NP-OPV devices with a power conversion efficiency that is ~50% higher on average than that of the corresponding SDS-based NP-OPV devices are produced.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS); University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW (Australia)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1982034
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Omega
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-1343
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Citation Formats
Chowdhury, Riku, Holmes, Natalie P., Cooling, Nathan, Belcher, Warwick J., Dastoor, Paul C., and Zhou, Xiaojing. Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c05711.
Chowdhury, Riku, Holmes, Natalie P., Cooling, Nathan, Belcher, Warwick J., Dastoor, Paul C., & Zhou, Xiaojing. Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c05711
Chowdhury, Riku, Holmes, Natalie P., Cooling, Nathan, Belcher, Warwick J., Dastoor, Paul C., and Zhou, Xiaojing. Wed .
"Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c05711. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1982034.
@article{osti_1982034,
title = {Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices},
author = {Chowdhury, Riku and Holmes, Natalie P. and Cooling, Nathan and Belcher, Warwick J. and Dastoor, Paul C. and Zhou, Xiaojing},
abstractNote = {The fabrication of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) from non-hazardous nanoparticulate (NP) inks offers considerable promise for the development of ecofriendly large-scale printed solar modules. However, the typical NP core-shell morphology (driven by the different donor/acceptor affinities for the surfactant used in NP synthesis) currently hinders the photovoltaic performance. As such, surfactant engineering offers an elegant approach to synthesizing a more optimal intermixed NP morphology and hence an improved photovoltaic performance. In this work, the morphology of conventional sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 2-(3-thienyl) ethyloxybutylsulfonate (TEBS)-stabilized poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) donor:phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) acceptor NPs is probed using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. While the SDS-stabilized NPs exhibit a size-independent core-shell morphology, this work reveals that TEBS-stabilized NPs deliver an intermixed morphology, the extent of which depends on the particle size. Consequently, by optimizing the TEBS-stabilized NP size and distribution, NP-OPV devices with a power conversion efficiency that is ~50% higher on average than that of the corresponding SDS-based NP-OPV devices are produced.},
doi = {10.1021/acsomega.1c05711},
journal = {ACS Omega},
number = 11,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Wed Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}
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