Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

Noh, Hanaul; Diaz, Alfredo J.; Solares, Santiago D.

doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.62

Title: Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

Journal Article · Wed Mar 08 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.8.62· OSTI ID:1367086

Noh, Hanaul ^[1]; Diaz, Alfredo J. ^[1]; Solares, Santiago D. ^[1]

George Washington Univ., Washington, DC (United States)

Organic photovoltaic systems comprising donor polymers and acceptor fullerene derivatives are attractive for inexpensive energy harvesting. Extensive research on polymer solar cells has provided insight into the factors governing device-level efficiency and stability. However, the detailed investigation of nanoscale structures is still challenging. Here we demonstrate the analysis and modification of unidentified surface aggregates. The aggregates are characterized electrically by Kelvin probe force microscopy and conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), whereby the correlation between local electrical potential and current confirms a defective charge transport. Bimodal AFM modification confirms that the aggregates exist on top of the solar cell structure, and is used to remove them and to reveal the underlying active layer. The systematic analysis of the surface aggregates suggests that the structure consists of PCBM molecules.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: George Washington Univ., Washington, DC (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0011912

OSTI ID:: 1367086

Journal Information:: Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 8; ISSN 2190-4286

Publisher:: Beilstein InstituteCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 7 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (43)

Polymer solar cells Li, Gang; Zhu, Rui; Yang, Yang Nature Photonics, Vol. 6, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.11	journal	February 2012
Roll-to-roll fabrication of polymer solar cells Søndergaard, Roar; Hösel, Markus; Angmo, Dechan Materials Today, Vol. 15, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1369-7021(12)70019-6	journal	January 2012
Efficiency of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells Scharber, M. C.; Sariciftci, N. S. Progress in Polymer Science, Vol. 38, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2013.05.001	journal	December 2013
High Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells with Long Operating Lifetimes Peters, Craig H.; Sachs-Quintana, I. T.; Kastrop, John P. Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201100138	journal	April 2011
Stability of Polymer Solar Cells Jørgensen, Mikkel; Norrman, Kion; Gevorgyan, Suren A. Advanced Materials, Vol. 24, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201104187	journal	December 2011
Single-Junction Polymer Solar Cells Exceeding 10% Power Conversion Efficiency Chen, Jing-De; Cui, Chaohua; Li, Yan-Qing Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201404535	journal	November 2014
Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions Yu, G.; Gao, J.; Hummelen, J. C. Science, Vol. 270, Issue 5243, p. 1789-1791 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.270.5243.1789	journal	December 1995
High-efficiency solution processable polymer photovoltaic cells by self-organization of polymer blends Li, Gang; Shrotriya, Vishal; Huang, Jinsong Nature Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 11, p. 864-868 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1500	journal	October 2005
Control of the nanoscale crystallinity and phase separation in polymer solar cells Chu, Chih-Wei; Yang, Hoichang; Hou, Wei-Jen Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 92, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2891884	journal	March 2008
2.5% efficient organic plastic solar cells Shaheen, Sean E.; Brabec, Christoph J.; Sariciftci, N. Serdar Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, Issue 6, p. 841-843 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1345834	journal	February 2001
Effects of Postproduction Treatment on Plastic Solar Cells Padinger, F.; Rittberger, R. S.; Sariciftci, N. S. Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 13, Issue 1, p. 85-88 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.200390011	journal	January 2003
Efficiency enhancement in low-bandgap polymer solar cells by processing with alkane dithiols Peet, J.; Kim, J. Y.; Coates, N. E. Nature Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 7, p. 497-500 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1928	journal	May 2007
Morphology characterization in organic and hybrid solar cells Chen, Wei; Nikiforov, Maxim P.; Darling, Seth B. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 5, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1039/c2ee22056c	journal	January 2012
Visualizing physical, electronic, and optical properties of organic photovoltaic cells Pfannmöller, Martin; Kowalsky, Wolfgang; Schröder, Rasmus R. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 6, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ee41773e	journal	January 2013
Electrical Scanning Probe Microscopy on Active Organic Electronic Devices Pingree, Liam S. C.; Reid, Obadiah G.; Ginger, David S. Advanced Materials, Vol. 21, Issue 1, p. 19-28 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.200801466	journal	January 2009
Scanning probe microscopy of solar cells: From inorganic thin films to organic photovoltaics O’Dea, James R.; Brown, Louisa M.; Hoepker, Nikolas MRS Bulletin, Vol. 37, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2012.143	journal	July 2012
PCDTBT: en route for low cost plastic solar cells Beaupré, Serge; Leclerc, Mario Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 1, Issue 37 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ta12420g	journal	January 2013
The emergence of multifrequency force microscopy Garcia, Ricardo; Herruzo, Elena T. Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 7, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.38	journal	April 2012
Long-term stable polymer solar cells with significantly reduced burn-in loss Kong, Jaemin; Song, Suhee; Yoo, Minji Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6688	journal	December 2014
Effect of mixed solvents on PCDTBT:PC70BM based solar cells Alem, Salima; Chu, Ta-Ya; Tse, Shing C. Organic Electronics, Vol. 12, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2011.07.011	journal	November 2011
Bulk heterojunction solar cells with internal quantum efficiency approaching 100% Park, Sung Heum; Roy, Anshuman; Beaupré, Serge Nature Photonics, Vol. 3, Issue 5, p. 297-302 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.69	journal	April 2009
Compensating electrostatic forces by single-scan Kelvin probe force microscopy Ziegler, Dominik; Rychen, Jörg; Naujoks, Nicola Nanotechnology, Vol. 18, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/18/22/225505	journal	May 2007
The Role of Mesoscopic PCBM Crystallites in Solvent Vapor Annealed Copolymer Solar Cells Bull, Tricia A.; Pingree, Liam S. C.; Jenekhe, Samson A. ACS Nano, Vol. 3, Issue 3, p. 627-636 https://doi.org/10.1021/nn800878c	journal	February 2009
Sub-surface imaging of carbon nanotube–polymer composites using dynamic AFM methods Cadena, Maria J.; Misiego, Rocio; Smith, Kyle C. Nanotechnology, Vol. 24, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/24/13/135706	journal	March 2013
Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices Li, Zhe; Ho Chiu, Kar; Shahid Ashraf, Raja Scientific Reports, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep15149	journal	October 2015
The Nanoscale Morphology of a PCDTBT:PCBM Photovoltaic Blend Staniec, Paul A.; Parnell, Andrew J.; Dunbar, Alan D. F. Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201100144	journal	April 2011
Imaging the Evolution of Nanoscale Photocurrent Collection and Transport Networks during Annealing of Polythiophene/Fullerene Solar Cells Pingree, Liam S. C.; Reid, Obadiah G.; Ginger, David S. Nano Letters, Vol. 9, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl901358v	journal	August 2009
Space Charge Limited Current Measurements on Conjugated Polymer Films using Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Reid, Obadiah G.; Munechika, Keiko; Ginger, David S. Nano Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl080155l	journal	June 2008
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy on organic semiconductors: Experiment and model Kemerink, M.; Alvarado, S. F.; Müller, P. Physical Review B, Vol. 70, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.045202	journal	July 2004
Energy level alignment of poly(3-hexylthiophene): [6,6]-phenyl C₆₁ butyric acid methyl ester bulk heterojunction Xu, Zheng; Chen, Li-Min; Chen, Mei-Hsin Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 1, Article No. 013301 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3163056	journal	July 2009
Nanoscale Charge Transport and Internal Structure of Bulk Heterojunction Conjugated Polymer/Fullerene Solar Cells by Scanning Probe Microscopy Dante, Mark; Peet, Jeffrey; Nguyen, Thuc-Quyen The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 112, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1021/jp712086q	journal	April 2008
Organic semiconductors: A theoretical characterization of the basic parameters governing charge transport Bredas, J. L.; Calbert, J. P.; da Silva Filho, D. A. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 99, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.092143399	journal	April 2002
Role of the Charge Transfer State in Organic Donor-Acceptor Solar Cells Deibel, Carsten; Strobel, Thomas; Dyakonov, Vladimir Advanced Materials, Vol. 22, Issue 37 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201000376	journal	August 2010
Understanding Local and Macroscopic Electron Mobilities in the Fullerene Network of Conjugated Polymer-based Solar Cells: Time-Resolved Microwave Conductivity and Theory Aguirre, Jordan C.; Arntsen, Christopher; Hernandez, Samuel Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 24, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201301757	journal	September 2013
Trade-offs in sensitivity and sampling depth in bimodal atomic force microscopy and comparison to the trimodal case Eslami, Babak; Ebeling, Daniel; Solares, Santiago D. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 5 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.125	journal	January 2014
Visualizing the Subsurface of Soft Matter: Simultaneous Topographical Imaging, Depth Modulation, and Compositional Mapping with Triple Frequency Atomic Force Microscopy Ebeling, Daniel; Eslami, Babak; Solares, Santiago De Jesus ACS Nano, Vol. 7, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1021/nn404845q	journal	October 2013
Compositional mapping of surfaces in atomic force microscopy by excitation of the second normal mode of the microcantilever Rodrı́guez, Tomás R.; Garcı́a, Ricardo Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1642273	journal	January 2004
Theory of Multifrequency Atomic Force Microscopy Lozano, Jose R.; Garcia, Ricardo Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.076102	journal	February 2008
Molecular Packing and Arrangement Govern the Photo-Oxidative Stability of Organic Photovoltaic Materials Mateker, William R.; Heumueller, Thomas; Cheacharoen, Rongrong Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b02341	journal	September 2015
High-Resolution Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Imaging of Interface Dipoles and Photogenerated Charges in Organic Donor–Acceptor Photovoltaic Blends Fuchs, Franz; Caffy, Florent; Demadrille, Renaud ACS Nano, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b05810	journal	December 2015
Influence of fullerene photodimerization on the PCBM crystallization in polymer: Fullerene bulk heterojunctions under thermal stress Piersimoni, Fortunato; Degutis, Giedrius; Bertho, Sabine Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.23330	journal	June 2013
Control of the nanoscale crystallinity and phase separation in polymer solar cells W. -J., Hou,; C. -W., Chu,; H., Yang, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries https://doi.org/10.17615/0jwx-x497	text	January 2008
Polymer Solar Cells Zhuravleva, T. S.; Vannikov, A. V. Materials Science Forum, Vol. 21 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/msf.21.203	journal	January 1991

Cited By (4)

Theory of Single-Impact Atomic Force Spectroscopy in liquids with material contrast López-Guerra, Enrique A.; Banfi, Francesco; Solares, Santiago D. Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25828-4	journal	May 2018
Material property analytical relations for the case of an AFM probe tapping a viscoelastic surface containing multiple characteristic times López-Guerra, Enrique A.; Solares, Santiago D. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 8 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.8.223	journal	January 2017
Current measurements in the intermittent-contact mode of atomic force microscopy using the Fourier method: a feasibility analysis Uluutku, Berkin; Solares, Santiago D. Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 11 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.11.37	journal	January 2020
Material discrimination and mixture ratio estimation in nanocomposites via harmonic atomic force microscopy Zhang, Weijie; Chen, Yuhang; Xia, Xicheng Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol. 8 https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.8.276	journal	December 2017

Similar Records

Cross Kelvin force microscopy and conductive atomic force microscopy studies of organic bulk heterojunction blends for local morphology and electrical behavior analysis

Journal Article · Sat Feb 07 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1367086

Le Borgne, D.; Bedel-Pereira, E.; Séguy, I.; +2 more

Electrospun Conjugated Polymer/Fullerene Hybrid Fibers: Photoactive Blends, Conductivity through Tunneling-AFM, Light Scattering, and Perspective for Their Use in Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

Journal Article · Thu Jan 25 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C · OSTI ID:1367086

Yang, Zhenhua; Moffa, Maria; Liu, Ying; +10 more

Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy: A Tool to Investigate Nano-Scale Doping Non-Uniformities in Poly-Si/SiOx Contacts: Preprint

Conference · Tue Nov 19 00:00:00 EST 2019 · OSTI ID:1367086

Kale, Abhijit; Nanayakkara, Sanjini U.; Nemeth, William; +6 more

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
conductive atomic force microscopy
Kelvin probe force microscopy
multifrequency AFM
organic photovoltaics
polymer solar cells
surface defects

Title: Analysis and modification of defective surface aggregates on PCDTBT:PCBM solar cell blends using combined Kelvin probe, conductive and bimodal atomic force microscopy

Citation Formats

References (43)

Cited By (4)

Similar Records

Related Subjects