Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices

Chowdhury, Riku; Holmes, Natalie P.; Cooling, Nathan; Belcher, Warwick J.; Dastoor, Paul C.; Zhou, Xiaojing

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c05711

Title: Surfactant Engineering and Its Role in Determining the Performance of Nanoparticulate Organic Photovoltaic Devices

Journal Article · Wed Mar 09 00:00:00 EST 2022 · ACS Omega

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c05711· OSTI ID:1982034

Chowdhury, Riku ^[1];

^[1]; Cooling, Nathan ^[1]; Belcher, Warwick J. ^[1]; Dastoor, Paul C. ^[1];

^[1]

University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW (Australia)

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.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS); University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW (Australia)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1982034

Journal Information:: ACS Omega, Vol. 7, Issue 11; ISSN 2470-1343

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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