Ultrafast Studies of Exciton Migration and Polaron Formation in Sequentially Solution-Processed Conjugated Polymer/Fullerene Quasi-Bilayer Photovoltaics
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1569, United States
We examine the ultrafast dynamics of exciton migration and polaron production in sequentially processed ‘quasi-bilayer’ and preblended ‘bulk heterojunction’ (BHJ) solar cells based on conjugated polymer films that contain the same total amount of fullerene. We find that even though the polaron yields are similar, the dynamics of polaron production are significantly slower in quasi-bilayers than BHJs. We argue that the different polaron production dynamics result from the fact that (1) there is significantly less fullerene inside the polymer in quasi-bilayers than in BHJs and (2) sequential processing yields polymer layers that are significantly more ordered than BHJs. We also argue that thermal annealing improves the performance of quasi-bilayer solar cells not because annealing drives additional fullerene into the polymer but because annealing improves the fullerene crystallinity. All of the results suggest that sequential processing remains a viable alternative for producing polymer/fullerene solar cells with a nanometer-scale architecture that differs from BHJs.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Molecularly Engineered Energy Materials (MEEM)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001342
- OSTI ID:
- 1386640
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 16; Related Information: MEEM partners with University of California, Los Angeles (lead); University of California, Berkeley; Eastern Washington University; University of Kansas; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; ISSN 1948-7185
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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