Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field

Elshobaki, Moneim; Gebhardt, Ryan; Carr, John; Lindemann, William; Wang, Wenjie; Grieser, Eric; Venkatesan, Swaminathan; Ngo, Evan; Bhattacharjee, Ujjal; Strzalka, Joseph; Jiang, Zhang; Qiao, Qiquan; Petrich, Jacob; Vaknin, David; Chaudhary, Sumit

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b10870

Title: Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field

Journal Article · 05 December 2016 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b10870 · OSTI ID:1340684

^[1]; Gebhardt, Ryan ^[2]; Carr, John ^[2]; Lindemann, William ^[2]; Wang, Wenjie ^[3]; Grieser, Eric ^[2]; Venkatesan, Swaminathan ^[4]; Ngo, Evan ^[4]; Bhattacharjee, Ujjal ^[2]; Strzalka, Joseph ^[5]; Jiang, Zhang ^[5]; Qiao, Qiquan ^[4]; Petrich, Jacob ^[2]; Vaknin, David ^[6]; Chaudhary, Sumit ^[2]

Mansoura Univ., Mansoura (Egypt); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
South Dakota State Univ., Brookings, SD (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

In this paper, to tailor the nanoscale phase separation in polymer/fullerene blends, we study the effect of electrostatic field (E-field) on the solidification of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2, 5-diyl) (P3HT):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₆₀BM) bulk heterojunction (BHJ). In addition to untreated sample (control); wet P3HT:PC₆₀BM thin films were exposed to E-field of Van de Graaff (VDG) generator at three different directions – horizontal (H), tilted (T) and vertical (V) – relative to the plane of the substrate. Surface and bulk characterizations of field-treated BHJs affirm that fullerene molecules can easily penetrate the spaghetti-like P3HT and move up and down following the E-field. E-field treatment yields thin films with large P3HT- and PCBM-rich domains acting as continuous pathways for efficient charge separation, transport, and collection. We improve; (1) the hole mobility values up to 19.4 × 10^-4 ± 1.6 × 10^-4 cm² V^-1 s^-1 (117% higher than the control), and (2) power conversion efficient (PCE) of conventional and inverted OPVs recording 2.58 ± 0.02% and 4.1 ± 0.4%. This E-field approach can serve as a new morphology-tuning technique, which is generally applicable to other polymer-fullerene systems.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1340684

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Journal Name: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 9; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field

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