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

Abstract

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 order to tailor the nanomorphology in polymer/fullerene blends. In addition to 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 the field-treated BHJs affirmed that fullerene molecules can easily penetrate the spaghetti-like P3HT and move up and down following the E-field. We achieved favorable morphologies with efficient charge separation, transport, and collection by using the E-field treatment,. We improve; (1) the hole mobility values up to 19.4 × 10–4 ± 1.6 × 10–4 cm2 V–1 s–1 and (2) the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of conventional and inverted OPVs up to 2.58 ± 0.02% and 4.1 ± 0.40%, respectively. This E-field approach can serve as a new morphology-tuning technique, which is generally applicable to other polymer–fullerene systems.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [4];  [2];  [5];  [5];  [4];  [2];  [6];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Mansoura Univ., Mansoura (Egypt); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
  2. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
  3. Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
  4. South Dakota State Univ., Brookings, SD (United States)
  5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  6. Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1340684
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1347909
Report Number(s):
IS-J 9235
Journal ID: ISSN 1944-8244; 129386; TRN: US1701178
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357; GM915; AC02-07CH11358; CBET–1236839
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; GIWAXS; OPVs; P3HT; electrostatic field; fullerene; nanomorphology; Van de Graaff OPVs; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

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, and Chaudhary, Sumit. Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1021/acsami.6b10870.
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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. Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b10870
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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, and Chaudhary, Sumit. Mon . "Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b10870. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340684.
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@article{osti_1340684,
title = {Tailoring nanoscale morphology of polymer: Fullerene blends using electrostatic field},
author = {Elshobaki, Moneim and Gebhardt, Ryan and Carr, John and Lindemann, William and Wang, Wenjie and Grieser, Eric and Venkatesan, Swaminathan and Ngo, Evan and Bhattacharjee, Ujjal and Strzalka, Joseph and Jiang, Zhang and Qiao, Qiquan and Petrich, Jacob and Vaknin, David and Chaudhary, Sumit},
abstractNote = {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 order to tailor the nanomorphology in polymer/fullerene blends. In addition to 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 the field-treated BHJs affirmed that fullerene molecules can easily penetrate the spaghetti-like P3HT and move up and down following the E-field. We achieved favorable morphologies with efficient charge separation, transport, and collection by using the E-field treatment,. We improve; (1) the hole mobility values up to 19.4 × 10–4 ± 1.6 × 10–4 cm2 V–1 s–1 and (2) the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of conventional and inverted OPVs up to 2.58 ± 0.02% and 4.1 ± 0.40%, respectively. This E-field approach can serve as a new morphology-tuning technique, which is generally applicable to other polymer–fullerene systems.},
doi = {10.1021/acsami.6b10870},
journal = {ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces},
number = 3,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.6b10870
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