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Title: Low-boiling-point solvent additives can also enable morphological control in polymer solar cells

Journal Article · · Synthetic Metals

Processing organic photovoltaic (OPV) blend solutions with high-boiling-point solvent additives has recently been used for morphological control in bulk-heterojunction OPV cells. Here we show that even low-boiling-point solvents can be effective additives. When P3HT:PCBM OPV cells were processed with a low-boiling-point solvent tetrahydrafuran as an additive in parent solvent o-dichlorobenzene, charge extraction increased leading to fill factors as high as 69.5%, without low work-function cathodes, electrode buffer layers or thermal treatment. This was attributed to PCBM demixing from P3HT domains and better vertical phase separation, as indicated by photoluminescence lifetimes, hole mobilities, and shunt leakage currents. Dependence on solvent parameters and applicability beyond P3HT system was also investigated. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Research Organization:
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11358
OSTI ID:
1134608
Report Number(s):
IS-J 8228
Journal Information:
Synthetic Metals, Vol. 185-186; ISSN 0379-6779
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English