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Evaluation of the charge transfer efficiency of organic thin-film photovoltaic devices fabricated using a photoprecursor approach

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Abstract

Recently, a unique ‘photoprecursor approach’ was reported as a new option to fabricate a p-i-n triple-layer organic photovoltaic device (OPV) through solution processes. By fabricating the p-i-n architecture using two kinds of photoprecursors and a [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as the donor and the acceptor, the p-i-n OPVs afforded a higher photovoltaic efficiency than the corresponding p–n devices and i-devices, while the photovoltaic efficiency of p-i-n OPVs depended on the photoprecursors. In this work, the charge transfer efficiency of the i-devices composed of the photoprecursors and PC71BM was investigated using high-sensitivity fluorescence microspectroscopy combined with a time-correlated single photon counting technique to elucidate the photovoltaic efficiency depending on the photoprecursors and the effects of the p-i-n architecture. The spatially resolved fluorescence images and fluorescence lifetime measurements clearly indicated that the compatibility of the photoprecursors with PC71BM influences the charge transfer and the photovoltaic efficiencies. Although the charge transfer efficiency of the i-device was quite high, the photovoltaic efficiency of the i-device was much lower than that of the p-i-n device. These results imply that the carrier generation and carrier transportation efficiencies can be increased by fabricating the p-i-n architecture.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Kwansei Gakuin University, 2-1 Gakuen, Sanda, Hyogo, 669-1337, Japan

    Sadahiro Masuo & Wataru Sato

  2. Department of Organic Device Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa, 992-8510, Japan

    Yuji Yamaguchi & Ken-ichi Nakayama

  3. Graduate School of Materials Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, 630-0192, Japan

    Mitsuharu Suzuki & Hiroko Yamada

  4. CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Chiyoda-ku, 102-0075, Japan

    Sadahiro Masuo, Yuji Yamaguchi, Mitsuharu Suzuki, Ken-ichi Nakayama & Hiroko Yamada

Authors
  1. Sadahiro Masuo
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  2. Wataru Sato
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  3. Yuji Yamaguchi
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  4. Mitsuharu Suzuki
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  5. Ken-ichi Nakayama
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  6. Hiroko Yamada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sadahiro Masuo.

Additional information

Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Details of instrumental setup and phase AFM images of BHJ-OPVs. See DOI: 10.1039/c4pp00477a

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Masuo, S., Sato, W., Yamaguchi, Y. et al. Evaluation of the charge transfer efficiency of organic thin-film photovoltaic devices fabricated using a photoprecursor approach. Photochem Photobiol Sci 14, 883–890 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1039/c4pp00477a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c4pp00477a

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