Issue 45, 2014

Optimisation of diketopyrrolopyrrole:fullerene solar cell performance through control of polymer molecular weight and thermal annealing

Abstract

Poly-thieno[3,2b]thiophene-diketopyrrolopyrrole-co-thiophene (DPP-TT-T) is a promising low bandgap donor polymer for organic solar cells. In this study we employ two different approaches to improve the device efficiency via optimisation of the morphology of the active layer: tuning of the molecular weight of the polymer and thermal annealing. In the former case, a higher molecular weight was found to yield a more intermixed morphology, resulting in enhanced exciton dissociation and charge separation, as confirmed by atomic force microscopy, and photoluminescence and transient absorption spectroscopies. In the later case, thermal annealing prior to metal electrode deposition increased the photon conversion efficiency to as high as 6.6%, with this enhanced efficiency being maintained even with prolonged annealing (240 hours at 80 °C). This enhancement in performance with thermal annealing was correlated with increased polymer crystallinity.

Graphical abstract: Optimisation of diketopyrrolopyrrole:fullerene solar cell performance through control of polymer molecular weight and thermal annealing

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Jul 2014
Accepted
30 Sep 2014
First published
30 Sep 2014

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014,2, 19282-19289

Author version available

Optimisation of diketopyrrolopyrrole:fullerene solar cell performance through control of polymer molecular weight and thermal annealing

Z. Huang, E. C. Fregoso, S. Dimitrov, P. S. Tuladhar, Y. W. Soon, H. Bronstein, I. Meager, W. Zhang, I. McCulloch and J. R. Durrant, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, 2, 19282 DOI: 10.1039/C4TA03589E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements