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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter February 13, 2018

Computational approach to the study of morphological properties of polymer/fullerene blends in photovoltaics

  • Francis M. Gaitho EMAIL logo , Genene T. Mola and Giuseppe Pellicane
From the journal Physical Sciences Reviews

Abstract

Organic solar cells have the ability to transform solar energy efficiently and have a promising energy balance. Producing these cells is economical and makes use of methods of printing using inks built on solvents that are well-matched with a variety of cheap materials like flexible plastic or paper. The primary materials used to manufacture organic solar cells include carbon-based semiconductors, which are good light absorbers and efficient charge generators. In this article, we review previous research of interest based on morphology of polymer blends used in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells and introduce their basic principles. We further review computational models used in the analysis of surface behavior of polymer blends in BHJ as well as the trends in the field of polymer surface science as applied to BHJ photovoltaics. We also give in brief, the opportunities and challenges in the area of polymer blends on BHJ organic solar cells.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to the Physics staff in UKZN for fruitful discussions and comments.


Published Online: 2018-2-13
Published in Print: 2018-2-23

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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