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Effect of silicon-nanoparticle addition on the nanostructure of polythiophene: Fullurene bulk heterojunction solar cells

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Abstract

We investigated the nanostructure change in bulk heterojunction films of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)-propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)C61 (PCBM) before and after adding silicon nanoparticles (SiNP) by employing synchrotron radiation grazing incidence-angle X-ray diffraction (GIXD) techniques. The GIXD results showed a gradual reduction of the P3HT (100) diffraction intensity in the out-of-plane (OOP) direction as the SiNP content was increased. Interestingly, a (100) intensity in the in-plane (IP) direction newly appeared when a small amount of SiNP was added, but it faded at higher SiNP contents. In particular, the addition of 2 wt.% SiNP increased the (100) intensity in both the OOP and the IP directions, leading to improved solar cell performance due to enhanced charge transport in the P3HT domains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organic Nanoelectronics Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 702-701, Korea

    Joonhyeon Kim, Sungho Nam, Jaehoon Jeong, Hwajeong Kim & Youngkyoo Kim

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  1. Joonhyeon Kim
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  2. Sungho Nam
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  3. Jaehoon Jeong
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  4. Hwajeong Kim
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  5. Youngkyoo Kim
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Correspondence to Youngkyoo Kim.

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Kim, J., Nam, S., Jeong, J. et al. Effect of silicon-nanoparticle addition on the nanostructure of polythiophene: Fullurene bulk heterojunction solar cells. Journal of the Korean Physical Society 61, 234–238 (2012). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.61.234

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.61.234

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