Process Structure Property Relationship Of Polymer Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Films For Organic Solar Cells

This volume presents the results of a multi-year research programme funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council), which explains how organic solar cells work. In this new promising photovoltaic technology, carbon-based materials are deposited by low-cost methods onto flexible substrates, thus allowing devices which open completely new applications like transparent coatings for building, solar cells integrated into clothing or packages, and many more. The investigation of organic solar cells is an interdisciplinary topic, covering physics, chemistry and engineering. The different chapters address topics ranging from the synthesis of new organic materials, to the characterization of the elementary processes such as exciton transport and separation, and the principles of highly efficient device design. /div

Polymer solar cells can be produced by a continuous low cost coating and drying process. This work details a specialized experimental set-up to enable large scale roll to roll processing. Material properties such as surface energy, surface tension, and viscosity are presented and modelled. The impact of coating method, as well as process parameters (e.g. coating speed, shear rate, solvent composition) on process stability and film properties, is discussed.

Polymer solar cells have gained much attention as they offer a potentially economic and viable way of commercially manufacturing lightweight, flexible and low-cost photovoltaics. With contributions from leading scientists, Polymer Photovoltaics provides an international perspective on the latest research for this rapidly expanding field. The book starts with an Introduction to polymer solar cells and covers several important topics that govern their photovoltaic properties including the chemistry and the design of new light harvesting and interfacial materials and their structure-property relationship; the physics for photocurrent generation in the polymer solar cells; new characterization tools to study morphology effect on the property of donor/acceptor bulk heterojunctions; new device concepts such as tandem cells and semi-transparent cells and advanced roll-to-roll processes for large-scale manufacturing of polymer solar cells. Written by active researchers, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in polymer solar cell technology for both researchers and students that are interested in this field.

This book covers properties, processing, and applications of conducting polymers. It discusses properties and characterization, including photophysics and transport. It then moves to processing and morphology of conducting polymers, covering such topics as printing, thermal processing, morphology evolution, conducting polymer composites, thin films

In the last 10 years there have been major advances in fundamental understanding and applications and a vast portfolio of new polymer structures with unique and tailored properties was developed. Work moved from a chemical repeat unit structure to one more based on structural control, new polymerization methodologies, properties, processing, and applications. The 4th Edition takes this into account and will be completely rewritten and reorganized, focusing on spin coating, spray coating, blade/slot die coating, layer-by-layer assembly, and fiber spinning methods; property characterizations of redox, interfacial, electrical, and optical phenomena; and commercial applications.

Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells constitute an emerging approach to a low cost, solution processable, and highly scalable renewable energy avenue. However, one of the major challenges limiting the broad applicability of these solar cells is their lower device efficiencies compared to their inorganic counterparts. In this regard, much effort has been dedicated to optimizing the efficiencies by developing new high-performance materials and fine tuning the BHJ blend morphology via various processing methods. This study presents a molecular level understanding of what controls the device performance.In the first part, a novel fulleropyrrolidine derivative C60-fused N-(3-methoxypropyl)-2-(carboxyethyl)-5-(4-cyanophenyl) fulleropyrrolidine (NCPF) was synthesized and blended with a conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) for applications of BHJ polymer solar cells. NCPF has a good solubility in common organic solvents and comparable electronic properties with the widely used acceptor [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). A short term thermal annealing induced enhancement in device performance was found to be associated with improved crystallization of polymer within blend thin films and correspondingly increased hole mobility. The long term annealing study showed that P3HT:NCPF blends had superior thermal stability compared to P3HT:PCBM blends. In the second part, we demonstrate the compatibilization effect of a rod-coil block copolymer (BCP) in different polymer:fullerene derivative blend systems. AFM results and GIWAXS analyses revealed that the addition of BCP into the blend thin films effectively altered the thin film nanostructure and polymer crystalline structure. Moreover, higher device efficiencies were obtained in blends containing block copolymer compatibilizer. The improvement in performance was then ascribed to the morphological changes in the polymer:fullerene blends.The final study deals with the application of a simple, high throughput and roll-to-roll compatible process, zone annealing, to process polymer:fullerene BHJ blends. By morphological study, we established a regime in which interpenetrating phase separated morphology was obtained via zone annealing that exhibited no overgrown fullerene crystallites. Moreover, we extend the use of zone annealing method to perovskite materials, i.e. inorganic--organic hybrid lead halide perovskites. The zone annealed perovskite film morphology exhibits a transition from densely packed structures to dendritic crystallizations with increasing sample annealing velocity. This transition shifts to lower speed in higher temperature condition. By varying temperature and the sweeping speed, large grains were observed in zone annealed samples. Collectively, these studies provide a more fundamental and deeper understanding of the relationships between materials, processing, morphology and performance of thin film solar cells.

Organic Electronics is a rapidly evolving multidisciplinary research field at the interface between Organic Chemistry and Physics. Organic Electronics is based on the use of the unique optical and electrical properties of π-conjugated materials that range from small molecules to polymers. The wide activity of researchers in Organic Electronics is testament to the fact that its potential is huge and its list of potential applications almost endless. Application of these electronic and optoelectronic devices range from Organic Field Effect Transistors (OFETs) to Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) and Organic Solar Cells (OSCs), sensors, etc. We invited a series of colleagues to contribute to this Special Issue with respect to the aforementioned concepts and keywords. The goal for this Special Issue was to describe the recent developments of this rapidly advancing interdisciplinary research field. We thank all authors for their contributions.

My thesis focuses on improving and understanding a relatively new type of solar cell materials system: polymer:fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) blends. These mixtures have drawn significant interest because they are made from low-cost organic molecules that can be cast from solution, which makes them a potential cheap alternative to traditional solar cell materials like silicon. The drawback, though, is that they are not as efficient at converting sunlight into electricity. My thesis focuses on this issue, and examines the loss processes holding back the efficiency in polymer:fullerene blends as well as investigates new processing methods for overcoming the efficiency limitations. The first chapter introduces the subject of solar cells, and polymer:fullerene solar cells in particular. The second chapter presents a case study on recombination in the high-performance PBDTTT polymer family, wherein we discovered that nongeminate recombination of an anti-Langevin origin was the dominant loss process that ultimately limited the cell efficiency. Electroluminescence measurements revealed that an electron back-transfer process was prevalent in active layers with insufficient PC$_{71}$BM content. This work ultimately made strong headway in understanding what factors limited the relatively unexplored but highly efficient PBDTTT family of polymers. In the next chapter, I further explore the recombination mechanisms in polymer:fullerene BHJs by examining the dark diode ideality factor as a function of temperature in several polymer:fullerene materials systems. By re-deriving the diode law for a polymer:fullerene device with Shockley-Read-Hall recombination, we were able to confirm that trap-assisted recombination through an exponential band-tail of localized states is the dominant recombination process in many polymer:fullerene active layers. In the third chapter, I present a generalized theoretical framework for understanding current transients in planar semiconductor devices, like those discussed above. My analysis reveals that the apparent free-carrier concentration obtained via the usual integral approach is altered by a non-trivial factor of two, sometimes leading to misinterpretations of the charge densities and overall device physics. This new perspective could have far-reaching effects on semiconductor research and technology. Finally, in the last two chapters, I discuss the device physics associated with a relatively novel method for fabricating nanoscale polymer:fullerene BHJs: solution sequential processing (SqP). In particular, I compare recombination in SqP vs. traditionally processed blend-cast devices, and demonstrate that SqP is a more scalable method for making BHJ solar cells. In the final chapter, I examine an unexpected discovery that occurred while working on the content in Chapter 5. Specifically, Chapter 6 examines electrode metal penetration in the SqP quasi-bilayer active layer architecture. Therein, we unexpectedly found that evaporated metal can readily penetrate into fullerene-rich layers, up to $\sim$70 nm or more. The details and consequences of this surprising occurrence are discussed in detail.

Recently developed organic photovoltaics (OPVs) show distinct advantages over their inorganic counterparts due to their lighter weight, flexible shape, versatile materials synthesis and device fabrication schemes, and low cost in large-scale industrial production. Although many books currently exist on general concepts of PV and inorganic PV materials and devices, few are available that offer a comprehensive overview of recently fast developing organic and polymeric PV materials and devices. Organic Photovoltaics: Mechanisms, Materials, and Devices fills this gap. The book provides an international perspective on the latest research in this rapidly expanding field with contributions from top experts around the world. It presents a unified approach comprising three sections: General Overviews; Mechanisms and Modeling; and Materials and Devices. Discussions include sunlight capture, exciton diffusion and dissociation, interface properties, charge recombination and migration, and a variety of currently developing OPV materials/devices. The book also includes two forewords: one by Nobel Laureate Dr. Alan J. Heeger, and the other by Drs. Aloysius Hepp and Sheila Bailey of NASA Glenn Research Center. Organic Photovoltaics equips students, researchers, and engineers with knowledge of the mechanisms, materials, devices, and applications of OPVs necessary to develop cheaper, lighter, and cleaner renewable energy throughout the coming decades.