IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v4y2013i1d10.1038_ncomms3867.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determining the optimum morphology in high-performance polymer-fullerene organic photovoltaic cells

Author

Listed:
  • Gordon J. Hedley

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

  • Alexander J. Ward

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

  • Alexander Alekseev

    (Materials and Condensed Matter Physics, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow)

  • Calvyn T. Howells

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

  • Emiliano R. Martins

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

  • Luis A. Serrano

    (Glasgow Centre for Physical Organic Chemistry, WestCHEM, School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow)

  • Graeme Cooke

    (Glasgow Centre for Physical Organic Chemistry, WestCHEM, School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow)

  • Arvydas Ruseckas

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

  • Ifor D. W. Samuel

    (Organic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh)

Abstract

The morphology of bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells controls many of the performance characteristics of devices. However, measuring this morphology is challenging because of the small length-scales and low contrast between organic materials. Here we use nanoscale photocurrent mapping, ultrafast fluorescence and exciton diffusion to observe the detailed morphology of a high-performance blend of PTB7:PC71BM. We show that optimized blends consist of elongated fullerene-rich and polymer-rich fibre-like domains, which are 10–50 nm wide and 200–400 nm long. These elongated domains provide a concentration gradient for directional charge diffusion that helps in the extraction of charge pairs with 80% efficiency. In contrast, blends with agglomerated fullerene domains show a much lower efficiency of charge extraction of ~45%, which is attributed to poor electron and hole transport. Our results show that the formation of narrow and elongated domains is desirable for efficient bulk heterojunction solar cells.

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon J. Hedley & Alexander J. Ward & Alexander Alekseev & Calvyn T. Howells & Emiliano R. Martins & Luis A. Serrano & Graeme Cooke & Arvydas Ruseckas & Ifor D. W. Samuel, 2013. "Determining the optimum morphology in high-performance polymer-fullerene organic photovoltaic cells," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3867
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3867
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3867
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms3867?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3867. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.