Title
Conjugated block copolymer photovoltaics with near 3% efficiency through microphase separation
Date Issued
12 June 2013
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Guo C.
Lin Y.H.
Witman M.D.
Smith K.A.
Wang C.
Hexemer A.
Strzalka J.
Verduzco R.
Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
Organic electronic materials have the potential to impact almost every aspect of modern life including how we access information, light our homes, and power personal electronics. Nevertheless, weak intermolecular interactions and disorder at junctions of different organic materials limit the performance and stability of organic interfaces and hence the applicability of organic semiconductors to electronic devices. Here, we demonstrate control of donor-acceptor heterojunctions through microphase-separated conjugated block copolymers. When utilized as the active layer of photovoltaic cells, block copolymer-based devices demonstrate efficient photoconversion well beyond devices composed of homopolymer blends. The 3% block copolymer device efficiencies are achieved without the use of a fullerene acceptor. X-ray scattering results reveal that the remarkable performance of block copolymer solar cells is due to self-assembly into mesoscale lamellar morphologies with primarily face-on crystallite orientations. Conjugated block copolymers thus provide a pathway to enhance performance in excitonic solar cells through control of donor-acceptor interfaces. © 2013 American Chemical Society.
Start page
2957
End page
2963
Volume
13
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales Nano-materiales
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84879121657
Source
Nano Letters
ISSN of the container
15306992
DOI of the container
10.1021/nl401420s
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus