Issue 40, 2015

Highly efficient exciton harvesting and charge transport in ternary blend solar cells based on wide- and low-bandgap polymers

Abstract

We have designed highly efficient ternary blend solar cells based on a wide-bandgap crystalline polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a low-bandgap polymer, poly[(4,4′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2′3′-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-4,7-diyl] (PSBTBT), and a fullerene derivative (PCBM). By using highly crystalline P3HT, high fill factors were obtained even for ternary blend solar cells, suggesting efficient charge transport due to large P3HT crystalline domains. In such large crystalline domains, some P3HT excitons could not diffuse into the interface with PCBM but can be collected in PSBTBT domains by efficient energy transfer because of large spectral overlap between the P3HT fluorescence and the PSBTBT absorption. Consequently, all the P3HT excitons can contribute to the photocurrent generation at the P3HT/PCBM interface and/or PSBTBT domains mixed with PCBM in the ternary blends. As a result, P3HT/PSBTBT/PCBM ternary blend solar cells exhibit a power conversion efficiency of 5.6%, which is even higher than those of both individual binary devices of P3HT/PCBM and PSBTBT/PCBM.

Graphical abstract: Highly efficient exciton harvesting and charge transport in ternary blend solar cells based on wide- and low-bandgap polymers

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Aug 2015
Accepted
21 Sep 2015
First published
21 Sep 2015

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 27217-27224

Author version available

Highly efficient exciton harvesting and charge transport in ternary blend solar cells based on wide- and low-bandgap polymers

Y. Wang, H. Ohkita, H. Benten and S. Ito, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 27217 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP05161D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements