“Solvent Annealing” Effect in Polymer Solar Cells Based on Poly(3‐hexylthiophene) and Methanofullerenes

Abstract The self‐organization of the polymer in solar cells based on regioregular poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (RR‐P3HT):[6,6]‐phenyl C 61 ‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is studied systematically as a function of the spin‐coating time t s (varied from 20–80 s), which controls the solvent annealing time t a , the time taken by the solvent to dry after the spin‐coating process. These blend films are characterized by photoluminescence spectroscopy, UV‐vis absorption spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction (GIXRD) measurements. The results indicate that the π‐conjugated structure of RR‐P3HT in the films is optimally developed when t a is greater than 1 min ( t s ∼ 50 s). For t…

• OO
  Office of Naval Research

  Award: N00 014-04-1-0434