Surface-directed spinodal decomposition in poly[3-hexylthiophene] and C61-butyric acid methyl ester blends

ACS Nano

Volumn 5, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 329-336

  Vaynzof, Yana ^a   Kabra, Dinesh ^a   Zhao, Lihong ^b   Chua, Lay Lay ^b   Steiner, Ullrich ^a   Friend, Richard H ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

^b NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells; C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM); Photoemission spectroscopy; Poly 3 hexylthiophene (P3HT); Spinodal phase separation

Indexed keywords

BICONTINUOUS; BOTTOM ELECTRODES; BULK HETEROJUNCTION PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS; C61-BUTYRIC ACID METHYL ESTER (PCBM); CHARGE COLLECTION PROPERTIES; DE-MIXING; ELECTRON COLLECTORS; FILM SURFACES; METHYL ESTERS; PHASE MORPHOLOGY; PHOTOVOLTAIC DIODES; POLY[3-HEXYLTHIOPHENE](P3HT); PROCESS CONDITION; PV PERFORMANCE; SPINODAL DEMIXING; SPINODALS; SURFACE LAYERS; SURFACE-DIRECTED SPINODAL DECOMPOSITION; TEMPORAL SEPARATION; TWO-COMPONENT; ULTRAVIOLET PHOTOEMISSION SPECTROSCOPY; X RAY PHOTOEMISSION SPECTROSCOPY;

BUTYRIC ACID; CARRIER MOBILITY; CRYSTALLIZATION; EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY; ESTERIFICATION; ESTERS; FATTY ACIDS; HETEROJUNCTIONS; LUMINESCENCE OF ORGANIC SOLIDS; MORPHOLOGY; PHASE SEPARATION; PHOTOEMISSION; PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS; PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECTS;

SPINODAL DECOMPOSITION;

EID: 79958072928     PISSN: 19360851     EISSN: 1936086X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/nn102899g     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Strobl, G. R. The Physics of Polymers: Concepts for Understanding Their Structures and Behavior, 3rd ed.; Springer: New York, 1997.
2. Barbero, D. R.; Steiner, U. Nonequilibrium Polymer Rheology in Spin-Cast Films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 102, 248303.
3. Raegen, A.; Chowdhury, M.; Calers, C.; Schmatulla, A.; Steiner, U.; Reiter, G. Aging of Thin Polymer Films Cast from a Near-Theta Solvent. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 105, 227801.
4. Bjorstrom Svanstrom, C. M.; Rysz, J.; Bernasik, A.; Budkowski, A.; Zhang, F.; Inganas, O.; Andersson, M. R.; Magnusson, K. O.; Benson-Smith, J. J.; Nelson, J.; et al. Device Performance of APFO-3/PCBM Solar Cells with Controlled Morphology. Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 4398-4403.
5. Kim, E.; Krausch, G.; Kramer, E.; Osby, J. O. Surface-Directed Spinodal Decomposition in the Blend of Polystyrene and Tetramethyl-Bisphenol-A Polycarbonate. Macromolecules 1994, 27, 5927-5929.
6. Geoghegan, M.; Jones, R. A. L.; Clough, A. S. Surface Directed Spinodal Decomposition in a Partially Miscible Polymer Blend. J. Chem. Phys. 1995, 103, 2719.
7. Walheim, S.; Böltau, M.; Mlynek, J.; Krausch, G.; Steiner, U. Structure Formation via Polymer Demixing in Spin-Cast Films. Macromolecules 1997, 30, 4995-5003. (Pubitemid 127574318)
8. Heriot, S. Y.; Jones, R. A. L. An Interfacial Instability in a Transient Wetting Layer Leads to Lateral Phase Separation in Thin Spin-Cast Polymer-Blend Films. Nat. Mater. 2005, 4, 782-786. (Pubitemid 41397028)
9. Jukes, P. C.; Heriot, S. Y.; Sharp, J. S.; Jones, R. A. L. Time- Resolved Light Scattering Studies of Phase Separation in Thin Film Semiconducting Polymer Blends during Spin- Coating. Macromolecules 2005, 38, 2030-2032. (Pubitemid 40430362)
10. Kawano, K.; Pacios, R.; Poplavskyy, D.; Nelson, J.; Bradley, D. D. C.; Durrant, J. R. Degradation of Organic Solar Cells Due to Air Exposure. Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 2006, 90, 3520.
11. 3 Interlayer. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2008, 92, 173303.
12. Xu, Z.; Chen, L. -M; Yang, G.; Huang, C. -H; Hou, J.; Wu, Y.; Li, G.; Hsu, C. -S; Yang, Y. Vertical Phase Separation in Poly(3-hexylthiophene): Fullerene Derivative Blends and Its Advantage for Inverted Structure Solar Cells. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2009, 19, 1227-1234.
13. Li, G.; Shrotriya, V.; Huang, J.; Yao, Y.; Moriarty, T.; Emery, K.; Yang, Y. High-Efficiency Solution Processable Polymer Photovoltaic Cells by Self-Organization of Polymer Blends. Nat. Mater. 2005, 4, 864-868.
14. Nilsson, S.; Bernasik, A.; Budkowski, A.; Moons, E. Morphology and Phase Segregation of Spin-Casted Films of Polyfluorene/PCBM Blends. Macromolecules 2007, 40, 8291-8301. (Pubitemid 350150543)
15. Campoy-Quiles, M.; Ferenczi, T.; Agostinelli, T.; Etchegoin, P. G.; Kim, Y.; Anthopoulos, T. D.; Stavrinou, P. N.; Bradley, D. D. C.; Nelson, J. Morphology Evolution via Self- Organization and Lateral and Vertical Diffusion in Polymer: Fullerene Solar Cell Blends. Nat. Mater. 2008, 7, 158-164. (Pubitemid 351161347)
16. Bavel, S. S. V.; Sourty, E.; With, G. D; Loos, J. Three- Dimensional Nanoscale Organization of Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells. Nano Lett. 2009, 9, 507-513.
17. Yu, B. -Y; Lin, W. -C; Wang, W. -B; Iida, S. -I; Chen, S. -Z; Liu, C. -Y; Kuo, C. -H; Lee, S. -H; Kao, W. -L; Yen, G. -J; et al. Effect of Fabrication Parameters on Three-Dimensional Nanostructures of Bulk Heterojunctions Imaged by High- Resolution Scanning ToF-SIMS. ACS Nano 2010, 4, 833-840.
18. Kiel, J. W.; Kirby, B. J.; Majkrzak, C. F.; Maranvillec, B. B.; Mackay, M. E. Nanoparticle Concentration Profile in Polymer-Based Solar Cells. Soft Matter 2010, 6, 641-646.
19. Hwang, J.; Ami, F.; Kahn, A. Spectroscopic Study on Sputtered PEDOT:PSS: Role of Surface PSS Layer. Org. Electron. 2006, 7, 387-396. (Pubitemid 44416346)
20. Yoo, J. E.; Krekelberg, W. P.; Sun, Y.; Tarver, J. D.; Truskett, T. M.; Loo, Y.-L. Polymer Conductivity through Particle Connectivity. Chem. Mater. 2009, 21, 1948-1954.
21. Allen, M. W.; Swartz, C. H.; Myers, T. H.; Veal, T. D.; McConville, C. F.; Durbin, S. M. Bulk Transport Measurements in ZnO: The Effect of Surface Electron Layers. Phys. Rev. B 2010, 81, 075211.
22. Kahn, A.; Koch, N.; Gao, W. Electronic Structure and Electrical Properties of Interfaces between Metals and π-Conjugated Molecular Films. J. Polym. Sci., Part B 2003, 41, 2529.
23. 61 Butyric Acid Methyl Ester Bulk Heterojunction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2009, 95, 013301.
24. 61 Butyric Acid Methyl Ester Blend. Org. Electron. 2010, 11, 1779-1785.
25. 60/Polymer Interfaces. Adv. Mater. 2007, 19, 4213.
26. Ponjee, M. W. G.; Reijme, M. A.; Langeveld-Voss, B. M. W.; Danier van der Gon, A. W.; Brongersma, H. H. Molecular Surface Structure of Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Studied by Low Energy Ion Scattering. Surf. Sci. 2002, 512, 194-200. (Pubitemid 34630353)
27. Kim, M.-S.; Kim, B.-G.; Kim, J. Effective Variables To Control the Fill Factor of Organic Photovoltaic Cells. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2009, 1 (6), 1264-1269.
28. Jones, R. A. L.; Norton, L. J.; Kramer, E. J.; Bates, F. S.; Wiltzius, P. Surface-Directed Spinodal Decomposition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1991, 66, 1326-1329.
29. Puri, S.; Binder, K. Surface Effects on Spinodal Decomposition in Binary Mixtures and the Interplay with Wetting Phenomena. Phys. Rev. E 1994, 49, 5359-5377.
30. Chiu, M.-Y; Jeng, U.-S.; Su, C.-H.; Liang, K. S.; Wei, K.-H. Simultaneous Use of Small- and Wide-Angle X-ray Techniques to Analyze Nanometerscale Phase Separation in Polymer Heterojunction Solar Cells. Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 2573-2578.
31. Troshin, P. A.; Hoppe, H.; Renz, J.; Egginger, M.; Moyarove, J. Y.; Goryachev, A. E.; Peregudov, A. S.; Lyubovskaya, R. N.; Gobsch, G.; Sariciftci, N. S.; et al. Material Solubility- Photovoltaic Performance Relationship in the Design of Novel Fullerene Derivatives for Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2009, 19, 779-788.
32. Hu, W.; Frenkel, D. Polymer Crystallization Driven by Anisotropic Interactions. Adv. Polym. Sci. 2005, 191, 1-35.
33. Zhang, X.-H.; Wang, Z.-G.; Dong, X.; Wang, D.-J.; Han, C. C. Interplay between Two Phase Transitions: Crystallization and Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in a Polyolefin Blend. J. Chem. Phys. 2006, 125, 024907.
34. Ma, Y.; Zha, L.; Hu, W.; Reiter, G.; Han, C. C. Crystal Nucleation Enhanced at the Diffuse Interface of Immiscible Polymer Blends. Phys. Rev. E 2008, 77, 061801.
35. Muller, C.; Ferenczi, T. A. M.; Campoy-Quiles, M.; Frost, J. M.; Bradley, D. D. C.; Smith, P.; Stingelin-Stutzmann, N.; Nelson, J. Binary Organic Photovoltaic Blends: A Simple Rationale for Optimum Compositions. Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 3510-3515.
36. Hoppe, H.; Sariciftci, N. S. Morphology of Polymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells. J. Mater. Chem. 2006, 16, 45-61. (Pubitemid 43324484)
37. Ballantyne, A. M.; Ferenczi, T. A.; Campoy-Quiles, M.; Clarke, T. M.; Maurano, A.; Wong, K. H.; Zhang, W.; Stingelin Stutzmann, N.; Kim, J.-S.; Bradley, D. D. C.; et al. Understanding the Influence of Morphology on Poly(3-hexylselenothiophene):PCBM Solar Cells. Macromolecules 2010, 43, 1169-1174.
38. Wang, M.; Tang, Q.; An, J.; Xie, F.; Chen, J.; Zheng, S.; Wong, K. Y.; Miao, Q.; Xu, J. Performance and Stability Improvement of P3HT:PCBM-Based Solar Cells by Thermally Evaporated Chromium Oxide (CrOx) Interfacial Layer. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2010, 2, 2699-2702.
39. Ma, W.; Yang, C.; Gong, X.; Lee, K.; Heeger, A. J. Thermally Stable, Efficient Polymer Solar Cells with Nanoscale Control of the Interpenetrating Network Morphology. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2005, 15, 1617-1622. (Pubitemid 41454589)
40. Germack, D. S.; Chan, C. K.; Hamadani, B. H.; Richter, L. J.; Fischer, D. A.; Gundlach, D. J.; DeLongchamp, D. M. Substrate-Dependent Interface Composition and Charge Transport in Films for Organic Photovoltaics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2009, 94, 233303.
41. Wang, H.; Gomez, E.; Guan, Z.; Kahn, A.; Jaye, C.; Fischer, D.; Schwartz, J.; Loo, Y.-L. Elucidating Vertical Phase Separation of Active Layers in Polymer Solar Cells via NEXAFS. American Physical Society,APS March Meeting, March 15-19, 2010, abstract #B16.005.
42. Moon, J. S.; Takacs, C. J.; Cho, S.; Coffin, R. C.; Kim, H.; Bazan, G. C.; Heeger, A. J. Effect of Processing Additive on the Nanomorphology of a Bulk Heterojunction Material. Nano Lett. 2010, 10, 4006-4008.
43. Ratheesh, P. M. K.; Kartha, C. S.; Vijaykumar, K. P.; Singh, F.; Avasthi, D. K. Effect of Fluorine Doping on Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of ZnO Thin Films. Mater. Sci. Eng., B 2005, 117, 307-312. (Pubitemid 40274978)