Development of the morphology during functional stack build-up of P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells with inverted geometry

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volumn 7, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 602-610

  Wang, Weijia ^a   Pröller, Stephan ^a   Niedermeier, Martin A ^a   Körstgens, Volker ^a   Philipp, Martine ^a   Su, Bo ^a   Moseguí González, Daniel ^a   Yu, Shun ^b,c   Roth, Stephan V ^b   Müller Buschbaum, Peter ^a  

^a TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH   (Germany)

^b DESY   (Germany)

^c ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

BHJ solar cell; GISAXS; inverted solar cell; morphology; P3HT:PCBM

Indexed keywords

ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY; BUTYRIC ACID; GEOMETRY; HETEROJUNCTIONS; MORPHOLOGY; NANOCOMPOSITES; TIN OXIDES; X RAY SCATTERING;

BHJ SOLAR CELLS; BULK HETEROJUNCTION SOLAR CELLS; EXCITON DIFFUSION LENGTH; GI-SAXS; GRAZING INCIDENCE SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING; INVERTED SOLAR CELLS; P3HT:PCBM; POLY(3-HEXYLTHIOPHENE-2 ,5-DIYL);

SOLAR CELLS;

EID: 84921289931     PISSN: 19448244     EISSN: 19448252     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/am5067749     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Yu, G.; Gao, J.; Hummelen, J. C.; Wudl, F.; Heeger, A. J. Polymer Photovoltaic Cells: Enhanced Efficiencies via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions Science 1995, 270, 1789-1791
2. Li, G.; Shrotriya, V.; Yao, Y.; Yang, Y. Investigation of Annealing Effects and Film Thickness Dependence of Polymer Solar Cells Based on Poly(3-hexylthiophene) J. Appl. Phys. 2005, 98, 043704
3. 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, 10, 1617-1622
4. Peet, J.; Kim, J. Y.; Coates, N. E.; Ma, W. L.; Moses, D.; Heeger, A. J.; Bazan, G. C. Efficiency Enhancement in Low-bandgap Polymer Solar Cells by Processing with Alkane Dithiols Nat. Mater. 2007, 6, 497-500
5. Graetzel, M.; Janssen, R. A. J.; Mitzi, D. B.; Sargent, E. H. Materials Interface Engineering for Solution-processed Photovoltaics Nature 2012, 488, 304-312
6. Menke, S. M.; Luhman, W. A.; Holmes, R. J. Tailored Exciton Diffusion in Organic Photovoltaic cells for Enhanced Power Conversion Efficiency Nat. Mater. 2013, 12, 152-157
7. Zhou, H.; Zhang, Y.; Seifter, J.; Collins, S. D.; Luo, C.; Bazan, G. C.; Nguyen, T.-Q.; Heeger, A. J. High-Efficiency Polymer Solar Cells Enhanced by Solvent Treatment Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 1646-1652
8. Tumbleston, J. R.; Collins, B. A.; Yang, L.; Stuart, A. C.; Gann, E.; Ma, W.; You, W.; Ade, H. The Influence of Molecular Orientation on Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Nat. Photonics 2011, 7, 5482-5493
9. Ruderer, M. A.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Morphology of Polymer-based Bulk Heterojunction Films for Organic Photovoltaics Soft Matter 2014, 8, 385-391
10. Scharber, M. C.; Sariciftci, N. S. Efficiency of Bulk-heterojunction Organic Solar Cells Prog. Polym. Sci. 2013, 38, 1929-1940
11. Brabec, C. J.; Sariciftci, N. S.; Hummelen, J. C. Plastic Solar Cells Adv. Funct. Mater. 2001, 11, 15-26
12. Kaltenbrunner, M.; White, M. S.; Głowacki, E. D.; Sekitani, T.; Someya, T.; Sariciftci, N. S.; Bauer, S. Ultrathin and Lightweight Organic Solar Cells with High Flexibility Nat. Commun. 2012, 3, 770
13. Burke, D. J.; Lipomi, D. J. Green Chemistry for Organic Solar Cells Energy Environ. Sci. 2013, 6, 2053-2066
14. Darling, S. B.; You, F. The Case for Organic Photovoltaics RSC Adv. 2013, 3, 17633-17648
15. You, J.; Dou, L.; Yoshimura, K.; Kato, T.; Ohya, K.; Moriarty, T.; Emery, K.; Chen, C.-C.; Gao, J.; Li, G.; Yang, Y. A Polymer Tandem Solar Cell with 10.6% Power Conversion Efficiency Nat. Commun. 2013, 4, 1446
16. Chen, C.-C.; Chang, W.-H.; Yoshimura, K.; Ohya, K.; You, J.; Gao, J.; Hong, Z.; Yang, Y. An Efficient Triple-Junction Polymer Solar Cell Having a Power Conversion Efficiency Exceeding 11% Adv. Mater. 2014, 26, 5670-5677
17. Søndergaard, R.; Hösel, M.; Angmo, D.; Larsen-Olsen, T. T.; Krebs, F. C. Roll-to-roll Fabrication of Polymer Solar Cells Mater. Today 2012, 15, 36-49
18. He, Z.; Zhong, C.; Su, S.; Xu, M.; Wu, H.; Cao, Y. Enhanced Power-conversion Efficiency in Polymer Solar Cells Using an Inverted Device Structure Nat. Photonics 2012, 6, 591-595
19. Chen, W.; Nikiforov, M. P.; Darling, S. B. Morphology Characterization in Organic and Hybrid Solar Cells Energy Environ. Sci. 2012, 5, 8045-8074
20. Westacott, P.; Tumbleston, J. R.; Shoaee, S.; Fearn, S.; Bannock, J. H.; Gilchrist, J. B.; Heutz, S.; deMello, J.; Heeney, M.; Ade, H.; Durrant, J.; McPhail, D. S.; Stingelin, N. On the Role of Intermixed Phases in Organic Photovoltaic Blends Energy Environ. Sci. 2013, 6, 2756-2764
21. Verploegen, E.; Mondal, R.; Bettinger, C. J.; Sok, S.; Toney, M. F.; Bao, Z. Effects of Thermal Annealing Upon the Morphology of Polymer-Fullerene Blends Adv. Funct. Mater. 2010, 20, 3519-3529
22. Lou, S.; Szarko, J. M.; Xu, T.; Yu, L.; Marks, T.; Chen, L. X. Effects of Additives on the Morphology of Solution Phase Aggregates Formed by Active Layer Components of High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 20661-20663
23. Chen, L.-M.; Hong, Z.; Li, G.; Yang, Y. Recent Progress in Polymer Solar Cells: Manipulation of Polymer:Fullerene Morphology and the Formation of Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells Adv. Mater. 2009, 21, 1434-1449
24. Liao, H.-C.; Ho, C.-C.; Chang, C.-Y.; Jao, M.-H.; Darling, S. B.; Su, W.-F. Additives for Morphology Control in High-Efficiency Organic Solar Cells Mater. Today 2013, 16, 326-336
25. Li, G.; Chu, C.-W.; Shrotriya, V.; Huang, J.; Yang, Y. Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells Appl. Phys. Lett. 2006, 88, 253503
26. Glatthaar, M.; Niggemann, M.; Zimmermann, B.; Lewer, P.; Riede, M.; Hinsch, A.; Luther, J. Organic Solar Cells Using Inverted Layer Sequence Thin Solid Films 2005, 491, 298-300
27. Ameri, T.; Dennler, G.; Waldauf, C.; Azimi, H.; Seemann, A.; Forberich, K.; Hauch, J.; Scharber, M.; Hingerl, K.; Brabec, C. J. Fabrication, Optical Modeling, and Color Characterization of Semitransparent Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells in an Inverted Structure Adv. Funct. Mater. 2010, 20, 1592-1598
28. 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
29. Hsieh, C.-H.; Cheng, Y.-J.; Li, P.-J.; Chen, C.-H.; Dubosc, M.; Liang, R.-M.; Hsu, C.-S. Highly Efficient and Stable Inverted Polymer Solar Cells Integrated with a Cross-Linked Fullerene Material as an Interlayer J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 4887-4893
30. Perlich, J.; Memesa, M.; Diethert, A.; Metwalli, E.; Wang, W.; Roth, S. V.; Timmann, A.; Gutmann, J. S.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Preservation of the Morphology of a Self-encapsulated Thin Titania Film in a Functional Multilayer Stack: an X-ray Scattering Study ChemPhysChem 2009, 10, 799-805
31. Guo, S.; Ruderer, M. A.; Rawolle, M.; Körstgens, V.; Birkenstock, C.; Perlich, J.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Evolution of Lateral Structures during the Functional Stack Build-up of P3HT:PCBM-Based Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2013, 5, 8581-8590
32. Yu, H.; Zhang, S.; Zhao, H.; Will, G.; Liu, P. An Efficient and Low-cost TiO2 Compact Layer for Performance Improvement of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells Electrochim. Acta 2009, 54, 1319-1324
33. Weickert, J.; Sun, H.; Palumbiny, C.; Hesse, H. C.; Schmidt-Mende, L. Spray-Deposited PEDOT:PSS for Inverted Organic Solar Cells Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 2010, 94, 2371-2374
34. Ruderer, M. A.; Körstgens, V.; Metwalli, E.; Al-Hussein, M.; Vainio, U.; Roth, S. V.; Döhrmann, R.; Gehrke, R.; Gebhardt, R.; Burghammer, M.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Determination of the Local Gold Contact Morphology on a Photoactive Polymer Film Using Nanobeam GISAXS Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 2010, 268, 403-410
35. Buffet, A.; Rothkirch, A.; Döhrmann, R.; Körstgens, V.; Abul Kashem, M. M.; Perlich, J.; Herzog, G.; Schwartzkopf, M.; Gehrke, R.; Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Roth, S. V. P03, the Microfocus and Nanofocus X-ray Scattering (MiNaXS) Beamline of the PETRA III Storage Ring: the Microfocus Endstation J. Synchrotron Radiat. 2012, 19, 647-653
36. Santoro, G.; Buffet, A.; Döhrmann, R.; Yu, S.; Körstgens, V.; Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Gedde, U.; Hedenqvist, M.; Roth, S. V. Use of Intermediate Focus for Grazing Incidence Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering Experiments at the Beamline P03 of PETRA III, DESY Rev. Sci. Instrum. 2014, 85, 043901
37. Ruderer, M. A.; Guo, S.; Meier, R.; Chiang, H.-Y.; Körstgens, V.; Wiedersich, J.; Perlich, J.; Roth, S. V.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Solvent-Induced Morphology in Polymer-Based Systems for Organic Photovoltaics Adv. Funct. Mater. 2011, 21, 3382-3391
38. Yang, X.; Uddin, A. Effect of Thermal Annealing on P3HT:PCBM Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells: A Critical Review Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 2014, 30, 324-336
39. Scharber, M. C.; Mühlbacher, D.; Koppe, M.; Denk, P.; Waldauf, C.; Heeger, A. J.; Brabec, C. J. Design Rules for Donors in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells - Towards 10% Energy-Conversion Efficiency Adv. Mater. 2006, 18, 789-794
40. Liu, B.; Png, R.-Q.; Zhao, L.-H.; Chua, L.-L.; Friend, R. H.; Ho, P. K. H. High Internal Quantum Efficiency in Fullerene Solar Cells Based on Crosslinked Polymer Donor Networks Nat. Commun. 2012, 3, 1321
41. Kim, J. B.; Kim, P.; Pégard, N. C.; Oh, S. J.; Kagan, C. R.; Fleischer, J. W.; Stone, H. A.; Loo, Y.-L. Wrinkles and Deep Folds as Photonic Structures in Photovoltaics Nat. Photonics 2012, 6, 327-332
42. Meier, R.; Birkenstock, C.; Palumbiny, C. M.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. Efficiency-improved Organic Solar Cells Based on Plasticizer Assisted Soft Embossed PEDOT:PSS Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2012, 14, 15088-15098
43. Kaune, G.; Ruderer, M. A.; Metwalli, E.; Wang, W.; Couet, S.; Schlage, K.; Röhlsberger, R.; Müller-Buschbaum, P. In-situ GISAXS study of gold film growth on conducting polymer films ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2009, 1, 353-360
44. Roth, S. V.; Burghammer, M.; Riekel, C.; Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Diethert, A.; Panagiotou, P.; Walter, H. Self-assembled Gradient Nanoparticle-polymer Multilayers Investigated by an Advanced Characterisation Method: Microbeam Grazing Incidence X-ray Scattering Appl. Phys. Lett. 2003, 82, 1935
45. Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Bauer, E.; Maurer, E.; Roth, S. V.; Gehrke, R.; Burghammer, M.; Riekel, C. Large-scale and Local-scale Structures in Polymer-blend Films: a Grazing-incidence Ultra-small-angle X-ray Scattering and Sub-microbeam Grazing-incidence Small-angle X-ray Scattering Investigation J. Appl. Crystallogr. 2007, 40, S341-S345
46. Kesava, S. V.; Dhanker, R. D.; Kozub, D. R.; Vakhshouri, K.; Choi, U. H.; Colby, R. H.; Wang, C.; Hexemer, A.; Giebink, N. C.; Gomez, E. D. Mesoscopic Structural Length Scales in P3HT/PCBM Mixtures Remain Invariant for Various Processing Conditions Chem. Mater. 2013, 25, 2812-2818
47. Hamilton, W. A. Conformation, Directed Self-assembly and Engineered Modification: Some Recent Near Surface Structure Determinations by Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray and Neutron Scattering Curr. Opin. Colloid Polym. Sci. 2005, 9, 390-395
48. Renaud, G.; Lazzari, R.; Leroy, F. Probing Surface and Interface Morphology with Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-Ray Scattering Surf. Sci. Rep. 2009, 64, 255-380
49. Müller-Buschbaum, P. Grazing Incidence Small-angle X-ray Scattering: an Advanced Scattering Technique for the Investigation of Nanostructured Polymer Films Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 2003, 376, 3-10
50. Treat, N. D.; Brady, M. A.; Smith, G.; Toney, M. F.; Kramer, E. J.; Hawker, C. J.; Chabinyc, M. L. Interdiffusion of PCBM and P3HT Reveals Miscibility in a Photovoltaically Active Blend Adv. Energy. Mater. 2011, 1, 82-89
51. Chen, W.; Xu, T.; He, F.; Wang, W.; Wang, C.; Strzalka, J.; Lin, Y.; Wen, J.; Miller, D. J.; Chen, J.; Hong, K.; Yu, L.; Darling, S. B. Hierarchical Nanomorphologies Promote Exciton Dissociation in Polymer/Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Nano Lett. 2011, 11, 3707-3713
52. Nikiforov, M. P.; Lai, B.; Chen, W.; Chen, S.; Schaller, R. D.; Strzalka, J.; Maser, J.; Darling, S. B. Detection and Role of Trace Impurities in High-performance Organic Solar Cells Energy Environ. Sci. 2013, 6, 1513-1520
53. Kohn, P.; Rong, Z.; Scherer, K. H.; Sepe, A.; Sommer, M.; Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Friend, R. H.; Steiner, U.; Hüttner, S. Crystallization-Induced 10-nm Structure Formation in P3HT/PCBM Blends Macromolecules 2013, 46, 4002-4013
54. Chou, K. W.; Yan, B.; Li, R.; Li, E. Q.; Zhao, K.; Anjoum, D. H.; Alvarez, S.; Gassaway, R.; Biocca, A.; Thoroddsen, S. T.; Hexemer, A.; Amassian, A. Spin-Cast Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Dynamical Investigation Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 1923-1929
55. Chou, K. W.; Khan, H. U.; Niazi, M. R.; Yan, B.; Li, R.; Payne, M. M.; Anthony, J. E.; Smilgies, D.-M.; Amassian, A. Late Stage Crystallization and Healing During Spin-coating Enhance Carrier Transport in Small-molecule Organic Semiconductors J. Mater. Chem. C 2014, 2, 5681-5689
56. Chourou, S. T.; Sarje, A.; Li, X. S.; Chan, E. R.; Hexemer, A. HipGISAXS: a High-performance Computing Code for Simulating Grazing-incidence X-ray Scattering Data J. Appl. Crystallogr. 2013, 46, 1781-1795
57. Salditt, T.; Metzger, T. H.; Peisl, J.; Reinker, B.; Moske, M.; Samwer, K. Determination of the Height-Height Correlation Function of Rough Surfaces from Diffuse X-Ray Scattering Europhys. Lett. 1995, 32, 331-336
58. Müller-Buschbaum, P.; Perlich, J.; Abul Kashem, M. M.; Schulz, L.; Roth, S. V.; Cheng, J. Y.; Gutmann, J. S. Combinatorial Investigation of Nanostructures Formed in a Titanium Dioxide Based Nanocomposite Film on Top of Fluor-doped Tin Oxide Layers Phys. Status Solidi 2007, 1, 119-121