Solvent additive effects on small molecule crystallization in bulk heterojunction solar cells probed during spin casting

Pérez, Louis A.; Chou, Kang Wei; Love, John A.; van der Poll, Thomas S.; Smilgies, Detlef Matthias; Nguyen, Thuc Quyen; Krämer, Edward J.; Amassian, Aram; Bazan, Guillermo C.

Solvent additive effects on small molecule crystallization in bulk heterojunction solar cells probed during spin casting

Type

Article

Authors

Pérez, Louis A.
Chou, Kang Wei
Love, John A.
van der Poll, Thomas S.
Smilgies, Detlef Matthias
Nguyen, Thuc Quyen
Krämer, Edward J.
Amassian, Aram

Bazan, Guillermo C.

KAUST Department

KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Material Science and Engineering Program
Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics Group
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division

Online Publication Date

2013-09-04

Print Publication Date

2013-11

Date

2013-09-04

Abstract

Solvent additive processing can lead to drastic improvements in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) in solution processable small molecule (SPSM) bulk heterojunction solar cells. In situ grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering is used to investigate the kinetics of crystallite formation during and shortly after spin casting. The additive is shown to have a complex effect on structural evolution invoking polymorphism and enhanced crystalline quality of the donor SPSM. © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Citation

Perez, L. A., Chou, K. W., Love, J. A., van der Poll, T. S., Smilgies, D.-M., Nguyen, T.-Q., … Bazan, G. C. (2013). Solvent Additive Effects on Small Molecule Crystallization in Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Probed During Spin Casting. Advanced Materials, 25(44), 6380–6384. doi:10.1002/adma.201302389

Acknowledgements

This work was supported as part of the Center for Energy Efficient Materials, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award DC0001009 and by the Office of Collaborative Research Funds of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology under the FIC and CRG programs. L.A.P. acknowledges support from the ConvEne IGERT Program (NSF-DGE 0801627) and a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (GRFP). The time-resolved synchrotron work was conducted at beamline D1 at the Cornell High-Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), which is supported by the US National Science Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences under NSF award DMR-0936384. Portions of this research were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a Directorate of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy Office of Science by Stanford University. T.Q.N. thanks the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award and the Alfred Sloan Research Fellowship program.