The Effect of Solvatochromism on the Interfacial Morphology of P3HT-CdS Nanowire Nanohybrids

Abstract

Increasing performance in organic/inorganic bulk heterojunctions hybrid photovoltaic systems hinges not only on the structure of the inorganic component but also on the morphology of the polymeric component. Changing the morphology of the organic component is a facile way of changing the morphology of the interface between the inorganic and organic components in the bulk heterojunction system. Engineering this interface to more efficiently split photogenerated excitons and transport these carriers to electrodes can increase the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. In this report, we investigate the effect of solvent quality on the morphology of the poly(3-hexylthiophene)-2,5-diyl (P3HT) polymer-semiconductor interface (solvatochromism). We have found that creating more order within the P3HT main chain in solution and prior to deposition has a profound effect on the nature of the P3HT-CdS nanowire interface. Solvents with a larger difference in solubility parameter, Δδ, relative to P3HT, such as methanol and isopropanol, create larger rod domains in the P3HT main chain and result in larger domains of crystalline P3HT at the interface. Solvents with similar solubility parameters as P3HT, such as pyridine and hexanol, create relatively shorter rod domains in the main chain and, as a result, nanohybrids with reduced crystallinity. The results of this paper further cement the importance of manipulating the rod-coil transition in the conducting polymers such as P3HT to improve the crystallinity at the polymer-semiconductor interface that can easily be scaled up to improve the efficiency of bulk heterojunction photovoltatic systems.