Abstract
We report the influence of different polymer purification procedures on the photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells formed from binary blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerenes. Selective Soxhlet extractions and metal scavenging agents were used to remove residual monomer, magnesium salt by-products and catalyst from high-weight P3HT (Mw 121 kg/mol, PDI 1.8, RR 99%) synthesised by the Grignard metathesis (GRIM) polymerization route. Using phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC60BM) as an electron acceptor, we observed an increase in average power conversion efficiency from 2.3 to 4.8% in going from crude to fully purified material. Using indene-C60 bisadduct (IC60BA) in place of PC60BM, we observed a further increase to an average value of 6.6% - high for a bulk heterojunction formed from a binary blend of P3HT and C60 fullerene derivatives.
Highlights
We report the influence of different polymer purification procedures on the photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells formed from binary blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerenes
Much research has focused on developing new classes of semiconducting polymers with improved charge transport and/or light-harvesting properties, which has led for instance to organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices with power conversion efficiencies in excess of 10%3–5
We look at the influence of purification protocols on the photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells formed from binary blends of Grignard metathesis (GRIM)-synthesised P3HT and fullerenes
Summary
We report the influence of different polymer purification procedures on the photovoltaic performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells formed from binary blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and fullerenes. For materials synthesised via the GRIM route, it is common to first purify P3HT by Soxhlet extraction with methanol to remove the metal salts and monomers, and extract the polymer from any remaining trapped metal salts by repeating the process with chloroform (which dissolves the polymer but not the metal salts). Using this combination of acetone purification followed by chloroform extraction, it is possible to decouple the influence of monomeric/oligomeric species and magnesium salts on electronic device performance.
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