Sub-glass transition annealing enhances polymer solar cell performance
Journal article, 2014
Thermal annealing of non-crystalline polymer:fullerene blends typically results in a drastic decrease in solar cell performance. In particular aggressive annealing above the glass transition temperature results in a detrimental coarsening of the blend nanostructure. We demonstrate that mild annealing below the glass transition temperature is a viable avenue to control the nanostructure of a non-crystalline thiophene–quinoxaline copolymer:fullerene blend. Direct imaging methods indicate that coarsening of the blend nanostructure can be avoided. However, a combination of absorption and luminescence spectroscopy reveals that local changes in the polymer conformation as well as limited fullerene aggregation are permitted to occur. As a result, we are able to optimise the solar cell performance evenly across different positions of the coated area, which is a necessary criterion for large-scale, high throughput production.
Author
J. Bergqvist
Linköping University
Camilla Lindqvist
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology
Olof Bäcke
Chalmers, Applied Physics, Eva Olsson Group
Z. F. Ma
Linköping University
Z. Tang
Linköping University
W. Tress
Linköping University
Stefan Gustafsson
SuMo Biomaterials
Chalmers, Applied Physics, Eva Olsson Group
Ergang Wang
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology
Eva Olsson
Chalmers, Applied Physics, Eva Olsson Group
Mats Andersson
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology
Olle Inganäs
Linköping University
Christian Müller
Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
20507488 (ISSN) 20507496 (eISSN)
Vol. 2 17 6146-6152Subject Categories
Chemical Sciences
DOI
10.1039/C3TA14165A