Fullerene Nucleating Agents: A Route Towards Thermally Stable Photovoltaic Blends
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2014

The bulk-heterojunction nanostructure of non-crystalline polymer: fullerene blends has the tendency to rapidly coarsen when heated above its glass transition temperature, which represents an important degradation mechanism. We demonstrate that fullerene nucleating agents can be used to thermally arrest the nanostructure of photovoltaic blends that comprise a non-crystalline thiophene-quinoxaline copolymer and the widely used fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). To this end, C-60 fullerene is employed to efficiently nucleate PCBM crystallization. Sub-micrometer-sized fullerene crystals are formed when as little as 2 wt% C-60 with respect to PCBM is added to the blend. These reach an average size of only 200 nanometers upon introduction of more than 8 wt% C-60. Solar cells based on C-60-nucleated blends indicate significantly improved thermal stability of the bulk-heterojunction nanostructure even after annealing at an elevated temperature of 130 degrees C, which lies above the glass transition temperature of the blend. Moreover, we find that various other compounds, including C-70 fullerene, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and sodium benzoate, as well as a number of commercial nucleating agents-commonly used to clarify isotactic polypropylene-permit to control crystallization of the fullerene phase.

Författare

Camilla Lindqvist

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

J. Bergqvist

Linköpings universitet

Ching-Chiao Feng

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Stefan Gustafsson

SuMo Biomaterials

Chalmers, Teknisk fysik, Eva Olsson Group

Olof Bäcke

Chalmers, Teknisk fysik, Eva Olsson Group

N. D. Treat

Imperial College London

C. Bounioux

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Patrik Henriksson

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Renee Kroon

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Ergang Wang

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Anke Sanz-Velasco

Chalmers, Teknisk fysik, Elektronikmaterial

Per Magnus Kristiansen

University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, School of Enginnering

N. Stingelin

Imperial College London

Eva Olsson

Chalmers, Teknisk fysik, Eva Olsson Group

Olle Inganaes

Linköpings universitet

Mats Andersson

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Christian Müller

Chalmers, Kemi- och bioteknik, Polymerteknologi

Advanced Energy Materials

1614-6832 (ISSN) 1614-6840 (eISSN)

Vol. 4 9 1301437- 1301437

Styrkeområden

Nanovetenskap och nanoteknik

Energi

Materialvetenskap

Ämneskategorier

Materialteknik

Energiteknik

Fysik

Kemi

DOI

10.1002/aenm.201301437

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2022-04-05