Controlling the Solidification of Organic
Photovoltaic Blends with Nucleating Agents

• Authors: Jennifer A. Nekuda Malik , Neil D. Treat , Maged Abdelsamie , Liyang Yu , Ruipeng Li , Detlef-M. Smilgies , Aram Amassian , Craig J. Hawker , Michael L. Chabinyc , Natalie Stingelin
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Blending fullerenes with a donor polymer for the
fabrication of organic solar cells often leads to at least partial
vitrification of one, if not both, components. For prototypical
poly(3-hexylthiophene):fullerene blend, we show
that the addition of a commercial nucleating agent, di(3,4-dimethyl benzylidene)sorbitol, to such binary blends accelerates
the crystallization of the donor, resulting in an
increase in its degree of crystallinity in as-cast structures.
This allows manipulation of the extent of intermixing/
phase separation of the donor and acceptor directly
from solution, offering a tool to improve device characteristics
such as power conversion efficiency.

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Organic Photonics and Photovoltaics
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1

Dates

accepted

11 - 8 - 2014

online

20 - 11 - 2014

received

9 - 6 - 2014

Contributors

author

Jennifer A. Nekuda Malik

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Neil D. Treat

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Maged Abdelsamie

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Liyang Yu

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Ruipeng Li

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Detlef-M. Smilgies

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Aram Amassian

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Craig J. Hawker

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Michael L. Chabinyc

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

author

Natalie Stingelin

• Department of Materials
  and Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London,
  Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/oph-2014-0006