Cooperative Assembly of Hydrogen-bonded Block Copolythiophenes/Fullerene Blends for Photovoltaic Devices

ORAL

Abstract

The current work provides a general approach to obtain reliable donor acceptor morphologies by H-bonding cooperative assembly and to achieve efficient photovoltaic devices with enhanced device stability. Herein, we utilize P3HT-based block copolymer (BCP), in which one block is P3HT and the other block is a P3HT derivative containing a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) oligomer side chain. This design both enables self-assembly of the devices via microphase segregation into lamellar, cylindrical or spherical morphologies depending on the relative volume fractions of the blocks and provides a means for establishing strong preferential interaction between fullerene derivatives containing hydrogen bond donating groups (such as COOH groups) and the PEO side chain. One advantage of this approach is excellent device stability due to the suppression of macrophase separation resulting from fullerene crystallization under harsh annealing condition.

*Funding from the NSF Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, The NSF Materials Research Center on Polymers and the DOE Energy Frontier Research Center is gratefully acknowledged.

Authors

  • James Watkins

    • University of Massachusetts--Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts
  • Ying Lin

    • University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts
  • Jung Ah Lim

    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Qingshuo Wei

    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • Alejandro Briseno

    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • UMASS-Amherst