Donor–Acceptor Alternating Copolymer Nanowires for Highly Efficient Organic Solar Cells

• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201401203
• Publication Date: 2014-07-30T07:15:25Z
• Authors: Jaewon Lee; Sae Byeok Jo; Min Kim; Heung Gyu Kim; Jisoo Shin; Haena Kim; Kilwon Cho
• Keywords: POLYTHIOPHENE; SOLVENT ADDITIVES; RECOMBINATION; self-assembly; 02 engineering and technology; AGGREGATION; PERFORMANCE; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; 0104 chemical sciences; polymer materials; nanowires; MOBILITY; solar cells; CHARGE-TRANSPORT; MORPHOLOGY; FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS; 0210 nano-technology; CONJUGATED POLYMERS

A donor-acceptor conjugated copolymer enables the formation of nanowire systems that can be successfully introduced into bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells. A simple binary solvent mixture that makes polarity control possible allows kinetic control over the self-assembly of the crystalline polymer into a nanowire structure during the film-forming process. The enhanced photoconductivity of the nanowire-embedded photoactive layer efficiently facilitates photon harvesting in the solar cells. The resultant maximum power conversion efficiency is 8.2% in a conventional single-cell structure, revealing a 60% higher performance than in devices without nanowires.