Vacuum-deposited planar heterojunction polymer solar cells.

Journal article

The vacuum thermal evaporation of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) for application in photovoltaic cells is demonstrated. Structural changes before and after evaporation are determined using GPC, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, NMR, and FTIR. GPC showed that the polymer molecular weight is reduced during evaporation, leading to a blue-shift of the absorption spectra. FTIR and NMR were used to examine the change in chemical structure: it was found that conjugation remains mostly intact; however, the conjugation length decreases and side chains dissociate from the backbone. Bilayer heterojunction solar cells were fabricated by sequential deposition of P3HT and C₆₀ and the photovoltaic response measured.

Authors: Kovacik, P; Sforazzini, G; Cook, A; Willis, S; Grant, P

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: ACS applied materials and interfaces
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 11-15
• Publication date: 2011-01-01
• DOI: 10.1021/am1008985
• EISSN: 1944-8252
• ISSN: 1944-8244
• Language: English
• Keywords: Solar Energy; Thiophenes; Organic Chemicals; Photochemistry; Vacuum