- Title
- Building intermixed donor-acceptor architectures for water-processable organic photovoltaics
- Creator
- Marks, Melissa; Holmes, Natalie P.; Lewis, David A.; Andersson, Mats R.; Belcher, Warwick J.; Dastoor, Paul C.; Sharma, Anirudh; Pan, Xun; Chowdhury, Riku; Barr, Matthew G.; Fenn, Coralie; Griffith, Matthew J.; Feron, Krishna; Kilcoyne, A. L. David
- Relation
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics Vol. 21, Issue 10, p. 5705-5715
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c8cp07137c
- Publisher
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- A modified synthesis method for aqueous nanoparticle printing inks, based upon vacuum-assisted solvent removal, is reported. Poly(3-hexylthiophene):phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester nanoparticle inks were prepared via this modified miniemulsion method, leading to both an improvement in photoactive layer morphology and a substantial reduction in the ink fabrication time. A combination of UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy measurements revealed a nanoparticle morphology comprising highly intermixed donor–acceptor domains. Consistent with these measurements, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis of the nanoparticles showed a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 104 °C, rather than a pure polymer phase or pure fullerene phase Tg. Together the spectroscopy, microscopy and thermomechanical data indicate that rapid solvent removal generates a more blended nanoparticle morphology. As such, this study highlights a new experimental lever for optimising nanostructure in the photoactive layer of nanoparticulate organic photovoltaic devices by enabling highly intermixed donor–acceptor architectures to be built from customised nanoparticulate inks.
- Subject
- nanoparticulate; nanoparticle fabrication; morphology; spectroscopy; SDG 7; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/${Handle}
- Identifier
- uon:48733
- Identifier
- ISSN:1463-9076
- Language
- eng
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