Issue 35, 2021

Quantitative insights into the phase behaviour and miscibility of organic photovoltaic active layers from the perspective of neutron spectroscopy

Abstract

We present a neutron spectroscopy based method to study quantitatively the partial miscibility and phase behaviour of an organic photovoltaic active layer made of conjugated polymer:small molecule blends, presently illustrated with the regio-random poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and fullerene [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (RRa-P3HT:PCBM) system. We perform both inelastic neutron scattering and quasi-elastic neutron scattering measurements to study the structural dynamics of blends of different compositions enabling us to resolve the phase behaviour. The difference of neutron cross sections between RRa-P3HT and PCBM, and the use of deuteration technique, offer a unique opportunity to probe the miscibility limit of fullerene in the amorphous polymer-rich phase and to tune the contrast between the polymer and the fullerene phases, respectively. Therefore, the proposed approach should be universal and relevant to study new non-fullerene acceptors that are closely related – in terms of chemical structures – to the polymer, where other conventional imaging and spectroscopic techniques present a poor contrast between the blend components.

Graphical abstract: Quantitative insights into the phase behaviour and miscibility of organic photovoltaic active layers from the perspective of neutron spectroscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 apr 2021
Accepted
20 iyl 2021
First published
28 iyl 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 11873-11881

Quantitative insights into the phase behaviour and miscibility of organic photovoltaic active layers from the perspective of neutron spectroscopy

M. Zbiri, P. A. Finn, C. B. Nielsen and A. A. Y. Guilbert, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 11873 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC01813B

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