Issue 6, 2017

Controlled self-aggregation of perylene bisimide and its application in thick photoconductive interlayers for high performance polymer solar cells

Abstract

Highly conductive cathode interlayers that can work efficiently when the film is thick, are essentially important for polymer solar cells since this would facilitate their mass production in the future. Herein, an asymmetric organic dye molecule, perylene bisimide (PBI) 3, is synthesized as a photosensitizer for zinc oxide (ZnO) to achieve a photoconductive hybrid material. The self-aggregation of PBI3 was efficiently restricted by the introduction of an alkyl group at one of the imide positions in the structure of the molecule, whereas the formation of Zn–N chemical bonding between ZnO and PBI3 ensures the formation of a robust hybrid thin film. The photoconductive hybrid thin film shows highly enhanced conductivity under white light irradiation. Inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on the photoconductive cathode interlayers (ZnO:PBI3 (3 wt%)) show a very high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.79% when the thickness of the interlayer is 100 nm, which is three times higher than that of the ZnO cathode interlayer-based device.

Graphical abstract: Controlled self-aggregation of perylene bisimide and its application in thick photoconductive interlayers for high performance polymer solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
28 Oct 2016
Accepted
07 Dec 2016
First published
14 Dec 2016

Mater. Chem. Front., 2017,1, 1087-1092

Controlled self-aggregation of perylene bisimide and its application in thick photoconductive interlayers for high performance polymer solar cells

H. Zhao, Y. Luo, L. Liu, Z. Xie and Y. Ma, Mater. Chem. Front., 2017, 1, 1087 DOI: 10.1039/C6QM00286B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements