Advanced Materials, Vol.24, No.3, 425-425, 2012
Drastic Change of Molecular Orientation in a Thiazolothiazole Copolymer by Molecular-Weight Control and Blending with PC61BM Leads to High Efficiencies in Solar Cells
A thiazolothiazole-thiophene copolymer is examined as the active material in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. By optimizing the molecular weight, the polymer-based cells exhibit power conversion efficiencies as high as 5.7%. The increase in molecular weight improves the orientational order, and blending with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) changes the orientational motif from edge-on to face-on, which accounts for the trend in photovoltaic performances. These results might give new insight into the structure-property relationships in BHJ solar cells.
Keywords:bulk heterojunctions;solar cells;molecular orientation;semiconducting polymers;thiazolothiazole