| Semiglobular and globular nanostructures were designed by conducting the isothermal
crystallization on dilute solutions of Y-type poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-b-polythiophene
(PTh)
2
and PEG-b-poly(3-dodecyl thiophene) (PDDTh)
2 copolymers. The semiglob(PEGstar -PTh) (6–25 nm) and glob(PEG-star -PDDTh) (5–16 nm) nanostructures were then
employed as the morphology compatibilizers in active layers of poly(3-hexylthiophene)
(P3HT):phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) solar cells. The incorporation of pre-designed glob(PEG-star -PDDTh) (11.25 mA/cm
2
, 55%, 0.66 V, 8.7 × 10
–5
cm
2
/V.s and
7.9 × 10
–4
cm
2
/V.s) and semiglob(PEG-star -PTh) (13.03 mA/cm
2
, 60%, 0.69 V, 2.1 × 10
–3
cm
2
/V.s and 1.5 × 10
–2
cm
2
/V.s) nanostructures significantly improved the morphological and
photovoltaic characteristics, leading to the efficacies of 4.08 and 5.39%, respectively. The
ordered assemblies of polythiophenes, in particular the PTh backbones without any side
chains, were capable of controlling the morphology in a better manner compared with the
individual polymer chains. Although the PEG-b-(PDDTh)
2
(8.7 ns) and PEG-b-(PTh)2
(9.8
ns) block copolymers increased the life time, the pre-designed glob(PEG-star -PDDTh) (14.5
ns) and semiglob(PEG-star -PTh) (19.1 ns) scrolled nanostructures further affected the
reduction of charge trap states. The P3HT:PC71BM:semiglob(PEG-star -PTh) systems also
demonstrated the lower charge transfer resistance (Rtr
= 158 Ω.cm
2
) with respect to the
glob(PEG-star -PDDTh) based devices (309 Ω.cm
2
). |