Ali Veysel Tunc

Impact of the Incorporation of Au Nanoparticles into Polymer/Fullerene Solar Cells †

The addition of small amounts of dodecylamine-capped Au nanoparticles into the active layer of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells consisting of poly(3-octylthiophene) (P3OT) and C(60) was recently suggested to have a positive impact on device performance due to improved electron transport. This issue was systematically further investigated in the present work. Different strategies to incorporate colloidally prepared Au nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution into organic solar cells with the more common donor/acceptor system consisting of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) were pursued. Au nanoparticles were prepared with either P3HT or dodecylamine as ligands. Additionally, efforts were undertaken to incorporate nearly ligand-free Au nanoparticles into the system. Therefore, a procedure was successfully developed to remove the dodecylamine ligand shell by a postpreparative ligand exchange with pyridine, a much smaller molecule that can later partly be removed from solid films by annealing. However, for all types of nanoparticles studied here, the performance of the P3HT/PCBM solar cells was found to decrease with the Au particles as an additive to the active layer, meaning that adding Au nanoparticles is not a suitable strategy in the case of the P3HT/PCBM system. Possible reasons are discussed on the basis of detailed investigations of the structure, photophysics and charge transport in the system.

Detailed investigation of the conducting channel in poly(3-hexylthiophene) field effect transistors

In this study, the conducting channel in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) organic field effect transistors (OFETs) was investigated. The effect of varying the P3HT layer thickness on the OFET parameters was studied. The threshold voltage and the field effect mobility were determined from both the linear and saturation regime of the OFET output characteristics for all film thicknesses and the results are compared and discussed. A gated four probe technique was used to investigate the formation and evolution of the conducting channel by monitoring changes in potential at different points in the channel during measurement. It was found that the device performance of the OFETs was significantly influenced by the thickness of the P3HT layer. Bulk currents were found to dominate device performance for thicker P3HT layers.