Evidence for strong and weak phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester photodimer populations in organic solar cells

Pont, Sebastian, Osella, Silvio, Smith, Alastair, Marsh, Adam V., Li, Zhe, Beljonne, David, Cabral, João T. and Durrant, James R. 2019. Evidence for strong and weak phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester photodimer populations in organic solar cells. Chemistry of Materials 31 (16) , pp. 6076-6083. 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b05194

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Abstract

In polymer/fullerene organic solar cells, the photochemical dimerization of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was reported to have either a beneficial or a detrimental effect on device performance and stability. In this work, we investigate the behavior of such dimers by measuring the temperature dependence of the kinetics of PCBM de-dimerization as a function of prior light intensity and duration. Our data reveal the presence of both “weakly” and “strongly” bound dimers, with higher light intensities preferentially generating the latter. DFT simulations corroborate our experimental findings and suggest a distribution of dimer binding energies, correlated with the orientation of the fullerene tail with respect to the dimer bonds on the cage. These results provide a framework to rationalize the double-edged effects of PCBM dimerization on the stability of organic solar cells.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
ISSN:	0897-4756
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 May 2019
Date of Acceptance:	16 March 2019
Last Modified:	18 Nov 2023 15:32
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/122648

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