Ultrafast Charge Generation Pathways in Photovoltaic Blends Based on Novel Star-Shaped Conjugated Molecules

Oleg V. Kozlov, Yuriy N. Luponosov, Sergei A. Ponomarenko, Nina Kausch-Busies, Dmitry Yu Paraschuk, Yoann Olivier, David Beljonne, Jerome Cornil, Maxim S. Pshenichnikov*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)
40 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The quest for new materials is one of the main factors propelling recent advances in organic photovoltaics. Star-shaped small molecules (SSMs) have been proven promising candidates as perspective donor material due to the increase in numbers of excitation pathways caused by the degeneracy of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level. In order to unravel the pathways of the initial photon-to-charge conversion, the photovoltaic blends based on three different SSMs with a generic structure of N(phenylenent hiophene-dicyanovinyl-alkyl)(3) (n = 1-3), and [6,6]-phenyl-C-71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) acceptor are investigated by ultrafast photoinduced absorption spectroscopy assisted by density functional theory calculations. It is shown that both electron transfer from SSMs to PC71BM and hole transfer from PC71BM to SSMs are equally significant for generation of long-lived charges. In contrast, intramolecular (intra-SSM) charge separation results in geminate recombination and therefore constitutes a loss channel. Overall, up to 60% of long-lived separated charges are generated at the optimal PC71BM concentrations. The obtained results suggest that further improvement of the SSM-based solar cells is feasible via optimization of blend morphology and by suppressing the intra-SSM recombination channel.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1401657
Number of pages10
JournalAdvanced Energy Materials
Volume5
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8-Apr-2015

Keywords

  • ORGANIC SOLAR-CELLS
  • LOW-BAND-GAP
  • TRIPHENYLAMINE
  • DONOR
  • SEMICONDUCTORS
  • DYNAMICS
  • SYSTEMS
  • DIKETOPYRROLOPYRROLE
  • OLIGOTHIOPHENE
  • DERIVATIVES

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