Skip to main content
Log in

Surface and Interfacial Morphology of Bulk Heterojunction Layers in Organic Solar Cells with Solvent Additive

  • Published:
Journal of the Korean Physical Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We study the surface and interfacial morphology of a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) layer with the solvent additive effect by using the X-ray reflectivity and the grazing incidence X-ray scattering techniques. The BHJ layer consists of poly(4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl] thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-4,6-diyl) (PTB7) and [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) deposited on a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) coated Si substrate. An interfacial layer with a low electron density is observed between the BHJ and PEDOT:PSS layers, which becomes less distinct when the additive 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) is added to the film processing solvent. This result indicates that DIO causes PC71BM to become more uniformly distributed throughout the entire BHJ layer. The surface roughness of the BHJ significantly decreases with increasing addition of DIO. The understanding of the surface and interfacial morphology gives an important clue to improving the structures and efficiency.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. W. J. D. Silva, H. P. Kim, A. R. B. M. Yusoff and J. Jang, Nanoscale 5, 9324 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. G. Yu et al., Science 270, 1789 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Y. He, H. Y. Chen, J. Hou and Y. Li, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 1377 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. G. Li et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 253503 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. J. Y. Kim et al., Science 317, 222 (2007).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. S. Alem et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 4, 2993 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Y. Sun et al., Nat. Mater. 11, 44 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. H. S. Liao et al., Mater. Today 16, 326 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. J. K. Lee et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130, 3619 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. X. Guo et al., Adv. Mater. 26, 4043 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Y. Liang et al., Adv. Mater. 22, E135 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. S. J. Lou et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133, 20661 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. B. A. Collins et al., Adv. Energy Mater. 3, 65 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. R. Kokubu and Y. Yang, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 14, 8313 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. X. Guo et al., Nat. Photon. 7, 825 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. N. Herath et al., Sci. Rep. 5, 13407 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. M. Tolan, X-ray Scattering from Soft-mater Thin Films (Springer, Berlin, 1999), Chap. 2, p. 6.

    Google Scholar 

  18. J. Als-Nielsen and D. McMorrow, Elements of Modern X-ray Physics (Wiley, Hoboken, 2011), Chap. 3, p. 88.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. M. R. Hammond et al., ACS Nano 5, 8248 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. G. J. Hedley et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 2867 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (NRF-2014R1A2A1A1005 2454 and 2015R1A5A1009962).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hyunjung Kim.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kim, A., Lee, J., Carnis, J. et al. Surface and Interfacial Morphology of Bulk Heterojunction Layers in Organic Solar Cells with Solvent Additive. J. Korean Phys. Soc. 75, 498–502 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.75.498

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.75.498

Keywords

Navigation