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The effect of post-annealing on the interface between the aluminum electrode and the active layer in polymer/fullerene solar cells

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Abstract

The post-annealing effects on the performance of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/(6,6)-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) solar cells with conventional bulk heterojunction (CBHJ) and layer-evolved bulk heterojunction (LBHJ) have been compared. It is found that contrary to the much better performance obtained from CBHJ cells, the post-annealing deteriorates the performance of LBHJ devices. Aqueous contact angle and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that P3HT is dominant at the top surface of CBHJ film, while PCBM is dominant at the top surface of LBHJ film. The micron-scale morphology evolution of the active layer/Al interface upon post-annealing reveals that the PCBM-rich surface is beneficial for the nucleation and growth of PCBM crystal, which does harm to the contact between the active layer and the electrode and results in the decrease of the fill factor. However, the original P3HT-rich surface prevents the formation of large surface-segregated PCBM clusters upon post-annealing, which is highly desirable for the efficient polymer/fullerene solar cells.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by National Science Foundation for Distinguished Yong Scholars of China (61125505) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61377028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, Beijing JiaoTong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    C. M. Zhang, Y. F. Hu, A. W. Tang, Y. Ning, L. F. Lv & F. Teng

  2. Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, Beijing, 102600, China

    C. M. Zhang

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  1. C. M. Zhang
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  2. Y. F. Hu
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  3. A. W. Tang
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Correspondence to Y. F. Hu or F. Teng.

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Zhang, C.M., Hu, Y.F., Tang, A.W. et al. The effect of post-annealing on the interface between the aluminum electrode and the active layer in polymer/fullerene solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 117, 1335–1341 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8550-9

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