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Ellipsometry of Functional Organic Surfaces and Films pp 271–294Cite as

Polymer Blends and Composites

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Surface Sciences ((SSSUR,volume 52))

Abstract

The implementation of flexible Organic Electronic (OE) devices in a large variety of consumer applications (generation of electricity, visualization of information, lighting, sensing, etc.) will significantly improve our everyday life. The typical OE device (e.g. a organic photovoltaic cell—OPV) consists of multilayered structures (30–200 nm thick each) fabricated onto rigid (e.g. glass) and/or flexible substrates (as PET, PEN) from transparent and electrically active organic nanolayers. The OE device core is the active or the organic semiconducting (polymer or small molecules) layer, that absorbs photons and generates electric charges, sandwiched between the device electrodes. Finally, the device is encapsulated by barrier layers for the protection of the photoactive layers against degradation and corrosion due to atmospheric gas penetration inside the device. The understanding of the correlation between the polymer blend structure and its optical and electrical properties, and the achievement of the desirable morphology at nanometer scale, is a prerequisite in order to optimize the device performance and stability. Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) from the infrared to the visible and far ultraviolet spectral region has been widely used to provide significant insights on the optical properties, blend morphology, and composition of the polymer blends that are used as active layers in OE devices. In this chapter, we summarize on the latest advances in the implementation of SE from the infrared to the visible and ultraviolet spectral region, for the investigation of the optical and electronic properties, composition profile and structure of polymer nanomaterials that are used as organic semiconductors and transparent electrodes for OE devices, and we discuss the effect of their nanoscale structure on their properties and functionality.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Despoina Georgiou, Dr. Christos Koidis, Dr. Panagiotis G. Karagiannidis and the other staff of the Lab for Thin Films, Nanosystems and Nanometrology (LTFN) for their contribution. Also, the authors would like to thank Clevios for the supply of the PEDOT:PSS formulations. This work was partially supported by the EC STREP Project OLAtronics, Grand Agreement No. 216211, and by the EC REGPOT Project ROleMak No. 286022.

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  1. Lab for Thin Films-Nanosystems & Nanometrology (LTFN), Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Stergios Logothetidis

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Correspondence to Stergios Logothetidis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS – e.V., Berlin, Germany

    Karsten Hinrichs

  2. Abteilung Analytik, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Dresden, Sachsen, Germany

    Klaus-Jochen Eichhorn

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Logothetidis, S. (2018). Polymer Blends and Composites. In: Hinrichs, K., Eichhorn, KJ. (eds) Ellipsometry of Functional Organic Surfaces and Films. Springer Series in Surface Sciences, vol 52. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75895-4_12

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