Formation of nanopatterned polymer blends in photovoltaic devices

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a double nanoimprinting process that allows the formation of nanostructured polymer heterojunctions of composition and morphology that can be selected independently. We fabricated photovoltaic (PV) devices with extremely high densities (1014/mm2) of interpenetrating nanoscale columnar features in the active polymer blend layer. The smallest feature sizes are as small as 25 nm on a 50 nm pitch, which results in a spacing of heterojunctions at or below the exciton diffusion length. Photovoltaic devices based on double-imprinted poly((9,9-dioctylfluorene)-2,7- diyl-alt-[4,7-bis(3-hexylthien-5-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole]-2′, 2″-diyl) (F8TBT)/ poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) films are among the best polymer?polymer blend devices reported to date with a power conversion efficiency (PCE, ηe) of 1.9%. © 2010 American Chemical Society.