- Title
- X-ray microscopy of photovoltaic polyfluorene blends: relating nanomorphology to device performance
- Creator
- McNeill, Christopher R.; Watts, Benjamin; Thomsen, Lars; Ade, Harald; Greenham, Neil C.; Dastoor, Paul C.
- Relation
- Macromolecules Vol. 40, Issue 9, p. 3263-3270
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ma070132d
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2007
- Description
- poly(9,9‘-dioctylfluorene-co-bis-N,N‘-(4-butylphenyl)-bis-N,N‘-phenyl-1,4-phenylenediamine) (PFB) and poly(9,9‘-dioctylfluorene-co-benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) used in prototype polymer solar cells has been quantitatively mapped using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM). The resolution of the STXM technique is 50 nm or better, allowing the first nanoscale lateral chemical mapping of this blend system. For 1:1 blend films spin-coated from xylene we find that the F8BT-rich domain is over 90% pure (by weight) and the PFB-rich domain contains 70% PFB. For 5:1 and 1:5 blend films processed from xylene, the minority phases are found to be intermixed, containing as much as 50% by weight of the majority polymer. Films prepared from chloroform with a 1:1 weight ratio have also been imaged but show no features on the length scale of 50 nm or greater. Additionally, the performance of photovoltaic devices fabricated using films prepared in an identical fashion to those prepared for STXM analysis has been evaluated and compared to the performance of chloroform blends with varied weight ratio. By studying the influence of blend composition on device performance in chloroform blends with a uniform morphology, we relate the performance of xylene-processed films to the local blend composition measured by STXM and the degree of nanoscale phase separation.
- Subject
- X-ray microscopy; photovoltaic polyfluorene blends; nanomorphology; device performance
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/33332
- Identifier
- uon:3195
- Identifier
- ISSN:0024-9297
- Language
- eng
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