Increased thermal stabilization of polymer photovoltaic cells with oligomeric PCBM

H.H. Ramanitra , S.A. Dowland , B.A. Bregadiolli , M. Salvador (1) , Hugo Santos Silva (2, 3) , Didier Bégué (3) , C.F.O. Graeff , H. Peisert , T. Chassé , S. Rajoelson , A. Osvet , C.J. Brabec , H.-J. Egelhaaf , G.E. Morse , A. Distler , Roger C. Hiorns (3)

1 ITM - Instituto de Technologia de Materiales
2 Instituto de Física
3 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux

The first oligomerisation of phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) using a facile atom transfer radical addition polymerization (ATRAP) and its exploitation for organic photovoltaic devices is described. Oligo\(phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester)-alt-[1,4-bis(bromomethyl)-2,5-bis(octyloxy)benzene]\ (OPCBMMB) shows opto-electronic properties equivalent to those of PCBM but has a higher glass transition temperature. When mixed with various band gap semiconducting polymers, OPCBMMB delivers performances similar to PCBM but with an enhanced stabilization of the bulk heterojunction in photovoltaic devices on plastic substrates under thermal stress, regardless of the degree of crystallinity of the polymer and without changing opto-electronic properties. © 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Mots clés: Glass transition; Heterojunctions; Oligomers; Optoelectronic properties; Organic photovoltaic devices; Photoelectrochemical cells; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic devices; Polymer photovoltaic cells; Semiconducting polymers; Stabilization; Substrates; Thermal stabilization; Atom transfer radical addition; Atom transfer radical polymerization; Bulk heterojunction; Butyric acid; Degree of crystallinity; Electronic properties; Energy gap; Esters; Free radical reactions

Domaines: Chimie

H.H. Ramanitra, S.A. Dowland, B.A. Bregadiolli, M. Salvador, Hugo Santos Silva, et al.. Increased thermal stabilization of polymer photovoltaic cells with oligomeric PCBM. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2016, 4 (34), pp.8121--8129. ⟨10.1039/c6tc03290g⟩. ⟨hal-01495770⟩