Enhanced properties of photovoltaic devices tailored with novel supramolecular structures based on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets grafted/functionalized with thiophenic materials |
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| Authors: | Samira Agbolaghi Sara Ebrahimi Bakhshali Massoumi Saleheh Abbaspoor Raana Sarvari Farhang Abbasi |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran;2. Faculty of Polymer Engineering and Institute of Polymeric Materials, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran;3. Department of Chemistry, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran |
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| Abstract: | For verifying the influence of donor–acceptor supramolecules on photovoltaic properties, different hybrids were designed and used in organic solar cells. In this respect, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was functionalization with 2‐thiophene acetic acid (rGO‐f‐TAA) and grafted with poly(3‐dodecylthiophene) (rGO‐g‐PDDT) and poly(3‐thiophene ethanol) (rGO‐g‐PTEt) to manipulate orientation of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) assemblies. Face‐on, edge‐on, and flat‐on orientations were detected for assembled P3HTs on rGO and its functionalized and grafted derivatives, respectively. Alteration of P3HT orientation from face‐on to flat‐on enhanced current density (J sc), fill factor (FF), and power conversion efficiency (PCE) and thus J sc = 7.11 mA cm?2, FF = 47%, and PCE = 2.14% were acquired. By adding phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) to active layers composed of pre‐designed P3HT/rGO, P3HT/rGO‐f‐TAA, P3HT/rGO‐g‐PDDT, and P3HT/rGO‐g‐PTEt hybrids, photovoltaic characteristics further improved, demonstrating that supramolecules appropriately mediated in P3HT:PC71BM solar cells. Phase separation was more intensified in best‐performing photovoltaic systems. Larger P3HT crystals assembled onto grafted rGOs (95–143 nm) may have acted as convenient templates for the larger and more intensified phase separation in P3HT:PCBM films. The best performances were reached for P3HT:P3HT/rGO‐g‐PDDT:PCBM (J sc = 9.45 mA cm?2, FF = 54%, and PCE = 3.16%) and P3HT:P3HT/rGO‐g‐PTEt:PCBM (J sc = 9.32 mA cm?2, FF = 53%, and PCE = 3.11%) photovoltaic systems. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55 , 1877–1889 |
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| Keywords: | crystallization conjugated polymers grafting morphology rGO orientation P3HT power conversion efficiency supramolecule supramolecular structures |
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