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Effect of conducting polymer molecular weight on nanocrystal growth size for photovoltaic applications
Conference paper   Peer reviewed

Effect of conducting polymer molecular weight on nanocrystal growth size for photovoltaic applications

Paul E Schwenn, Andrew A R Watt, Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Paul Meredith
Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, pp.411-414
International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, ICONN 2006, 2006 (Brisbane, Australia, 03-Jul-2006–07-Jul-2006)
IEEE Publishing Inc.
2006
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICONN.2006.340640
url
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICONN.2006.340640View
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Abstract

nanocrystals photovoltaic systems solar power generation optical polymers conducting materials optical materials silicon costs solar energy electrons
Organic photovoltaics promise a number of key advantages over conventional silicon, namely: Ease of processing, low cost, physical flexibility and large area coverage. However, the solar power conversion efficiencies of pure polymer devices are poor. When electron acceptor nanocrystals are blended with a donor conducting polymer to create a bulk heterojunction structure, the optical and electronic properties of both materials combine synergistically to enhance overall performance. We use a novel single pot process to fabricate the nanocomposite photovoltaic material, where PbS nanocrystals are grown directly in a solution of the conducting polymer MEH-PPV. This study investigates the dependence of nanocrystal growth size and subsequent power conversion efficiency as a function of polymer molecular weight. It was found that a higher molecular weight polymer resulted in the formation of a broken percolation of smaller nanocrystals that act to enhance the charge separation of excitons generated at the low energy band edge of MEH-PPV.

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