Effects of Alkyl Terminal Chains on Morphology, Charge Generation, Transport, and Recombination Mechanisms in Solution-Processed Small Molecule Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells (original) (raw)

2015, Advanced Energy Materials

AI-generated Abstract

The research investigates how alkyl terminal chains in small molecule organic solar cells (OSCs) influence material properties, charge generation, transport, and recombination mechanisms. Two compounds, DTS(Oct)2-(2T-DCV-Me)2 with methyl terminal chains and DTS(Oct)2-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 with hexyl terminal chains, were compared, revealing the former's superior power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.30% due to favorable morphology and charge transport characteristics. In contrast, the hexyl chain variant exhibited a significant decrease in performance (PCE of 1.25%) attributed to poor morphology, reduced charge carrier mobilities, and increased recombination losses.