| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN+AS-ThA |
| Session: | Characterization of Energy Materials and Systems |
| Presenter: | T.J. Miller, University of Delaware |
| Authors: | T.J. Miller, University of Delaware A.V. Teplyakov, University of Delaware |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The energy sector is a large, growing field in research and technology. A growing subset of the solar field is organic photovoltaics (OPV). Two areas that have long challenged researchers are efficiency and stability of the OPV devices. An area that is in need of fundamental understanding that may increase efficiency of these devices is the charge transfer. However, a precise nature of the bulk-heterojunction OPV donor/acceptor interface is difficult to pinpoint. Thus, model systems can be used initially to mimic these interactions. In the system presented here, the donor/acceptor interface is well-defined. Phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was reacted with an amino-terminated organic monolayer on a single crystalline Si(111) surface. Poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) was then deposited onto this complex substrate, and the produced interface can be observed and investigated. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to identify the functional groups on the surface. The chemical and electronic states of the coating and the substrate were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and the morphology was determined through atomic force microscopy. Preliminary charge carrier lifetime measurements will also be reported.