In recent years the field of organic photovoltaics has been a prolific research ground due to the potential to challenge commercial Si-based photovoltaics. However, photovoltaics based on organic semiconductors exhibit lower performance than those based on the inorganic semiconductors counterparts.[1,2]A thoroughly researched approach to tackle the relatively low efficiencies of conjugated polymer-PCBM photovoltaics has been the incorporation, into the active layer, of third party inert additives at dopant levels [3]. They are believed to work at the morphology level leading to higher charge mobilities within the semiconducting layer [4].We report on the effect a new third party dopant has on blends of the low energy gap copolymer APFO-3 with PCBM, as the acceptor material, in organic photovoltaic devices. When an inert polymer, poly (4-vinyl-pyridine) (PVP), was added to the mixture in dopant quantities, an increase in the power conversion efficiency of APFO-3:PCBM devices, from 2.4 to 2.9%, was observed. At high PVP concentrations the blend morphology is radically altered, as observed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) studies. However, the photovoltaic blends show no evidence of morphology alteration. Other possible processes that may explain this effect of PVP at low concentrations will be discussed.1. S.R. Forrest, Nature 428 (2004) 911.2. B. Kippelen et al, Energy Environ. Sci. 2 (2009) 251.3. J.K. Lee et al, Amer. Chem. Soc. 130 (2008) 3619.4. A. Pivrikas et al, Solar Energy 85 (2011) 1226.

Increased efficiency of APFO-3:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells doped with polyvinylpyridine

248th National Meeting (2014)

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