Organic photovoltaics (OPVs), in contrast to conventional silicon-based solar cells, have the potential to be mass produced at much lower costs through facile methods like spin coating and inkjet printing onto flexible substrates. However, they exhibit lower efficiency than the conventional cells. Present high-efficiency OPV devices utilize fullerene derivatives as the electron accepting and transport material, which give good performance but have many drawbacks as well, including high cost, narrow light absorption in the visible spectrum, environmental instability, and poor processability. This research focuses on the synthesis of novel electron acceptor materials, tri-(perylene bisimides) (tri-PBIs)--derivatives of inexpensive industrially available dyes, and have the potential to increase the efficiencies of polymer solar cells through increased light absorbance, morphology and phase control through tunability of solubilizing groups, as well as greater photochemical stability and increased device lifetimes. The tri-PBIs were synthesized according to established procedure, and characterized through 1H NMR, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Tri-PBIs were blended with poly(3-hexyl thiophene), spin cast into thin films, and incorporated into OPV devices. Morphology and phase of the thin films were characterized using atomic force microscopy, and photovoltaic performance was analyzed.

Synthesis of tri-(perylene bisimides): An alternative to fullerenes as the electron accepting material in polymer organic photovoltaics

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.