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Photoconductivity Measurements of Organic Polymer/Nanostructure Blends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

David Black  and
Shashi Paul
David Black
Affiliation:
[email protected], De Montfort University, Emerging Technologies Research Centre, Leicester, United Kingdom
Shashi Paul
Affiliation:
[email protected], De Montfort University, Emerging Technologies Research Centre, Hawthorn Building, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom
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Abstract

In an attempt to produce low cost and high quality polymer/nanoparticle blends for use in hybrid organic/inorganic photovoltaic devices we prepared blends of dihexylsexithiophene and tetragonal barium titanate particles. These polymer nanoparticle blends were deposited as films by spin coating and sublimation. The films were characterised and compared using a wide range of techniques; The electrical photoconductivity analysis of these structures carried out using an HP4140B picoammeter and a solar simulator after aluminium gap cell electrodes had been deposited on the films by sublimation, spectroscopic studies (FTIR and UV-VIS) were carried out to understand the photoconductivity measurements and ellipsometry was used to determine the thickness of the films. The photoconductivity of the spin coated films was the highest reaching 8.5x 10-10A at 20 V, the sublimed films reached ~4 x 10-10A at 40V. This is thought to be due to the thinness of the sublimed films combined with the inhomogeneous distribution of nanoparticles compared with the spin coated film. Sublimed films have been shown by others to be better structured than spin coated films, if this property can be utilized with further optimization of the sublimation process then this technique offers the potential to produce very thin high quality films for use in organic and hybrid photovoltaic devices.

Keywords

organicphotovoltaicoptoelectronic
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1270: Symposia GG/HH/II – Organic Photovoltaics and Related Electronics-From Excitons to Devices , 2010 , 1270-GG04-09
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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References

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