TY - JOUR
T1 - The fate of electron–hole pairs in polymer:fullerene blends for organic photovoltaics
AU - Causa', Martina
AU - Jonghe-Risse, Jelissa De
AU - Scarongella, Mariateresa
AU - Brauer, Jan C.
AU - Domingo, Ester
AU - Moser, Jacques-E.
AU - Stingelin, Natalie
AU - Banerji, Natalie
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: M.C., M.S., J.C.B. and N.B. thank the Swiss National Science Foundation (PP00P2_150536) and the University of Fribourg for funding. N.B., J.D.J.-R and J.-E.M are grateful to NCCR-MUST, a research instrument of the Swiss National Science Foundation, for support. N.S. is supported by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Independent Researcher Fellowship under the grant agreement No. 279587. E.B.-D. is funded by a SABIC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. We thank Prof. Martin Heeney (Imperial College, London, UK) for providing the pBTTT polymer, and we thank Prof. E. Vauthey and R. Letrun (Univ. of Geneva, Switzerland) for use of their fluorescence up-conversion set-up and help with the experiment. We thank Dr A. Devizis (Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Vilnius) for having built the EDA set-up and for useful discussion.
PY - 2016/9/2
Y1 - 2016/9/2
N2 - There has been long-standing debate on how free charges are generated in donor: acceptor blends that are used in organic solar cells, and which are generally comprised of a complex phase morphology, where intermixed and neat phases of the donor and acceptor material co-exist. Here we resolve this question, basing our conclusions on Stark effect spectroscopy data obtained in the absence and presence of externally applied electric fields. Reconciling opposing views found in literature, we unambiguously demonstrate that the fate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs-whether they will dissociate to free charges or geminately recombine-is determined at ultrafast times, despite the fact that their actual spatial separation can be much slower. Our insights are important to further develop rational approaches towards material design and processing of organic solar cells, assisting to realize their purported promise as lead-free, third-generation energy technology that can reach efficiencies over 10%.
AB - There has been long-standing debate on how free charges are generated in donor: acceptor blends that are used in organic solar cells, and which are generally comprised of a complex phase morphology, where intermixed and neat phases of the donor and acceptor material co-exist. Here we resolve this question, basing our conclusions on Stark effect spectroscopy data obtained in the absence and presence of externally applied electric fields. Reconciling opposing views found in literature, we unambiguously demonstrate that the fate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs-whether they will dissociate to free charges or geminately recombine-is determined at ultrafast times, despite the fact that their actual spatial separation can be much slower. Our insights are important to further develop rational approaches towards material design and processing of organic solar cells, assisting to realize their purported promise as lead-free, third-generation energy technology that can reach efficiencies over 10%.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/622033
UR - http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12556
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84984866215&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/ncomms12556
DO - 10.1038/ncomms12556
M3 - Article
C2 - 27586309
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 7
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
ER -