Correlation between spectroscopic and morphological properties of composite P3HT/PCBM nanoparticles studied by single particle spectroscopy

    Authors

    Z. J. Hu; D. Tenery; M. S. Bonner;A. J. Gesquiere

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Lumines.

    Keywords

    Conjugated polymer; Single molecule spectroscopy; Fluorescence; Nanoparticles; Morphology; CONJUGATED-POLYMER NANOPARTICLES; SCANNING OPTICAL MICROSCOPY; HETEROJUNCTION SOLAR-CELLS; ELECTRONIC-ENERGY TRANSFER; MOLECULE; SPECTROSCOPY; MEH-PPV; POLY(SUBSTITUTED THIOPHENE); INTERCHAIN; INTERACTIONS; PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS; ROOM-TEMPERATURE; Optics

    Abstract

    We report the fabrication and characterization of composite nanoparticles consisting of a conducting polymer, poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT), doped with varying amounts of [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), a material blend that is commonly applied in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs). Single particle spectroscopy (SPS) studies, where nanoparticles are studied one particle at a time, reveal that these nanoparticles have spectroscopic characteristics consistent with the existence of two types of crystalline nanodomains, one with a higher energy emission at 660 nm and one with a lower energy emission at 720 nm. In addition, the occurrence of emission at lower peak energy increases with increasing PCBM doping levels, and the intensity of the lower energy peak emission increases with respect to the higher energy peak emission as well. These data reveal a PCBM concentration dependent formation of two types of P3HT crystalline nanodomains in P3HT/PCBM composite nanoparticles, where the lower energy crystal structure becomes more favored with higher PCBM concentration. This work provides a molecular scale insight in the correlation between changes in morphology of conjugated polymer materials with different weight percentages of fullerene dopants. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

    Journal Title

    Journal of Luminescence

    Volume

    130

    Issue/Number

    5

    Publication Date

    1-1-2010

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    771

    Last Page

    780

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000276115600007

    ISSN

    0022-2313

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