1,8-diiodooctane as the processing additive to improve the efficiency of P3HT:PC₆₁BM solar cells

Controlling the blend morphology is critical for achieving high power conversion efficiency in polymer/ fullerene bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic devices. As a simple and effective method to control morphology, adding processing additives has been widely applied in the organic BHJ solar cells. In this paper, we demonstrate that adding 1,8-diiodooctane as a processing additives is an effective method to improve the morphology and the efficiency of bulk heterojunctions (BHJ) solar cells based on the regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and a soluble fullerene derivative ([6,6]-phenyl C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester, PC₆₁BM). We investigated the unique way in which the 1,8-diiodooctane plays the rule to enhance the performance of solar cells according to different morphology and crystallinity of active layers prepared with and without the additive. The morphology is studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD). We also find a balance between a large interfacial area for exciton dissociation and continuous pathways for carrier transportation when the additive is used.