Effects of film treatment on the performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene)/soluble fullerene-based organic solar cells

Abstract This work investigates the correlations between the morphological characteristics of the active layers, comprised of poly(3-hexylthiophene) and [6,6]-phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester, and the photovoltaic performance of polymer-based solar cells. The active layers were deposited by spin-coating the polymer solutions under various conditions and, then, characterized by atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV/Vis and Raman spectroscopy. Results of this study indicate that solar cells employing the slow-solvent-vapor-treatment blend films as the active layers exhibit the enhanced power conversion efficiency (3.0%), short-circuit (8.71 mA/cm 2 ) current and fill factor (0.59) than that of as-cast and fast-thermal-annealing blend films.