Polymeric Photovoltaic Devices Based on Tricomponent System Composed of a Blend of Donor and PCBM Acceptor Material.

In this article, we report the fabrication of bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices with combination of three materials. A blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) has been used as donor polymer. A fullerene derivative, [6, 6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is used as an electron acceptor material. The donor blend ratio (50:50) is kept constant whereas the ratio of donor to acceptor is varied. The influence of the active layer thickness, and cathode metals on photovoltaic performance has been investigated. The results are compared with the performances of MEH-PPV:PCBM and P3HT:PCBM photovoltaic devices fabricated in similar conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]