POLYTHIOPHENE LAYERS MADE BY ELECTROPOLYMERISATION FOR A NEW POLYTHIOPHENENANOTUBE PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL CONCEPT

摘要

The most efficient polymeric solar cells use the bulk-heterojunction structure. The electron donor is the polymer, while a fullerene derivative is usually used for the electron acceptor. The connected 2-phase structure is made by solvent evaporation. To make the components soluble it is than necessary to introduce organic tails on the conducting polymer chain. Unfortunately these side-groups cause photooxidation and reduce the conductivity and hence the cell efficiency. Our approach is to avoid the presence of the organic tails, and to use carbon nanotubes for the acceptor phase. Then encapsulation could be much simpler, and no vacuum is needed in any processing step. This promises much more durable, cheap and efficient polymer photovoltaic cells.