The fabrication of polyfluorene and polycarbazole-based photovoltaic devices using an air-stable process route

摘要

We report a comparative study based on the fabrication of polymer:fullerene photovoltaic (PV) devices incorporating carbazole, fluorene, and a PTB based co-polymer. We have explored the efficiency and performance of such devices when the active polymer:fullerene layer is deposited by spin-casting either under nitrogen or ambient conditions. We show that PV devices based on carbazole and fluorene based materials have very similar power conversion efficiencies when processed under both air and nitrogen, with other photobleaching measurements suggesting that such materials have comparatively enhanced photostability. Devices based on the PTB co-polymer, however, have reduced efficiency when processed in air.