AFM study of advanced composite materials for organic photovoltaic cells with active layer based on P3HT:PCBM and chiral photosensitive liquid crystalline dopants

摘要

Advanced composite materials aimed for construction of organic photovoltaic cells have been studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The composites are based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), [6,6]-phenyl C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and two different chiral photosensitive liquid crystalline (LC) materials. The objective of the study was to examine the nanoscale morphology of the active layer without and after annealing at specific temperature. The preliminary results of AFM observation of the morphological changes done on the investigated composites revealed an increase in the surface ordering. The surface area ratio decreases for both studied composites, while the basic roughness parameters (S-a and S-q) have been found toughly dependent on the structure of the photosensitive LC dopant.