title: Improved performances in polymer BHJ solar cells through frontier orbital tuning of small molecule additives in ternary blends.
abstract: Polymer solar cells fabricated in air under ambient conditions are of significant current interest, because of the implications in practicality of such devices. However, only moderate performance has been obtained for the air-processed devices. Here, we report that enhanced short circuit current density (JSC) and open circuit voltage (VOC) in air-processed poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-based solar cells can be obtained by using a series of donor-acceptor dyes as the third component in the device. Power conversion efficiencies up to 4.6% were obtained upon addition of the dyes which are comparable to high-performance P3HT solar cells fabricated in controlled environments. Multilayer planar solar cells containing interlayers of the donor-acceptor dyes, revealed that along with infrared sensitization, an energy level cascade architecture and Förster resonance energy transfer could contribute to the enhanced performance.
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Materials, University of Massachusetts Lowell , One University Avenue, Lowell, Massachusetts 01854, United States.
authors.forename: Akshay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kokil
authors.forename: Ambata M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Poe
authors.forename: Youngju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Andrea M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Della Pelle
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Homnick
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Lahti
authors.forename: Jayant
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thayumanavan