TY - JOUR A1 - Le Corre, Vincent M. A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Perdigon Toro, Lorena A1 - Feuerstein, Markus A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Gil-Escrig, Lidon A1 - Bolink, Henk J. A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Koster, L. Jan Anton T1 - Charge Transport Layers Limiting the Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells: How To Optimize Conductivity, Doping, and Thickness JF - ACS Applied Energy Materials N2 - Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are one of the main research topics of the photovoltaic community; with efficiencies now reaching up to 24%, PSCs are on the way to catching up with classical inorganic solar cells. However, PSCs have not yet reached their full potential. In fact, their efficiency is still limited by nonradiative recombination, mainly via trap-states and by losses due to the poor transport properties of the commonly used transport layers (TLs). Indeed, state-of-the-art TLs (especially if organic) suffer from rather low mobilities, typically within 10(-5) and 10(-2) cm(-2) V-1 s(-1), when compared to the high mobilities, 1-10 cm(-2) V-1 s(-1), measured for perovskites. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of the effect of the mobility, thickness, and doping density of the transport layers based on combined experimental and modeling results of two sets of devices made of a solution-processed high-performing triple-cation (PCE approximate to 20%). The results are also cross-checked on vacuum-processed MAPbI(3) devices. From this analysis, general guidelines on how to optimize a TL are introduced and especially a new and simple formula to easily calculate the amount of doping necessary to counterbalance the low mobility of the TLs. KW - perovskite solar cells KW - transport layers KW - conductivity KW - doping KW - charge transport Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.9b00856 SN - 2574-0962 VL - 2 IS - 9 SP - 6280 EP - 6287 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Alqahtani, Obaid A1 - Babics, Maxime A1 - Gorenflot, Julien A1 - Savikhin, Victoria A1 - Ferron, Thomas A1 - Balawi, Ahmed H. A1 - Paulke, Andreas A1 - Kan, Zhipeng A1 - Pope, Michael A1 - Clulow, Andrew J. A1 - Wolf, Jannic A1 - Burn, Paul L. A1 - Gentle, Ian R. A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Toney, Michael F. A1 - Laquai, Frederic A1 - Beaujuge, Pierre M. A1 - Collins, Brian A. T1 - Mixed Domains Enhance Charge Generation and Extraction in Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells with Small-Molecule Donors JF - Advanced energy materials N2 - The interplay between nanomorphology and efficiency of polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells has been the subject of intense research, but the generality of these concepts for small-molecule (SM) BHJs remains unclear. Here, the relation between performance; charge generation, recombination, and extraction dynamics; and nanomorphology achievable with two SM donors benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b]dithiophene-pyrido[3,4-b]-pyrazine BDT(PPTh2)(2), namely SM1 and SM2, differing by their side-chains, are examined as a function of solution additive composition. The results show that the additive 1,8-diiodooctane acts as a plasticizer in the blends, increases domain size, and promotes ordering/crystallinity. Surprisingly, the system with high domain purity (SM1) exhibits both poor exciton harvesting and severe charge trapping, alleviated only slightly with increased crystallinity. In contrast, the system consisting of mixed domains and lower crystallinity (SM2) shows both excellent exciton harvesting and low charge recombination losses. Importantly, the onset of large, pure crystallites in the latter (SM2) system reduces efficiency, pointing to possible differences in the ideal morphologies for SM-based BHJ solar cells compared with polymer-fullerene devices. In polymer-based systems, tie chains between pure polymer crystals establish a continuous charge transport network, whereas SM-based active layers may in some cases require mixed domains that enable both aggregation and charge percolation to the electrodes. KW - charge transport KW - domain purity KW - microscopy KW - mixed domains KW - organic solar cells KW - photovoltaic devices KW - resonant X-ray scattering KW - small molecules KW - transient spectroscopy Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201702941 SN - 1614-6832 SN - 1614-6840 VL - 8 IS - 19 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Armin, Ardalan A1 - Chen, Zhiming A1 - Jin, Yaocheng A1 - Zhang, Kai A1 - Huang, Fei A1 - Shoaee, Safa T1 - A Shockley-Type polymer BT - Fullerene solar cell JF - Advanced energy materials N2 - Charge extraction rate in solar cells made of blends of electron donating/accepting organic semiconductors is typically slow due to their low charge carrier mobility. This sets a limit on the active layer thickness and has hindered the industrialization of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, charge transport and recombination properties of an efficient polymer (NT812):fullerene blend are investigated. This system delivers power conversion efficiency of >9% even when the junction thickness is as large as 800 nm. Experimental results indicate that this material system exhibits exceptionally low bimolecular recombination constant, 800 times smaller than the diffusion-controlled electron and hole encounter rate. Comparing theoretical results based on a recently introduced modified Shockley model for fill factor, and experiments, clarifies that charge collection is nearly ideal in these solar cells even when the thickness is several hundreds of nanometer. This is the first realization of high-efficiency Shockley-type organic solar cells with junction thicknesses suitable for scaling up. KW - charge transport KW - non-Langevin recombination KW - organic solar cells KW - thick junctions Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701450 SN - 1614-6832 SN - 1614-6840 VL - 8 IS - 7 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yazmaciyan, Aren A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - Burn, Paul L. A1 - Lin, Qianqian A1 - Meredith, Paul A1 - Armin, Ardalan T1 - Recombination losses above and below the transport percolation threshold in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells JF - Advanced energy materials N2 - Achieving the highest power conversion efficiencies in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells requires a morphology that delivers electron and hole percolation pathways for optimized transport, plus sufficient donor:acceptor contact area for near unity charge transfer state formation. This is a significant structural challenge, particularly in semiconducting polymer:fullerene systems. This balancing act in the model high efficiency PTB7:PC70BM blend is studied by tuning the donor:acceptor ratio, with a view to understanding the recombination loss mechanisms above and below the fullerene transport percolation threshold. The internal quantum efficiency is found to be strongly correlated to the slower carrier mobility in agreement with other recent studies. Furthermore, second-order recombination losses dominate the shape of the current density-voltage curve in efficient blend combinations, where the fullerene phase is percolated. However, below the charge transport percolation threshold, there is an electric-field dependence of first-order losses, which includes electric-field-dependent photogeneration. In the intermediate regime, the fill factor appears to be limited by both first- and second-order losses. These findings provide additional basic understanding of the interplay between the bulk heterojunction morphology and the order of recombination in organic solar cells. They also shed light on the limitations of widely used transport models below the percolation threshold. KW - bulk heterojunctions KW - charge transport KW - organic solar cells KW - percolation threshold KW - recombination losses Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201703339 SN - 1614-6832 SN - 1614-6840 VL - 8 IS - 18 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - THES A1 - Lorente Sánchez, Alejandro Jose T1 - Synthesis of side-chain polystyrenes for all organic solution processed OLEDs T1 - Synthese von Seitenketten-Polystyrolen für lösungsgefertigte OLEDs N2 - In the present work side-chain polystyrenes were synthesized and characterized, in order to be applied in multilayer OLEDs fabricated by solution process techniques. Manufacture of optoelectronic devices by solution process techniques is meant to decrease significantly fabrication cost and allow large scale production of such devices. This dissertation focusses in three series, enveloped in two material classes. The two classes differ to each other in the type of charge transport exhibited, either ambipolar transport or electron transport. All materials were applied in all-organic solution processed green Ir-based devices. In the first part, a series of ambipolar host materials were developed to transport both charge types, holes and electrons, and be applied especially as matrix for green Ir-based emitters. It was possible to increase devices efficacy by modulating the predominant charge transport type. This was achieved by modification of molecules electron transport part with more electron-deficient heterocycles or by extending the delocalization of the LUMO. Efficiencies up to 28.9 cd/A were observed for all-organic solution-process three layer devices. In the second part, suitability of triarylboranes and tetraphenylsilanes as electron transport materials was studied. High triplet energies were obtained, up to 2.95 eV, by rational combination of both molecular structures. Although the combination of both elements had a low effect in materials electron transport properties, high efficiencies around 24 cd/A were obtained for the series in all-organic solution-processed two layer devices. In the last part, benzene and pyridine were chosen as the series electron-transport motif. By controlling the relative pyridine content (RPC) solubility into methanol was induced for polystyrenes with bulky side-chains. Materials with RPC ≥ 0.5 could be deposited orthogonally from solution without harming underlying layers. From the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such materials are applied in this architecture showing moderate efficiencies around 10 cd/A in all-organic solution processed OLEDs. Overall, the outcome of these studies will actively contribute to the current research on materials for all-solution processed OLEDs. N2 - Organische Licht emittierende Dioden (OLEDs) gelten als die nächste Technologie für Beleuchtungsanwendungen. In letzter Zeit wurden immer mehr kommerzielle Produkte herausgebracht, für die Anwendung in Displays und Beleuchtungssystemen. Doch diese Produkte werden hauptsächlich durch Vakuumabscheidung der organischen Moleküle hergestellt, was hohe Fertigungskosten zur Folge hat. Um die Kosten zu senken, sollten die Geräte über Lösungsverfahren hergestellt werden, was die Produktion durch Drucktechniken ermöglicht. Allerdings gibt es noch einige Herausforderungen bei den Lösungsprozessen, auch bei der Verarbeitung bekannter Materialien, die überwunden werden müssen, wie Rekristallisation oder schlechte Filmbildung. Deshalb sind weitere Materialmodifikationen erforderlich. Ein sehr verbreiteter Ansatz ist die Einarbeitung von Materialien, die im Vakuum verarbeitet werden können, wie Seitenkettenpolymer-Rückgräte. Wir haben in dieser Arbeit drei Reihen von Seitenketten-Polystyrolen synthetisiert und charakterisiert. Die Polymere der ersten Reihe sollten als Hostmaterialien für phosphoreszierende Emitter in der Emissionsschicht dienen. Die Polymere der zweiten und dritten Reihe fungierten als Elektron-Transport-Materialien. Die Polymereigenschaften wurden durch Änderungen der molekularen Struktur der Seitenketten modifiziert. Von allen Materialien wurden dünne Schichten aus Lösung abgeschieden und diese on grünen Ir-basierten OLEDs untersucht. Für alle organischen, aus Lösung gefertigten OLEDs wurden Effizienzen von bis zu 28,9 cd/A erreicht. KW - OLED KW - solution process KW - charge transport KW - polymers KW - OLED KW - Lösungsprozess KW - Ladung Transport KW - Polymere Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398006 ER - TY - THES A1 - Steyrleuthner, Robert T1 - Korrelation von Struktur, optischen Eigenschaften und Ladungstransport in einem konjugierten Naphthalindiimid-Bithiophen Copolymer mit herausragender Elektronenmobilität T1 - Correlation of structure, optical properties and charge transport in a conjugated naphtalendiimide-bithiophene copolymer with outstanding electron mobility N2 - Organische Halbleiter besitzen neue, bemerkenswerte Materialeigenschaften, die sie für die grundlegende Forschung wie auch aktuelle technologische Entwicklung (bsw. org. Leuchtdioden, org. Solarzellen) interessant werden lassen. Aufgrund der starken konformative Freiheit der konjugierten Polymerketten führt die Vielzahl der möglichen Anordnungen und die schwache intermolekulare Wechselwirkung für gewöhnlich zu geringer struktureller Ordnung im Festkörper. Die Morphologie hat gleichzeitig direkten Einfluss auf die elektronische Struktur der organischen Halbleiter, welches sich meistens in einer deutlichen Reduktion der Ladungsträgerbeweglichkeit gegenüber den anorganischen Verwandten zeigt. So stellt die Beweglichkeit der Ladungen im Halbleiter einen der limitierenden Faktoren für die Leistungsfähigkeit bzw. den Wirkungsgrad von funktionellen organischen Bauteilen dar. Im Jahr 2009 wurde ein neues auf Naphthalindiimid und Bithiophen basierendes Dornor/Akzeptor Copolymer vorgestellt [P(NDI2OD‑T2)], welches sich durch seine außergewöhnlich hohe Ladungsträgermobilität auszeichnet. In dieser Arbeit wird die Ladungsträgermobilität in P(NDI2OD‑T2) bestimmt, und der Transport durch eine geringe energetischer Unordnung charakterisiert. Obwohl dieses Material zunächst als amorph beschrieben wurde zeigt eine detaillierte Analyse der optischen Eigenschaften von P(NDI2OD‑T2), dass bereits in Lösung geordnete Vorstufen supramolekularer Strukturen (Aggregate) existieren. Quantenchemische Berechnungen belegen die beobachteten spektralen Änderungen. Mithilfe der NMR-Spektroskopie kann die Bildung der Aggregate unabhängig von optischer Spektroskopie bestätigt werden. Die Analytische Ultrazentrifugation an P(NDI2OD‑T2) Lösungen legt nahe, dass sich die Aggregation innerhalb der einzelnen Ketten unter Reduktion des hydrodynamischen Radius vollzieht. Die Ausbildung supramolekularen Strukturen nimmt auch eine signifikante Rolle bei der Filmbildung ein und verhindert gleichzeitig die Herstellung amorpher P(NDI2OD‑T2) Filme. Durch chemische Modifikation der P(NDI2OD‑T2)-Kette und verschiedener Prozessierungs-Methoden wurde eine Änderung des Kristallinitätsgrades und gleichzeitig der Orientierung der kristallinen Domänen erreicht und mittels Röntgenbeugung quantifiziert. In hochauflösenden Elektronenmikroskopie-Messungen werden die Netzebenen und deren Einbettung in die semikristallinen Strukturen direkt abgebildet. Aus der Kombination der verschiedenen Methoden erschließt sich ein Gesamtbild der Nah- und Fernordnung in P(NDI2OD‑T2). Über die Messung der Elektronenmobilität dieser Schichten wird die Anisotropie des Ladungstransports in den kristallographischen Raumrichtungen von P(NDI2OD‑T2) charakterisiert und die Bedeutung der intramolekularen Wechselwirkung für effizienten Ladungstransport herausgearbeitet. Gleichzeitig wird deutlich, wie die Verwendung von größeren und planaren funktionellen Gruppen zu höheren Ladungsträgermobilitäten führt, welche im Vergleich zu klassischen semikristallinen Polymeren weniger sensitiv auf die strukturelle Unordnung im Film sind. N2 - Organic semiconductors are in the focus of recent research and technological development (eg. for organic light-emitting diodes and solar cells) due to their specific and outstanding material properties. The strong conformational freedom of conjugated polymer chains usually leads to a large number of possible geometric arrangements while weak intermolecular interactions additionally lead to poor structural order in the solid state. At the same time the morphology of those systems has direct influence on the electronic structure of the organic semiconductor which is accompanied by a significant reduction of the charge carrier mobility in contrast to their inorganic counterparts. In that way the transport of charges within the semiconductor represents one of the main limiting factors regarding the performance and efficiency of functional organic devices. In 2009 Facchetti and coworkers presented a novel conjugated donor/acceptor copolymer based on naphthalene diimide and bithiophene [P(NDI2OD‑T2)] which was characterized by an outstanding charge carrier mobility. In this work the mobility of electrons and holes in the bulk of P(NDI2OD‑T2) is determined by single carrier devices and the time-of-flight technique. The results imply a low energetic disorder in these polymer layers. While the material was initially expected to be mainly amorphous, a detailed study of the photophysical properties of P(NDI2OD‑T2) shows that precursors of supramolecular assemblies (aggregates) are already formed in polymer solution. Quantum-chemical calculations support the occurring optical changes. NMR spectroscopy was applied to independently prove the formation of chain aggregates in commonly used organic solvents. The investigation of P(NDI2OD‑T2) solutions by analytical ultracentrifugation implies that aggregation mainly proceeds within single polymer chains by reduction of the hydrodynamic radius. To understand the influence of the chemical structure, pre-aggregation and crystal packing of conventional regioregular P(NDI2OD-T2) on the charge transport, the corresponding regioirregular polymer RI-P(NDI2OD-T2) was synthesized. By combining optical, X-ray, and transmission electron microscopy data, a quantitatively characterization of the aggregation, crystallization, and backbone orientation of all of the polymer films was possible, which was then correlated to the electron mobilities in electron-only diodes. The anisotropy of the charge transport along the different crystallographic directions is demonstrated and how the mobility depends on π-stacking but is insensitive to the degree or coherence of lamellar stacking. The comparison between the regioregular and regioirregular polymers also shows how the use of large planar functional groups leads to improved charge transport, with mobilities that are less affected by chemical and structural disorder with respect to classic semicrystalline polymers such as poly(3-hexylthiophene). KW - organische Halbleiter KW - Ladungstransport KW - Solarzellen KW - Polymere KW - Photophysik KW - organic semiconductor KW - charge transport KW - solar cells KW - polymers KW - photo physics Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71413 ER - TY - THES A1 - Schubert, Marcel T1 - Elementary processes in layers of electron transporting Donor-acceptor copolymers : investigation of charge transport and application to organic solar cells T1 - Elementare Prozesse in Schichten elektronen-transportierender Donator-Akzeptor-Copolymere : Untersuchung des Ladungstransports und Anwendung in Organischen Solarzellen N2 - Donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymers have revolutionized the field of organic electronics over the last decade. Comprised of a electron rich and an electron deficient molecular unit, these copolymers facilitate the systematic modification of the material's optoelectronic properties. The ability to tune the optical band gap and to optimize the molecular frontier orbitals as well as the manifold of structural sites that enable chemical modifications has created a tremendous variety of copolymer structures. Today, these materials reach or even exceed the performance of amorphous inorganic semiconductors. Most impressively, the charge carrier mobility of D-A copolymers has been pushed to the technologically important value of 10 cm^{2}V^{-1}s^{-1}. Furthermore, owed to their enormous variability they are the material of choice for the donor component in organic solar cells, which have recently surpassed the efficiency threshold of 10%. Because of the great number of available D-A copolymers and due to their fast chemical evolution, there is a significant lack of understanding of the fundamental physical properties of these materials. Furthermore, the complex chemical and electronic structure of D-A copolymers in combination with their semi-crystalline morphology impede a straightforward identification of the microscopic origin of their superior performance. In this thesis, two aspects of prototype D-A copolymers were analysed. These are the investigation of electron transport in several copolymers and the application of low band gap copolymers as acceptor component in organic solar cells. In the first part, the investigation of a series of chemically modified fluorene-based copolymers is presented. The charge carrier mobility varies strongly between the different derivatives, although only moderate structural changes on the copolymers structure were made. Furthermore, rather unusual photocurrent transients were observed for one of the copolymers. Numerical simulations of the experimental results reveal that this behavior arises from a severe trapping of electrons in an exponential distribution of trap states. Based on the comparison of simulation and experiment, the general impact of charge carrier trapping on the shape of photo-CELIV and time-of-flight transients is discussed. In addition, the high performance naphthalenediimide (NDI)-based copolymer P(NDI2OD-T2) was characterized. It is shown that the copolymer posses one of the highest electron mobilities reported so far, which makes it attractive to be used as the electron accepting component in organic photovoltaic cells.\par Solar cells were prepared from two NDI-containing copolymers, blended with the hole transporting polymer P3HT. I demonstrate that the use of appropriate, high boiling point solvents can significantly increase the power conversion efficiency of these devices. Spectroscopic studies reveal that the pre-aggregation of the copolymers is suppressed in these solvents, which has a strong impact on the blend morphology. Finally, a systematic study of P3HT:P(NDI2OD-T2) blends is presented, which quantifies the processes that limit the efficiency of devices. The major loss channel for excited states was determined by transient and steady state spectroscopic investigations: the majority of initially generated electron-hole pairs is annihilated by an ultrafast geminate recombination process. Furthermore, exciton self-trapping in P(NDI2OD-T2) domains account for an additional reduction of the efficiency. The correlation of the photocurrent to microscopic morphology parameters was used to disclose the factors that limit the charge generation efficiency. Our results suggest that the orientation of the donor and acceptor crystallites relative to each other represents the main factor that determines the free charge carrier yield in this material system. This provides an explanation for the overall low efficiencies that are generally observed in all-polymer solar cells. N2 - Donator-Akzeptor (D-A) Copolymere haben das Feld der organischen Elektronik revolutioniert. Bestehend aus einer elektronen-reichen und einer elektronen-armen molekularen Einheit,ermöglichen diese Polymere die systematische Anpassung ihrer optischen und elektronischen Eigenschaften. Zu diesen zählen insbesondere die optische Bandlücke und die Lage der Energiezustände. Dabei lassen sie sich sehr vielseitig chemisch modifizieren, was zu einer imensen Anzahl an unterschiedlichen Polymerstrukturen geführt hat. Dies hat entscheidend dazu beigetragen, dass D-A-Copolymere heute in Bezug auf ihren Ladungstransport die Effizienz von anorganischen Halbleitern erreichen oder bereits übetreffen. Des Weiteren lassen sich diese Materialien auch hervorragend in Organischen Solarzellen verwenden, welche jüngst eine Effizienz von über 10% überschritten haben. Als Folge der beträchtlichen Anzahl an unterschiedlichen D-A-Copolymeren konnte das physikalische Verständnis ihrer Eigenschaften bisher nicht mit dieser rasanten Entwicklung Schritt halten. Dies liegt nicht zuletzt an der komplexen chemischen und mikroskopischen Struktur im Film, in welchem die Polymere in einem teil-kristallinen Zustand vorliegen. Um ein besseres Verständnis der grundlegenden Funktionsweise zu erlangen, habe ich in meiner Arbeit sowohl den Ladungstransport als auch die photovoltaischen Eigenschaften einer Reihe von prototypischen, elektronen-transportierenden D-A Copolymeren beleuchtet. Im ersten Teil wurden Copolymere mit geringfügigen chemischen Variationen untersucht. Diese Variationen führen zu einer starken Änderung des Ladungstransportverhaltens. Besonders auffällig waren hier die Ergebnisse eines Polymers, welches sehr ungewöhnliche transiente Strom-Charakteristiken zeigte. Die nähere Untersuchung ergab, dass in diesem Material elektrisch aktive Fallenzustände existieren. Dieser Effekt wurde dann benutzt um den Einfluss solcher Fallen auf transiente Messung im Allgemeinen zu beschreiben. Zusätzlich wurde der Elektronentransport in einem neuartigen Copolymer untersucht, welche die bis dato größte gemesse Elektronenmobilität für konjugierte Polymere zeigte. Darauf basierend wurde versucht, die neuartigen Copolymere als Akzeptoren in Organischen Solarzellen zu implementieren. Die Optimierung dieser Zellen erwies sich jedoch als schwierig, konnte aber erreicht werden, indem die Lösungseigenschaften der Copolymere untersucht und systematisch gesteuert wurden. Im Weiteren werden umfangreiche Untersuchungen zu den relevanten Verlustprozessen gezeigt. Besonders hervorzuheben ist hier die Beobachtung, dass hohe Effizienzen nur bei einer coplanaren Packung der Donator/Akzeptor-Kristalle erreicht werden können. Diese Struktureigenschaft wird hier zum ersten Mal beschrieben und stellt einen wichtigen Erkenntnisgewinn zum Verständnis von Polymersolarzellen dar. KW - Organische Solarzellen KW - Ladungstransport KW - Donator-Akzeptor-Copolymere KW - Alternative Akzeptorpolymere KW - Polymer-Kristalle KW - organic solar cells KW - charge transport KW - Donor-acceptor copolymers KW - alternative electron acceptors KW - polymer crystal orientation Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70791 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Salert, Beatrice Ch. D. A1 - Krueger, Hartmut A1 - Bagnich, Sergey A. A1 - Unger, Thomas A1 - Jaiser, Frank A1 - Al-Sa'di, Mahmoud A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Hayer, Anna A1 - Eberle, Thomas T1 - New polymer matrix system for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes and the role of the small molecular co-host JF - Journal of polymer science : A, Polymer chemistry N2 - A new matrix system for phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on an electron transporting component attached to an inert polymer backbone, an electronically neutral co-host, and a phosphorescent dye that serves as both emitter and hole conductor are presented. The inert co-host is used either as small molecules or covalently connected to the same chain as the electron-transporting host. The use of a small molecular inert co-host in the active layer is shown to be highly advantageous in comparison to a purely polymeric matrix bearing the same functionalities. Analysis of the dye phosphorescence decay in pure polymer, small molecular co-host film, and their blend lets to conclude that dye molecules distribute mostly in the small molecular co-host phase, where the co-host prevents agglomeration and self-quenching of the phosphorescence as well as energy transfer to the electron transporting units. In addition, the co-host accumulates at the anode interface where it acts as electron blocking layer and improves hole injection. This favorable phase separation between polymeric and small molecular components results in devices with efficiencies of about 47 cd/A at a luminance of 1000 cd/m(2). Investigation of OLED degradation demonstrates the presence of two time regimes: one fast component that leads to a strong decrease at short times followed by a slower decrease at longer times. Unlike the long time degradation, the efficiency loss that occurs at short times is reversible and can be recovered by annealing of the device at 180 degrees C. We also show that the long-time degradation must be related to a change of the optical and electrical bulk properties. KW - charge transport KW - conducting polymer KW - degradation KW - host-guest systems KW - light-emitting diodes KW - random copolymer KW - synthesis KW - UV-vis spectroscopy Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pola.26409 SN - 0887-624X VL - 51 IS - 3 SP - 601 EP - 613 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Proctor, Christopher M. A1 - Kim, Chunki A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, T1 - Nongeminate recombination and charge transport limitations in diketopyrrolopyrrole-based solution-processed small molecule solar cells JF - Advanced functional materials N2 - Charge transport and nongeminate recombination are investigated in two solution-processed small molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells consisting of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based donor molecules, mono-DPP and bis-DPP, blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). While the bis-DPP system exhibits a high fill factor (62%) the mono-DPP system suffers from pronounced voltage dependent losses, which limit both the fill factor (46%) and short circuit current. A method to determine the average charge carrier density, recombination current, and effective carrier lifetime in operating solar cells as a function of applied bias is demonstrated. These results and light intensity measurements of the current-voltage characteristics indicate that the mono-DPP system is severely limited by nongeminate recombination losses. Further analysis reveals that the most significant factor leading to the difference in fill factor is the comparatively poor hole transport properties in the mono-DPP system (2 x 10(-5) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) versus 34 x 10(-5) cm(2) V-1 s(-1)). These results suggest that future design of donor molecules for organic photovoltaics should aim to increase charge carrier mobility thereby enabling faster sweep out of charge carriers before they are lost to nongeminate recombination. KW - charge transport KW - solar cells KW - photovoltaic devices KW - organic electronics KW - characterization tools Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201202643 SN - 1616-301X SN - 1616-3028 VL - 23 IS - 28 SP - 3584 EP - 3594 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kröner, Dominik A1 - Krüger, Hartmut A1 - Thesen, Manuel W. T1 - Electronic structure calculations for Hole-Transporting Triphenylamine Derivatives in Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes JF - Macromolecular theory and simulations N2 - Hole-transporting polymers based on polyethene-triphenylamine derivatives are investigated with respect to their UV/Vis spectra. Two substituents, N-phenyl-1-naphthylamine and carbazole, are examined as their respective polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) show very different luminous efficiencies. In order to identify the origin of these phenomena electronic structure calculations based on TD-DFT were performed using monomer models of the hole-transporting polymers. In experiment these hole-transporting polymers show very specific differences in their absorption and emission (fluorescence and phosphorescence) spectra. The analysis of the simulated absorption and emission spectra, the MOs as well as the ground and excited state geometries give explanations for the different optical performances of the corresponding PLEDs. KW - charge transport KW - luminescence KW - organic light-emitting diodes KW - polystyrenes KW - quantum chemistry Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/mats.201100016 SN - 1022-1344 VL - 20 IS - 9 SP - 790 EP - 805 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Malden ER - TY - THES A1 - Thesen, Manuel Wolfram T1 - Synthese und Charakterisierung von phosphoreszenten Terpolymeren und nichtkonjugierten Matrixpolymeren für effiziente polymere Leuchtdioden T1 - Synthesis and characterization of phosphoreszent terpolymers and nonconjugated matrixpolymers for efficient polymer light emitting diodes N2 - Mit Seitenkettenpolystyrenen wurde ein neues Synthesekonzept für phosphoreszente polymere LED-Materialien aufgestellt und experimentell verifiziert. Zunächst erfolgten auf Grundlage strukturell einfacher Verbindungen Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Spacern zwischen aktiven Seitengruppen und dem Polystyrenrückgrat. Es wurden Synthesemethoden für die Monomere etabliert, durch die aktive Elemente - Elektronen- und Lochleiter - mit und ohne diesen Spacer zugänglich sind. Durch Kombination dieser Monomere waren unter Hinzunahme von polymerisierbaren Iridium-Komplexen in unterschiedlicher Emissionswellenlänge statistische Terpolymere darstellbar. Es wurde gezeigt, dass die Realisierung bestimmter Verhältnisse zwischen Loch-, Elektronenleiter und Triplettemitter in ausreichender Molmasse möglich ist. Die Glasstufen der Polymere zeigten eine deutliche Strukturabhängigkeit. Auf die Lage der Grenzorbitale übten die Spacer nahezu keinen Einfluss aus. Die unterschiedlichen Makromoleküle kamen in polymeren Licht emittierenden Dioden (PLEDs) zum Einsatz, wobei ein deutlicher Einfluss der Spacereinheiten auf die Leistungscharakteristik der PLEDs festzustellen war: Sowohl Effizienz, Leuchtdichte wie auch Stromdichte waren durch den Einsatz der kompakten Makromoleküle ohne Spacer deutlich höher. Diese Beobachtungen begründeten sich hauptsächlich in der Verwendung der aliphatischen Spacer, die den Anteil im Polymer erhöhten, der keine Konjugation und damit elektrisch isolierende Eigenschaften besaß. Diese Schlussfolgerungen waren mit allen drei realisierten Emissionsfarben grün, rot und blau verifizierbar. Die besten Messergebnisse erzielte eine PLED aus einem grün emittierenden und spacerlosen Terpolymer mit einer Stromeffizienz von etwa 28 cd A-1 (bei 6 V) und einer Leuchtdichte von 3200 cd m-2 (bei 8 V). Ausgehend von obigen Ergebnissen konnten neue Matrixmaterialien aus dem Bereich verdampfbarer Moleküle geringer Molmasse in das Polystyrenseitenkettenkonzept integriert werden. Es wurden Strukturvariationen sowohl von loch- wie auch von elektronenleitenden Verbindungen als Homopolymere dargestellt und als molekular dotierte Systeme in PLEDs untersucht. Sieben verschiedene lochleitende Polymere mit Triarylamin-Grundkörper und drei elektronendefizitäre Polymere auf der Basis von Phenylbenzimidazol konnten erfolgreich in den Polymeransatz integriert werden. Spektroskopische und elektrochemische Untersuchungen zeigten kaum eine Veränderung der Charakteristika zwischen verdampfbaren Molekülen und den dargestellten Makromolekülen. Diese ladungstransportierenden Makro-moleküle wurden als polymere Matrizes molekular dotiert und lösungsbasiert zu Einschicht-PLEDs verarbeitet. Als aussichtsreichstes Lochleiterpolymer dieser Reihe, mit einer Strom-effizenz von etwa 33 cd A-1 (bei 8 V) und einer Leuchtdichte von 6700 cd m-2 (bei 10 V), stellte sich ein Triarylaminderivat mit Carbazolsubstituenten heraus. Als geeignetstes Matrixmaterial für die Elektronenleitung wurde ein meta-verknüpftes Di-Phenylbenzimidazol ausfindig gemacht, das in der PLED eine Stromeffizienz von etwa 20 cd A-1 (bei 8 V) und eine Leuchtdichte von 7100 cd m-2 (bei 10 V) erzielte. Anschließend wurden die geeignetsten Monomere zu Copolymeren kombiniert: Die lochleitende Einheit bildete ein carbazolylsubstituiertes Triarylamin und die elektronen-leitende Einheit war ein disubstituiertes Phenylbenzimidazol. Dieses Copolymer diente im Folgenden dazu, PLEDs zu realisieren und die Leistungsdaten mit denen eines Homopolymer-blends zu vergleichen, wobei der Blend die bessere Leistungscharakteristik zeigte. Mit dem Homopolymerblend waren Bauteileffizienzen von annähernd 30 cd A-1 (bei 10 V) und Leuchtdichten von 6800 cd m-2 neben einer Verringerung der Einsatzspannung realisierbar. Für die abschließende Darstellung bipolarer Blockcopolymere wurde auf die Nitroxid-vermittelte Polymerisation zurückgegriffen. Mit dieser Technik waren kontrollierte radikalische Polymersiationen mit ausgewählten Monomeren in unterschiedlichen Block-längen durchführbar. Diese Blockcopolymere kamen als molekular dotierte Matrizes in phosphoreszenten grün emittierenden PLEDs zum Einsatz. Die Bauteile wurden sowohl mit statistischen Copolymeren, wie auch mit Homopolymerblends in gleicher Zusammensetzung aber unterschiedlichem Polymerisationsgrad hinsichtlich der Leistungscharakteristik verglichen. Kernaussage dieser Untersuchungen ist, dass hochmolekulare Systeme eine bessere Leistungscharakteristik aufweisen als niedermolekulare Matrizes. Über Rasterkraft-mikroskopie konnte eine Phasenseparation in einem Größenbereich von etwa 10 nm für den hochmolekularen Homopolymerblend nachgewiesen werden. Für die Blockcopolymere war es nicht möglich eine Phasenseparation zu beobachten, was vorwiegend auf deren zu geringe Blocklänge zurückgeführt wurde. N2 - A new synthetic approach for the synthesis of side chain polystyrenes was established and their use as phosphorescent polymers for polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs) is shown by experiments. An assay was introduced to clarify influences on electroluminescent behavior for RGB-colored phosphorescent terpolymers with N,N-Di-p-tolyl-aniline as hole-transporting unit, 2-(4-biphenyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (tert-BuPBD) as electron-transporting unit, and different iridium complexes in RGB-colors as triplet emitting materials. All monomers were attached with spacer moieties to the “para” position of a polystyrene. PLEDs were built to study the electro-optical behavior of these materials. The gist was a remarkable influence of hexyl-spacer units to the PLED performance. For all three colors only very restricted PLED performances were found. In comparison RGB-terpolymers were synthesized with directly attached charge transport materials to the polymer backbone. For this directly linked systems efficiencies were 28 cd A−1 @ 6 V (green), 4.9 cd A−1 @ 5 V (red) and 4.3 cd A−1 @ 6 V (bluish). In summary it is assumed that an improved charge percolation pathways regarding to the higher content of semiconducting molecules and an improved charge transfer to the phosphorescent dopand in the case of the copolymers without spacers are responsible for the better device performance comparing the copolymers with hexyl spacers. It was found that the approach of the directly connected charge transport materials at the nonconjugated styrene polymer backbone is favored for further investigations as shown in the following. A series of styrene derived monomers with triphenylamine-based units, and their polymers have been synthesized and compared with the well-known structure of polymer of N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidine with respect to their hole-transporting behavior in PLEDs. A vinyltriphenylamine structure was selected as a basic unit, functionalized at the para positions with the following side groups: diphenylamine, 3-methylphenyl-aniline, 1- and 2-naphthylamine, carbazole, and phenothiazine. The polymers are used in PLEDs as host polymers for blend systems. It is demonstrated that two polymers are excellent hole-transporting matrix materials for these blend systems because of their good overall electroluminescent performances and their comparatively high glass transition temperatures. For the carbazole-substituted polymer (Tg = 246 °C), a luminous efficiency of 35 cd A−1 and a brightness of 6700 cd m−2 at 10 V is accessible. The phenothiazine-functionalized polymer (Tg = 220 °C) shows nearly the same outstanding PLED behavior. Hence, both these polymers outperform the well-known polymer of N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N′-diphenylbenzidine, showing only a luminous efficiency of 7.9 cd A−1 and a brightness of 2500 cd m−2 (10 V). Furthermore, novel styrene functionalized monomers with phenylbenzo[d]imidazole units and the corresponding homopolymers are prepared. The macromolecules are used as matrices for phosphorescent dopants to prepare PLEDs. The devices exhibit current efficiencies up to 38.5 cd A−1 at 100 cd m−2 and maximum luminances of 7400 cd m−2 at 10 V. Afterwards the most efficient monomers of this investigations were combined and statistical copolymers were synthesized. As hole-transporting monomer the carbazole substituted triarylamine and as electron-transporting monomer a disubstituted phenylbenzoimidazole was selected. This statistical copolymer was used in the following as matrix material for phosporescent PLEDs and the device performance was compared with a matrix system of a polymer blend matrix system of corresponding homopolymers. With this homopolymer blend efficiencies of about 30 cd A-1 at 10 V and luminances of 6800 cd m-2 beside a decreased onset voltage were realized. Finally bipolar blockcopolymers of structural basic monomers were synthesized via nitroxide mediated polymerization. With these technique and the chosen hole- and electron-transporting monomers a controlled radical polymerization was realized leading to blockcopolymers in different block lengths. These blockcopolymers were used as molecular doped matrix systems in green phosphoreszent PLEDs. The devices were compared in regard to their performances with PLEDs made of statistical copolymers and homopolymer blends. It was found that high molecular systems show a better device performance compared to low molecular polymer matrices. With atomic force microscopy it is shown that a phase separation takes place for the high molecular blend of homopolymers. For the synthesized blockcopolymers no phase separation could be verified, mainly because of the comparatively low molecular weight of these systems. KW - phosphoreszente Terpolymere KW - Elektrolumineszenz KW - organische Licht emittierende Diode KW - Ladungstransport KW - bipolare Blockcopolymere KW - phosphorescent Terpolymers KW - electroluminsecence KW - organic light emitting diode KW - charge transport KW - bipolar blockcopolymers Y1 - 2010 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51709 ER -