TY - JOUR A1 - Scharsich, Christina A1 - Lohwasser, Ruth H. A1 - Sommer, Michael A1 - Asawapirom, Udom A1 - Scherf, Ullrich A1 - Thelakkat, Mukundan A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Koehler, Anna T1 - Control of aggregate formation in poly(3-hexylthiophene) by solvent, molecular weight, and synthetic method JF - Journal of polymer science : B, Polymer physics N2 - Aggregate formation in poly(3-hexylthiophene) depends on molecular weight, solvent, and synthetic method. The interplay of these parameters thus largely controls device performance. In order to obtain a quantitative understanding on how these factors control the resulting electronic properties of P3HT, we measured absorption in solution and in thin films as well as the resulting field effect mobility in transistors. By a detailed analysis of the absorption spectra, we deduce the fraction of aggregates formed, the excitonic coupling within the aggregates, and the conjugation length within the aggregates, all as a function of solvent quality for molecular weights from 5 to 19 kDa. From this, we infer in which structure the aggregated chains pack. Although the 5 kDa samples form straight chains, the 11 and 19 kDa chains are kinked or folded, with conjugation lengths that increase as the solvent quality reduces. There is a maximum fraction of aggregated chains (about 55 +/- 5%) that can be obtained, even for poor solvent quality. We show that inducing aggregation in solution leads to control of aggregate properties in thin films. As expected, the field-effect mobility correlates with the propensity to aggregation. Correspondingly, we find that a well-defined synthetic approach, tailored to give a narrow molecular weight distribution, is needed to obtain high field effect mobilities of up to 0.01 cm2/Vs for low molecular weight samples (=11 kDa), while the influence of synthetic method is negligible for samples of higher molecular weight, if low molecular weight fractions are removed by extraction. KW - conformational analysis KW - conjugated polymers KW - crystallization KW - films KW - interaction parameter KW - molecular weight distribution KW - molar mass distribution KW - nucleation KW - photophysics KW - structure KW - UV-vis spectroscopy Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.23022 SN - 0887-6266 VL - 50 IS - 6 SP - 442 EP - 453 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Al-Sa'di, Mahmoud A1 - Jaiser, Frank A1 - Bagnich, Sergey A. A1 - Unger, Thomas A1 - Blakesley, James C. A1 - Wilke, Andreas A1 - Neher, Dieter T1 - Electrical and optical simulations of a polymer-based phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode with high efficiency JF - Journal of polymer science : B, Polymer physics N2 - A comprehensive numerical device simulation of the electrical and optical characteristics accompanied with experimental measurements of a new highly efficient system for polymer-based light-emitting diodes doped with phosphorescent dyes is presented. The system under investigation comprises an electron transporter attached to a polymer backbone blended with an electronically inert small molecule and an iridium-based green phosphorescent dye which serves as both emitter and hole transporter. The device simulation combines an electrical and an optical model. Based on the known highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels of all components as well as the measured electrical and optical characteristics of the devices, we model the emissive layer as an effective medium using the dye's HOMO as hole transport level and the polymer LUMO as electron transport level. By fine-tuning the injection barriers at the electron and hole-injecting contact, respectively, in simulated devices, unipolar device characteristics were fitted to the experimental data. Simulations using the so-obtained set of parameters yielded very good agreement to the measured currentvoltage, luminancevoltage characteristics, and the emission profile of entire bipolar light-emitting diodes, without additional fitting parameters. The simulation was used to gain insight into the physical processes and the mechanisms governing the efficiency of the organic light-emitting diode, including the position and extent of the recombination zone, carrier concentration profiles, and field distribution inside the device. The simulations show that the device is severely limited by hole injection, and that a reduction of the hole-injection barrier would improve the device efficiency by almost 50%. KW - conjugated polymers KW - high performance polymers KW - organic electronics KW - organic light-emitting diode KW - simulations KW - TCAD Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/polb.23158 SN - 0887-6266 VL - 50 IS - 22 SP - 1567 EP - 1576 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - THES A1 - Jaiser, Frank T1 - Ladungsträger- und Anregungsdynamik in halbleitenden Polymerschichten mit eingemischten Emittern und Ladungsträgerfallen T1 - Charge and excitation dynamics in semiconducting polymer layers doped with emitters and charge carrier traps N2 - In Leuchtdioden wird Licht durch die Rekombination von injizierten Ladungsträgern erzeugt. Das kann einerseits in anorganischen Materialien geschehen. In diesem Fall ist es notwendig, hochgeordnete Kristallstrukturen herzustellen, die die Eigenschaften der Leuchtdioden bestimmen. Ein anderer Ansatz ist die Verwendung von organischen Molekülen und Polymeren. Auf Grund der Vielseitigkeit der organischen Chemie können die Eigenschaften der verwendeten halbleitenden Polymere schon während der Synthese beeinflusst werden. Außerdem weisen auch diese Polymere die bekannte mechanische Flexibilität auf. Die Herstellung von flexiblen, großflächigen Beleuchtungsquellen und Anzeigelementen ist so möglich. Die erste Leuchtdiode mit einem halbleitenden Polymer als Emitter wurde 1990 hergestellt. Seither hat das Forschungsgebiet eine rasante Entwicklung genommen. Auch erste kommerzielle Produkte sind erhältlich. Im Zuge dieser Entwicklung wurde deutlich, dass die Eigenschaften von polymeren Leuchtdioden – beispielsweise Farbe und Effizienz – durch die Verwendung mehrerer Komponenten in der aktiven Schicht deutlich verbessert werden können. Gleichzeitig ergeben sich neue Herausforderungen durch die Wechselwirkungen der verschiedenen Filmbestandteile. Während die Komponenten oft entweder zur Verbesserung des Ladungstransportes oder zur Beeinflussung der Emission zugegeben werden, muss darauf geachtet werden, dass die anderen Prozesse nicht negativ beeinflusst werden. In dieser Arbeit werden einige dieser Wechselwirkungen untersucht und mit einfachen physikalischen Modellen erklärt. So werden zunächst blau emittierende Leuchtdioden auf der Basis von Polyfluoren untersucht. Dieses Material ist zwar ein sehr effizienter blauer Emitter, jedoch ist es anfällig für chemische Defekte, diese sich nicht vollständig verhindern lassen. Die Defekte bilden Fallenzustände für Elektronen, ihr Einfluss lässt sich durch die Zugabe von Lochfallen unterdrücken. Der zugrunde liegende Prozess, die Beeinflussung der Ladungsträgerbalance, wird erklärt. Im Folgenden werden Mischsystemen mit dendronisierten Emittern, die gleichzeitig eine Falle für Elektronen bilden, untersucht. Hier wird die unterschiedliche Wirkung der isolierenden Hülle auf die Ladungs- und Energieübertragung zwischen Matrix und Farbstoffkern der Dendrimere untersucht. In Mischsystemen haben die Natur der angeregten Zustände sowie die Art und Weise des Ladungsträgertransportes einen großen Einfluss auf diese Transferprozesse. Außerden hat auch hier die Ladungsträgerbalance Auswirkungen auf die Emission. Um den Ladungsträgereinfang in Fallenzuständen zu charakterisieren, wird eine Methode auf Grundlage der Messung des zeitaufgelösten Photostroms in organischen Mischfilmen weiterentwickelt. Die erzielten Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Übertragung der für geordnete Systeme entwickelten Modelle des Ladungsträgertransportes nicht ohne weiteres auf Polymersysteme mit hoher Unordnung übertragen werden können. Abschließend werden zeitaufgelöste Messungen der Phosphoreszenz in entsprechenden Mischungen aus Polymeren und organometallischen Verbindungen vorgestellt. Auch diese Systeme enthalten üblicherweise weitere Komponenten, die den Ladungstransport verbessern. In diesen Filmen kann es zu einer Übertragung der Tripletts vom Emitter auf die weiteren Filmbestandteile kommen. Bei Kenntnis der in Frage kommenden Wechselwirkungen können die unerwünschten Prozesse vermieden werden. N2 - Light-emitting diodes generate light from the recombination of injected charge carriers. This can be obtained in inorganic materials. Here, it is necessary to produce highly ordered crystalline structures that determine the properties of the device. Another possibility is the utilization of organic molecules and polymers. Based on the versatile organic chemistry, it is possible to tune the properties of the semiconducting polymers already during synthesis. In addition, semiconducting polymers are mechanically flexible. Thus, it is possible to construct flexible, large-area light sources and displays. The first light-emitting diode using a polymer emitter was presented in 1990. Since then, this field of research has grown rapidly up to the point where first products are commercially available. It has become clear that the properties of polymer light-emitting diodes such as color and efficiency can be improved by incorporating multiple components inside the active layer. At the same time, this gives rise to new interactions between these components. While components are often added either to improve the charge transport or to change the emission, it has to made sure that other processes are not influenced in a negative manner. This work investigates some of these interactions and describes them with simple physical models. First, blue light-emitting diodes based on polyfluorene are analyzed. This polymer is an efficient emitter, but it is susceptible to the formation of chemical defects that can not be suppressed completely. These defects form electron traps, but their effect can be compensated by the addition of hole traps. The underlying process, namely the changed charge carrier balance, is explained. In the following, blend systems with dendronized emitters that form electron traps are investigated. The different influence of the insulating shell on the charge and energy transfer between polymer host and the emissive core of the dendrimers is examined. In the blend, the nature of the excited states as well as the method of the charge transport through the layer are of great importance to the transfer. Again, the charge carrier balance influences the emission. To characterize the trapping of charges in trap states, a method based on the measurement of transient photocurrents is enhanced. The results show that models developed for ordered systems can not simply be transferred to polymer systems with a high degree of disorder. Finally, time-resolved measurements of the phosphorescence decay in blends of polymers with organo-metallic compounds are shown. Usually, these systems contain more components that facilitate charge transport. Thus, triplets may be transferred from the phosphorescent dye other components of the film. Knowing the underlying interactions, unwanted processes can be suppressed. KW - OLED KW - Konjugierte Polymere KW - Mehrstoffsystem KW - OLED KW - conjugated polymers KW - multicomponent system Y1 - 2006 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-9484 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Foertig, Alexander A1 - Kniepert, Juliane A1 - Gluecker, Markus A1 - Brenner, Thomas J. K. A1 - Dyakonov, Vladimir A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Deibel, Carsten T1 - Nongeminate and geminate recombination in PTB7: PCBM solar cells JF - Advanced functional materials KW - organic semiconductors KW - organic solar cells KW - conjugated polymers KW - charge carrier recombination Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201302134 SN - 1616-301X SN - 1616-3028 VL - 24 IS - 9 SP - 1306 EP - 1311 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Samson, Stephanie A1 - Rech, Jeromy A1 - Perdigon-Toro, Lorena A1 - Peng, Zhengxing A1 - Shoaee, Safa A1 - Ade, Harald A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - You, Wei T1 - Organic solar cells with large insensitivity to donor polymer molar mass across all acceptor classes JF - ACS applied polymer materials N2 - Donor polymer number-average molar mass (M-n) has long been known to influence organic photovoltaic (OPV) performance via changes in both the polymer properties and the resulting bulk heterojunction morphology. The exact nature of these M-n effects varies from system to system, although there is generally some intermediate M-n that results in optimal performance. Interestingly, our earlier work with the difluorobenzotriazole (FTAZ)-based donor polymer, paired with either N2200 (polymer acceptor) or PC61BM (fullerene acceptor), PcBm demonstrated <10% variation in power conversion efficiency and a consistent morphology over a large span of M-n (30 kg/mol to over 100 kg/mol). Would such insensitivity to polymer M-n still hold true when prevailing small molecular acceptors were used with FTAZ? To answer this question, we explored the impact of FTAZ on OPVs with ITIC, a high-performance small-molecule fused-ring electron acceptor (FREA). By probing the photovoltaic characteristics of the resulting OPVs, we show that a similar FTAZ mn insensitivity is also found in the FTAZ:ITIC system. This study highlights a single-donor polymer which, when paired with an archetypal fullerene, polymer, and FREA, results in systems that are largely insensitive to donor M. Our results may have implications in polymer batch-to-batch reproducibility, in particular, relaxing the need for tight M-n control during synthesis. KW - polymer solar cells KW - conjugated polymers KW - fullerenes KW - fluorination KW - molecular weight KW - non-fullerene acceptors KW - power conversion efficiency Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.0c01041 SN - 2637-6105 VL - 2 IS - 11 SP - 5300 EP - 5308 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -