Stoichiometry dependence of charge transport in polymer/methanofullerene and polymer/C70 derivative based solar cells

Charge transport in a near infrared absorbing polyfluorene copolymer (APFO-Green1) and its blends with methanofullerene [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), and 3′-(3,5-bis-trifluoromethylphenyl)-1′-(4-nitrophenyl)pyrazolino[70]fullerene (BTPF70) is reported. PCBM and BTPF70 are electron acceptor and transporting molecules in polymer based solar cells. The BTPF70 has emerged as a new electron acceptor molecule that provides adequate exciton dissociation when blended with the low band gap polyfluorene copolymer APFO-Green1. Electron transport in both net PCBM and BTPF70 films are subjected to positional and energetic disorder, with the degree of disorder being more pronounced in BTPF70. On the other hand, mixing PCBM with conjugated polymers usually leads to increased hole mobility. We have investigated and compared the acceptor concentration dependence of charge transport in APFO-Green1/PCBM and APFO-Green1/BTPF70 blend films. For better understanding of the charge transport in the heterojunction films, the field and temperature dependence of hole transport in pure APFO-Green1 films has also been studied. It is observed that the behavior of hole mobility in the blend layer is sensitive to the acceptor type. For APFO-Green1/PCBM hole only devices, the hole mobility attains a local maximum at 67 wt.% of PCBM, while on the contrary mixing any amount of BTPF70 with APFO-Green1 results into degradation of hole transport. Electron transport in both blends, however, increases monotonically as a function of acceptor loading.