Hetero-layered organic photovoltaic devices fabricated using soluble pentacene photoprecursors

•Soluble photoprecursor of pentacene is used for solar cells for the first time.•The photoconversion process strongly depends on the spin-coating solvent.•The photo-converted pentacene showed comparable APCE with vacuum-deposited one.

A soluble pentacene diketone (PDK) photoprecursor, 6,13-dihydro-6,13-ethanopentacene-15,16-dione, was used with C60 to fabricate hetero-layered organic photovoltaic devices. The PDK spin-coated film converts to an insoluble pentacene film upon photoirradiation. The photoconversion process strongly depends on the solvent used for spin-coating. A mixture of chloroform and dichlorobenzene (ratio 1:5) gave the best photovoltaic device performance. The absorbed photon-to-current efficiency in the photo-converted-pentacenefilm device was similar to that of the vacuum-deposited pentacene film.

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