Investigation of the role of the acceptor molecule in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells using impedance spectroscopy

An investigation of the recombination kinetics and the density of states distribution in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells was undertaken using impedance spectroscopy measurements under varying levels of illuminations. Three organic polymer solar cells were investigated which differed only by the p-type polymer used in the active layers while the device architecture and acceptor molecule (PC70BM) were kept the same. We found that the density of states profiles for the three cells are similar and can be superimposed by a horizontal shift due to a difference between the polymers' HOMO and the PC70BM's LUMO levels. The recombination mechanisms for the three cells showed the same behavior, suggesting an important role of the acceptor in this process; however, large differences in the absolute value of carrier lifetime τ_eff related to the choice of the polymer are evident, indicating that the recombination kinetics depends on a combination of the properties of both materials and the morphology of their blend. © 2013 American Chemical Society.