Influence of new fullerene derivatives with fluorocarbon substituent on performance of polymer solar cells

Abstract We report the polymer solar cells using newly synthesized fullerene derivatives with fluorocarbon substituent (F-PCBM). FPCBMs were synthesized to improve a solar cell property byadding them to P3HT/PCBM mixture. According to the UV-vis absorption spectra and the cyclic voltammograms for F-PCBMs, the energy levels of the F-PCBMs couldn’t be influenced by fluorocarbon substituent. We fabricated the polymer solar cells consist of P3HT/PCBM with each F-PCBM, and investigated their solar cell property. Some solar cells with F-PCBM showed increase of the short circuit current density (Jsc). F-PCBM with short fluorocarbon chain (PCB2F) significantly increased Jsc, and it showed higher solar cell efficiency (Eff = 2.31%) than the solar cell with only PCBM (Eff = 2.04%). We also fabricated solar cells with PCB2F on the three condition of drying time before thermal annealing. As a result, the condition of “30 min” showed the highest solar cell efficiency than other tried one.