Fullerene-multiwalled carbon nanotube complexes for bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-27-2010

Abstract

We demonstrate the implementation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes-fullerene (MWNT- C60) complexes in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. Such a design takes advantage of the C60 as an electron acceptor, while the MWNTs serve as efficient charge transporters. Two types of chemically functionalized MWNTs were used to synthesize these complexes. The first used carboxylated nanotubes (c-MWNT), while the latter were functionalized with octadecylamine (o-MWNT). All the photovoltaic parameters were found to be superior with c-MWNT, and their combined effect led to eight times higher power conversion efficiency. The enhancement was attributed to the electron withdrawing nature of the short carboxylic group which facilitated fast electron transfer from the C60 to the nanotube backbone, whereas the long alky chain on the o-MWNT served as an electron blocker. Therefore, it is evident that the form of functionalization is expected to have significant effect on the performance of OPVs containing carbon nanotubes. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Identifier

77951154099 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Applied Physics Letters

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3386526

ISSN

00036951

Issue

14

Volume

96

Fund Ref

U.S. Army

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