ИСТИНА

At the present time polymer based solar cells (PSC) have attracted great attention as a perspective replacement for inorganic solar cells due to their lightweight, low-cost and easy manufacturing. Single layered PSC are manufactured by sandwiching of a layer of organic optoelectronic material between two conductors. The mixtures of conjugated copolymers (CP) and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) are considered as promising materials for a photoactive layer (PAL), which can be prepared by spin casting of a solvent-based dispersion of CP and NPs. The forming morphology of the PAL is critical for performance of PSC. Therefore, it is important to carry out a pilot study of such materials for the subsequent design of the PAL with improving energy conversion efficiency. It is thought that a bicontinuous, interconnected, well phase-separated morphology of electron donor and acceptor phases can be optimal for transport of holes and electrons respectively. All results presented in this report anticipate our experimental studies on design of the PAL in the bulk heterojunction polymer solar cell based on conjugated polymer/semiconducting nanoparticles mixtures. We discuss our current working concept of how to obtain well-organized current-conducting paths within the PAL. To achieve this goal, we implement an idea of using the fact that depending on the chemical structure of AB diblock copolymer, the thermodynamically stable domains with cubic symmetry of the double gyroid type, having three-dimensional periodicity in space, may be formed during microphase separation of A and B blocks. Therefore, the solar cell devices, in which these structures are formed, will have well-organized separate paths for transport of electrons and holes and, as a result, the high power conversion efficiency. We have checked this idea in the framework of the mesoscale simulations with using dissipative particle dynamics methods. We demonstrate that by the proper choice of the type of surface modifier of NPs (which controls the compatibility of NPs with the polymer matrix), of the chemical structure of the conjugated copolymer blocks and of their length, we can control the morphology of the photoactive layer of SC devices. The region of parameters at which the domains with cubic symmetry and percolation for all components are formed, can serve as a reference points for the experimental synthesis of CP to obtain PAL with the optimal mesh of electrically conductive paths needed to create highly efficient PSC device.