Date Available
6-3-2011
Year of Publication
2011
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Dissertation
College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
Dr. John Anthony
Abstract
The field of organic electronics has become an increasingly important field of research in recent years. Organic based semiconductors have the potential for creating inexpensive, solution processed devices on flexible substrates. Some of the applications of organic semiconductors include organic field effect transistors, organic light emitting diodes and organic photovoltaics.
Functionalized pentacenes have been proven to be viable donor materials for use in organic photovoltaic devices. The goal of this research is to synthesize and test the viability of novel electron deficient pentacenes and pentacene based materials as acceptors to be used as drop-in replacements for PCBM in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells.
Our goal was to tune and improve the efficiencies of these solar cells in a two pronged approach. First we tuned the open circuit voltage of these devices by determining the optimal energy levels of these acceptors by varying the number of electron withdrawing substituents on the acene core. We also tuned the short circuit current by chemically altering the solid state packing and optimizing device processing conditions. A preliminary structure-property relationship of these small molecule acceptors and photovoltaic device efficiency was established as a result.
Recommended Citation
Shu, Ying, "NOVEL SOLUTION PROCESSABLE ACCEPTORS FOR ORGANIC PHOTOVOLTAIC APPLICATIONS" (2011). University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations. 135.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_diss/135
