3,6-Carbazole Incorporated into Polymer Effects on Solar Cells

Bulk hetero junction (BHJ) polymer solar cell (PSCs) is one of the most promising fields as alternative energy source. Especially, the development of new p-type conjugated polymer is one of the main issues to get core technology. In this study, we investigated the chemical doping effects of incorporating 3,6-carbazole units into conjugated polymers based on 2,7-carbazole. We assessed the structural effects of this chemical doping by measuring the photovoltaic device performance of the copolymers with and without annealing. Note that the use of nanostructures in the bulk heterojunction layer could be a major obstacle to commercialization because nano-morphologies are frequently unstable at high temperatures. Therefore, the development of thermally stable polymer:fullerene blends with optimized PCEs is an important goal in this area of research. We studied the morphologies of the copolymers incorporating 3,6-carbazole units resulting from thermal annealing to investigate the effects of the difference between the T g values of the 2,7-carbazole unit and the 3,6-carbazole unit.