Nanoimprinted
Comb Structures in a Low Bandgap Polymer: Thermal Processing and Their
Application in Hybrid Solar Cells
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate conjugated
polymer layers structured by nanoimprint lithography toward their
suitability for the fabrication of nanostructured polymer/metal sulfide
hybrid solar cells. Consequently, we first study the thermal stability
of the nanoimprinted conjugated polymer layers by means of scanning
electron microscopy and grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering,
which reveals a reasonable thermal stability up to 145 °C and
sufficient robustness against the solvent mixture used in the subsequent
fabrication process. In the second part, we demonstrate the preparation
of nanostructured polymer/copper indium sulfide hybrid solar cells
via the infiltration and thermal decomposition of a mixture of copper
and indium xanthates. Although this step needs temperatures of more
than 160 °C, the nanostructures are retained in the final polymer/copper
indium sulfide layers. The nanostructured solar cells show significantly
improved power conversion efficiencies compared to similarly prepared
flat bilayer devices, which is based on a distinct improvement of
the short circuit current in the nanostructured solar cells