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In situ characterization methods for evaluating microstructure formation and drying kinetics of solution-processed organic bulk-heterojunction films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2017

Nusret Sena Güldal ,
Thaer Kassar Open the ORCID record for Thaer Kassar [Opens in a new window] ,
Marvin Berlinghof ,
Tobias Unruh  and
Christoph J. Brabec
Nusret Sena Güldal*
Affiliation:
Materials for Energy Technology and Electronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany
Thaer Kassar
Affiliation:
Chair for Crystallography and Structural Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany
Marvin Berlinghof
Affiliation:
Chair for Crystallography and Structural Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany
Tobias Unruh
Affiliation:
Chair for Crystallography and Structural Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany
Christoph J. Brabec
Affiliation:
Materials for Energy Technology and Electronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen 91058, Germany; and Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), Erlangen 91058, Germany
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Recently, in situ characterization methods have attracted increasing attention, especially in organic photovoltaics (OPV) field, since they provide greater insight into the mechanism of film formation, thus help to identify optimized processing conditions used to process the most efficient organic bulk-heterojunction thin films. In combination with various powerful X-ray-based characterization methods, several studies observed the morphological changes under the influence of different processing conditions. In this review, we summarize the fundamentals and implementation of X-ray-based and optical characterization methods, utilized in in situ mode and introduce the reader a better overview of the information acquired from a given technique in terms of microstructure formation in OPV. While we give a chronological development of in situ characterization methods in the field of OPV, we discuss the interplay between thermodynamics of solutions and drying kinetics of different types of organic blends.

Keywords

microstructurephotovoltaicthin film
Type
Invited Reviews
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 32 , Issue 10: Focus Issue: Microstructural Characterization for Emerging Photovoltaic Materials , 26 May 2017 , pp. 1855 - 1879
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2017 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Moritz Riede

This section of Journal of Materials Research is reserved for papers that are reviews of literature in a given area.

References

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