Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2012.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Barr, Miles Clark
Other Authors: Karen K. Gleason.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76477
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author Barr, Miles Clark
author2 Karen K. Gleason.
author_facet Karen K. Gleason.
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2012.
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spelling mit-1721.1/764772022-01-13T07:54:19Z Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics Barr, Miles Clark Karen K. Gleason. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, 2012. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. There is emerging interest in the ability to fabricate organic photovoltaics (OPVs) on flexible, lightweight substrates, which could lower the cost of installation and enable new form factors for deployment. However, substrate and material choices are often limited by compatibility with common processing agents such as heat and solvents. Here, we explore oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) as an all-dry, vacuum-based method for processing conjugated polymer device layers for organic photovoltaics. The entire process occurs via the vapor phase and under conditions of low temperature and low energy input, enabling conformal coverage and film deposition on delicate substrates (e.g., papers, plastics, and textiles). Moreover, oCVD offers the well-cited benefits of vacuum processing, including parallel and sequential deposition, well-defined thickness control and uniformity, and inline integration with other standard vacuum processes (e.g., vacuum thermal evaporation). Conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) layers deposited by oCVD are explored for a variety of roles within vacuum-processed OPVs, including as a transparent anode, as an anode buffer layer on ITO transparent electrodes, and as a cathode buffer layer in electrically inverted devices. By using in situ shadow masking, the oCVD PEDOT electrodes are vapor-patterned over large areas to monolithically fabricate OPV circuits directly on a variety of common paper substrates. The resulting paper photovoltaic arrays power common electronic displays in ambient indoor lighting and can be tortuously flexed and folded without loss of function. Further, optically inverting the device structure (by positioning the oCVD PEDOT electrode on top of the device and illuminating from above) improves performance with non-transparent substrates; power conversion efficiencies just under 3% are demonstrated, including up to 2% on common paper substrates. We also show applicability of an oCVD semiconductor, unsubstituted polythiophene, as the photoactive electron donor in all-vacuum-processed polymer heterojunction OPVs. by Miles Clark Barr. Ph.D. 2013-01-23T19:41:48Z 2013-01-23T19:41:48Z 2012 2012 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76477 822232181 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 228 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Chemical Engineering.
Barr, Miles Clark
Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title_full Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title_fullStr Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title_full_unstemmed Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title_short Polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
title_sort polymers via chemical vapor deposition and their application to organic photovoltaics
topic Chemical Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76477
work_keys_str_mv AT barrmilesclark polymersviachemicalvapordepositionandtheirapplicationtoorganicphotovoltaics