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Interplay Between Triplet-, Singlet-Charge Transfer States and Free Charge Carriers Defining Bimolecular Recombination Rate Constant of Organic Solar Cells

Ardalan Armin Orcid Logo, James Durrant Orcid Logo, Safa Shoaee Orcid Logo

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Volume: 121, Issue: 25, Pages: 13969 - 13976

Swansea University Authors: Ardalan Armin Orcid Logo, James Durrant Orcid Logo

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Abstract

Despite the myriad of organic donor:acceptor materials, only few systems have emerged in the life of organic solar cells to exhibit considerable reduced bimolecular recombination, with respect to the random encounter rate given by the Langevin equation. Monte Carlo simulations have revealed that the...

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Published in: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
ISSN: 1932-7447 1932-7455
Published: American Chemical Society (ACS) 2017
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa34793
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Abstract: Despite the myriad of organic donor:acceptor materials, only few systems have emerged in the life of organic solar cells to exhibit considerable reduced bimolecular recombination, with respect to the random encounter rate given by the Langevin equation. Monte Carlo simulations have revealed that the rate constant of the formation of electron–hole bound states depends on the random encounter of opposite charges and is nearly given by the Langevin equation for the domain sizes relevant to efficient bulk heterojunction systems. Recently, three studies suggested that charge transfer states dissociating much faster than their decay rate to the ground state, can result in reduced bimolecular recombination by lowering the recombination rate to the ground state as a loss pathway. A separate study identified another loss pathway and suggested that forbidden back electron transfer from triplet charge transfer states to triplet excitons is a key to achieving reduced recombination. Herein we further explain the reduced bimolecular recombination by investigating the limitations of these two proposals. By solving kinetic rate equations for a BHJ system with realistic rates, we show that both of these previously presented conditions must only be held at the same time for a system to exhibit non-Langevin behavior. We demonstrate that suppression of both of the parallel loss channels of singlet and triplet states can be achieved through increasing the dissociation rate of the charge transfer states; a crucial requirement to achieve a high charge carrier extraction efficiency.
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Issue: 25
Start Page: 13969
End Page: 13976