Investigation of new PPV-type polymeric materials containing fluorene and thiophene units and their application in organic solar cells

New poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV)-type conducting polymers containing different concentrations of thiophene and fluorene functional units were investigated in this work and the photophysical and electrochemical properties were evaluated. We observed a dependence of these properties on the concentration of thiophene units in the polymer backbone. The hole mobilities were estimated to be on the order of 10(-6) cm(2) V-1 s(-1). The polymers were combined with different concentrations of a soluble fullerene derivative (PCBM) and applied in bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic cells. The effects of PCBM concentration and of annealing (post-production treatment) on these devices were investigated. The best results were obtained for the materials containing higher concentrations of thiophene units. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.