Unraveling the Photovoltaic, Mechanical, and Microstructural Properties and Their Correlations in Simple Poly(3-pentylthiophene) Solar Cells.

The power conversion efficiency of polythiophene organic solar cells is constantly refreshed. Despite the renewed device efficiency, very few efforts have been devoted to understanding how the type of electron acceptor alters the photovoltaic and mechanical properties of these low-cost solar cells. Herein, the authors conduct a thorough investigation of photovoltaic and mechanical characteristics of a simple yet less-explored polythiophene, namely poly(3-pentylthiophene) (P3PT), in three different types of organic solar cells, where ZY-4Cl, PC BM, and N2200 are employed as three representative acceptors, respectively.