Exciton fission and charge generation via triplet excitons in pentacene/C60 bilayers

J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Sep 15;132(36):12698-703. doi: 10.1021/ja1042462.

Abstract

Organic photovoltaic devices are currently studied due to their potential suitability for flexible and large-area applications, though efficiencies are presently low. Here we study pentacene/C(60) bilayers using transient optical absorption spectroscopy; such structures exhibit anomalously high quantum efficiencies. We show that charge generation primarily occurs 2-10 ns after photoexcitation. This supports a model where charge is generated following the slow diffusion of triplet excitons to the heterojunction. These triplets are shown to be present from early times (<200 fs) and result from the fission of a spin-singlet exciton to form two spin-triplet excitons. These results elucidate exciton and charge generation dynamics in the pentacene/C(60) system and demonstrate that the tuning of the energetic levels of organic molecules to take advantages of singlet fission could lead to greatly enhanced photocurrent in future OPVs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Fullerenes / chemistry*
  • Naphthacenes / chemistry*
  • Quantum Theory*

Substances

  • Fullerenes
  • Naphthacenes
  • pentacene
  • fullerene C60