Photovoltaic devices based on polythiophenes and substituted polythiophenes

In recent years there has been considerable interest in the fabrication of photovoltaic devices using polymeric and organic materials. This paper pres ents work carried out using a range of polythiophenes, including some subst ituted with porphyrin moieties as light harvesters. Homopolymers and copoly mers were investigated for their performance in photovoltaic devices, and t he use of both solid polymer electrolyte and liquid electrolyte was examine d. Both photoelectrochemical cells and Schottky devices were investigated. The best photoelectrochemical cell was fabricated using polyterthiophene wh ich had V-oc = 139 mV, I-sc = 123.4 muA cm(-2), fill factor = 0.38, and ene rgy conversion efficiency = 0.02% at a halogen lamp intensity of 317 W m(-2 ). The Schottky device gave a V-oc = 0.5 V and I-sc of 0.98 muA cm(-2) at a halogen lamp intensity of 500 W m(-2). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.