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Free Energy Control of Charge Photogeneration in Polythiophene/Fullerene Solar Cells: The Influence of Thermal Annealing on P3HT/PCBM Blends

The function of organic solar cells is based upon charge photogeneration at donor/acceptor heterojunctions. In this paper, the origin of the improvement in short circuit current of poly(3‐hexylthiophene)/6,6‐phenyl C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT/PCBM) solar cells with thermal annealing is examined. Transient absorption spectroscopy is employed to demonstrate that thermal annealing results in an approximate two‐fold increase in the yield of dissociated charges. The enhanced charge generation is correlated with a decrease in P3HT's ionization potential upon thermal annealing. These observations are in excellent quantitative agreement with a model in which efficient dissociation of the bound radical pair into free charges is dependent upon the bound radical state being thermally hot when initially generated, enabling it to overcome its coulombic binding energy. These observations provide strong evidence that the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level offset of annealed P3HT/PCBM blends may be only just sufficient to drive efficient charge generation in polythiophene‐based solar cells. This has important implications for current strategies to optimize organic photovoltaic device performance based upon the development of smaller optical bandgap polymers.