Preface
It is my great pleasure to present our book “P3HT Revisited – from Molecular Scale
to Solar Cell Devices” in the Springer series Advances in Polymer Science. The
book deals with poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, which was first synthesized in the
early 1990s and has become the work-horse or “fruit fly” (see chapter by Andrienko
and coworkers, “Morphology and Charge Transport in P3HT: A Theorist’s Perspective”) of the opto-electronic community. The choice of authors – with backgrounds and expertise in polymer synthesis, structure analysis, polymer
crystallization and morphology, transistor and solar cell device preparation and
characterization, and polymer theory – is representative of the large community of
scientists that have worked and are still working on this fascinating conjugated
semicrystalline polymer. As highlighted by Moule ´ et al. (see chapter “P3HT-Based
Solar Cells: Structural Properties and Photovoltaic Performance”), the research
activity on P3HT is enormous, as demonstrated by the large number of articles
published each year on this topic.
The book is structured as follows: The first chapter gives an overview of historic
and modern routes for P3HT synthesis. The second and third chapters focus on the
morphology of P3HT, which is dominated by its semicrystalline nature. The fourth
chapter is devoted to field-effect transistors based on P3HT and other polythiophene
polymers with high mobilities. A theorist’s perspective on morphology and charge
transport is given in the fifth chapter. The sixth chapter contains an introduction to
and review on P3HT bulk heterojunction solar cells in combination with the
fullerene derivative phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM).
Summarizing, we have tried to draw a consistent picture of P3HT at different
length scales ranging from the molecular scale over the mesoscopic scale to the
device level. The P3HT structure on the molecular and mesoscopic scale has been
correlated with its optical, electrochemical, electronic, and opto-electronic properties, which provide the basis for its performance in transistor and solar cell devices.
Last, but not least, I express my sincere thanks to all the authors of this book for
their contributions and to Dr. Tobias Wassermann and his team for their support.
Stuttgart, Germany
Sabine Ludwigs
v
It is my great pleasure to present our book “P3HT Revisited – from Molecular Scale
to Solar Cell Devices” in the Springer series Advances in Polymer Science. The
book deals with poly(3-hexylthiophene), P3HT, which was first synthesized in the
early 1990s and has become the work-horse or “fruit fly” (see chapter by Andrienko
and coworkers, “Morphology and Charge Transport in P3HT: A Theorist’s Perspective”) of the opto-electronic community. The choice of authors – with backgrounds and expertise in polymer synthesis, structure analysis, polymer
crystallization and morphology, transistor and solar cell device preparation and
characterization, and polymer theory – is representative of the large community of
scientists that have worked and are still working on this fascinating conjugated
semicrystalline polymer. As highlighted by Moule ´ et al. (see chapter “P3HT-Based
Solar Cells: Structural Properties and Photovoltaic Performance”), the research
activity on P3HT is enormous, as demonstrated by the large number of articles
published each year on this topic.
The book is structured as follows: The first chapter gives an overview of historic
and modern routes for P3HT synthesis. The second and third chapters focus on the
morphology of P3HT, which is dominated by its semicrystalline nature. The fourth
chapter is devoted to field-effect transistors based on P3HT and other polythiophene
polymers with high mobilities. A theorist’s perspective on morphology and charge
transport is given in the fifth chapter. The sixth chapter contains an introduction to
and review on P3HT bulk heterojunction solar cells in combination with the
fullerene derivative phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM).
Summarizing, we have tried to draw a consistent picture of P3HT at different
length scales ranging from the molecular scale over the mesoscopic scale to the
device level. The P3HT structure on the molecular and mesoscopic scale has been
correlated with its optical, electrochemical, electronic, and opto-electronic properties, which provide the basis for its performance in transistor and solar cell devices.
Last, but not least, I express my sincere thanks to all the authors of this book for
their contributions and to Dr. Tobias Wassermann and his team for their support.
Stuttgart, Germany
Sabine Ludwigs
v