Effects of annealing on the polymer solar cells based on CdSe–PVK electron acceptor

CdSe–poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (CdSe–PVK) nanocomposite was synthesized and utilized as the electron acceptor in the active layer of polymer solar cells. The photovoltaic properties of the polymer solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):CdSe–PVK as the active layer were investigated in detail. The effects of annealing temperature (100–200 °C) and time (5–60 min) on the device performance were studied. At annealing temperature of 150 °C for 30 min, the device demonstrated an optimal efficiency of 0.235% under AM 1.5 (100 mW cm−2) solar simulated light irradiation. The improved efficiency under the optimal conditions was confirmed by the highest light harvest in UV–vis spectra due to the increased crystallinity of P3HT after thermal annealing. Photoluminescence of these devices also exhibited that the quench effect increases with the increasing of annealing temperature, indicating that the charge separation between electron-donating (P3HT) and electron-accepting (CdSe–PVK) molecules was increased after heat treatment. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images showed that the phase segregation and 3D interpenetrating networks of P3HT:CdSe–PVK were responsible for the enhancement of the device efficiency.