Electro‐Optical Properties of Photovoltaic Cells Based on P3OT‐Liquid‐Crystal and P3OT‐Nanomaterial Blends

An increase in power conversion efficiency in poly(3‐octyl‐thiophene) has been demonstrated using a eutectic nematic liquid‐crystal mixture as an additive under green‐light illumination of wavelength of 514.5 nm and power of 4 mW. Although other nanomaterials, including single‐walled carbon nanotubes and buckministerfullerene (C 60 ), are also investigated as the acceptors in the conjugated polymer, experimental results show that the ordered mesogenic dopant leads to notably superior electro‐optical properties among the acceptor substances exploited in this work, yielding higher photocurrent and power conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cells. The possible reason behind this finding is that the nematic liquid‐crystal molecules with a certain degree of orientational order may help induce self‐alignment of the polymeric macromolecules and further improve charge‐carrier transport in the active layer. The promising photovoltaic characteristics of the P3OT‐nematic blend render it as one of the potential candidates of alternative energy sources in the future.