Assembly of galvinoxyl doped in polymer-fullerene photovoltaic blends

Galvinoxyl (Gx) is a stable free radical used as a dopant in active layers of organic solar cells. Here, the nanoscale arrangement of Gx molecules in a composite of the PCDTBT polymer and modified C₆₀ fullerene, PCBM, was studied using a two-pulse electron spin echo (ESE) technique. The results show that the Gx molecules assemble into clusters, which can be described by the model of 8 molecules on the surface of a sphere with a radius of 2.0 nm. Such a structure can arise due to the octahedral packing of 6 PCBM molecules surrounded by 8 Gx molecules. ESE decays also indicate that these clusters repel each other, forming a quasi-regular nanostructure in the matrix. The Gx concentration of 2 wt% at which clusters appear correlates with the literature data on the Gx-induced enhancement of photocurrent, which provides structural insight into the possible molecular mechanism of this enhancement.