Self-organized phase segregation between inorganic nanocrystals and $PC61BM$ for hybrid high-efficiency bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

We demonstrate a simple approach to generate phase segregation between colloidal PbS nanocrystals (NCs) and organic [6,6]-phenyl $C61$ butyric acid methyl ester $(PC61BM)$⁠. Continuous vertical phase segregation is observed in cross-linked composite films of NCs and $PC61BM$⁠. Hybrid bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells fabricated with the phase segreated composite layer have achieved the state-of-art power conversion efficiency of 3.7% under one sun of simulated Air Mass 1.5 Global solar irradiation. The presented method can be generally applied in other NC/organic systems for the development of hybrid heterojunction photovoltaic cells.