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Letter

Nature Materials 5, 197–203 (1 March 2006) | doi:10.1038/nmat1574

A strong regioregularity effect in self-organizing conjugated polymer films and high-efficiency polythiophene:fullerene solar cells

Youngkyoo Kim , Steffan Cook , Sachetan M. Tuladhar , Stelios A. Choulis , Jenny Nelson , James R. Durrant , Donal D. C. Bradley , Mark Giles , Iain McCulloch , Chang-Sik Ha & Moonhor Ree

Low-cost photovoltaic energy conversion using conjugated molecular materials has become increasingly feasible through the development of organic |[lsquo]|bulk heterojunction (BHJ)|[rsquo]| structures, where efficient light-induced charge separation is enabled by a large-area donor–acceptor interface. The highest efficiencies have been achieved using blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and a fullerene derivative, but performance depends critically on the material properties and processing conditions.