Ordered polythiophene/fullerene composite core-shell nanorod arrays for solar cell applications.

For the first time, we have used melt-assisted wetting of porous alumina templates to prepare ordered core-shell nanorod arrays of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) for use in polymer solar cells. We characterized these arrays using tunneling electron microscopy and conductance atomic force microscopy, which revealed the presence of phase-separated shell (p-type) and core (n-type) regions. Under illumination, we observed a variation of several picoamperes between the currents in the core and shell regions of the P3HT/PCBM nanorod arrays.