| 1. |
- Bai, Sai, et al.
(författare)
-
Ethanedithiol Treatment of Solution-Processed ZnO Thin Films: Controlling the Intragap States of Electron Transporting Interlayers for Efficient and Stable Inverted Organic Photovoltaics
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley-VCH Verlag. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 5:5, s. 1401606-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The surface defects of solution-processed ZnO films lead to various intragap states. When the solution-processed ZnO films are used as electron transport interlayers (ETLs) in inverted organic solar cells, the intragap states act as interfacial recombination centers for photogenerated charges and thereby degrade the device performance. Here, a simple passivation method based on ethanedithiol (EDT) treatment is demonstrated, which effectively removes the surface defects of the ZnO nanocrystal films by forming zinc ethanedithiolates. The passivation by EDT treatment modulates the intragap states of the ZnO films and introduces a new intragap band. When the EDT-treated ZnO nanocrystal films are used as ETLs in inverted organic solar cells, both the power conversion efficiency and stability of the devices are improved. The control studies show that the solar cells with EDT-treated ZnO films exhibit reduced charge recombination rates and enhanced charge extraction properties. These features are consistent with the fact that the modulation of the intragap states results in reduction of interfacial recombination as well as the improved charge selectivity and electron transport properties of the ETLs. It is further demonstrated that the EDT treatment-based passivation method can be extended to ZnO films deposited from sol-gel precursors.
|
|
| 2. |
- Ma, Zaifei, et al.
(författare)
-
A Facile Method to Enhance Photovoltaic Performance of Benzodithiophene-Isoindigo Polymers by Inserting Bithiophene Spacer
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6840 .- 1614-6832. ; 4:6, s. Art. no. 1301455-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study describes the synthesis and characterization of four polymers based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) and isoindigo with zero, one, two, and three thiophene spacer groups. Results have demonstrated that the use of bithiophene as a spacer unit improves the geometry of the polymer chain, making it planar, and hence, potentially enhanced π- π stacking occurs. Due to favorable interaction of the polymer chains, enhanced absorption coefficient, and optimal morphology, PBDT-BTI, which possesses bithiophene as a spacer, revealed high current and fill factor leading to a power conversion efficiency of 7.3% in devices, making this polymer the best performing isoindigo-based material in polymer solar cells (PSCs). Also, PBDT-BTI could still maintain efficiency of over 6% with the active layer thickness of 270 nm, making it a potential candidate for a material in printed PSCs. These results demonstrate that the use of thiophene spacers in D-A polymers could be an important design strategy to produce high-performance PSCs.
|
|
| 3. |
- Ma, Zaifei, et al.
(författare)
-
Influences of Surface Roughness of ZnO Electron Transport Layer on the Photovoltaic Performance of Organic Inverted Solar Cells
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 116:46, s. 24462-24468
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Here, we demonstrate the correlation between the surface roughness of the ZnO interlayer used as an electron transporting interlayer (ETL) in organic inverted solar cells (ISCs) and the photovoltaic performance of the ISCs. Three different surfaces of the ZnO ETL are studied in ISCs with the polymer poly[2,3-bis-(3-octyloxyphenyl)-quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-d iyl] (TQ1) mixed with [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as the active layer. The results obtained from these ISCs show that power conversion efficiency increases from 2.7% to 3.9% when the root-mean-square roughness of the ZnO layer decreases from 48 to 1.9 nm. Moreover, it is found that the short-circuit current density is higher in the ISC based on the smoother ZnO interlayer, with a larger donor/acceptor (D/A) interfacial area in the active layer that facilitates exciton dissociation. The reduced effective interfacial area between the photoactive layer and the ZnO interlayer with decreased ZnO surface roughness leads to an observed improvement in both fill factor and open circuit voltage, which is ascribed to a reduced concentration of traps at the interface between the ZnO interlayer and the active layer.
|
|
| 4. |
- Ma, Zaifei, et al.
(författare)
-
Structure-Property Relationships of Oligothiophene-Isoindigo Polymers for Efficient Bulk-Heterojunction Solar Cells
- 2014
-
Ingår i: energy and environmental science. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1754-5692. ; 17:1, s. 361-369
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A series of alternating oligothiophene (nT)-isoindigo (I) copolymers (PnTI) were synthesized to investigate the influence of the oligothiophene block length on the photovoltaic (PV) properties of PnTI:PCBM bulk-heterojunction blends. Our study indicates that the number of thiophene rings (n) in the repeating unit alters both, polymer crystallinity and polymer-fullerene interfacial energetics, which results in a decreasing open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the solar cells with increasing n. The short-circuit current density (Jsc) of P1TI:PCBM devices is limited by the absence of a significant driving force for electron transfer. Instead, blends based on P5TI and P6TI feature large polymer domains, which limit charge generation and thus Jsc. The best PV performance with a power conversion efficiency of up to 6.9% was achieved with devices based on P3TI, where a combination of favorable morphology and optimal interface energy level offset ensures efficient exciton separation and charge generation. The structure-property relationship demonstrated in this work is a valuable guideline for the design of high performance polymers with small energy losses during the charge generation process, allowing for the fabrication of efficient solar cells that combine a minimal loss in Voc with a high Jsc.
|
|
| 5. |
- Murthy, D H K, et al.
(författare)
-
Origin of Reduced Bimolecular Recombination in Blends of Conjugated Polymers and Fullerenes
- 2013
-
Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley-VCH Verlag. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 23:34, s. 4262-4268
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bimolecular charge carrier recombination in blends of a conjugated copolymer based on a thiophene and quinoxaline (TQ1) with a fullerene derivative ((6,6)-phenyl-C-71-butyric acidmethyl ester, PC71BM) is studied by two complementary techniques. TRMC (time-resolved microwave conductance) monitors the conductance of photogenerated mobile charge carriers locally on a timescale of nanoseconds, while using photo-CELIV (charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage) charge carrier dynamics are monitored on a macroscopic scale and over tens of microseconds. Despite these significant differences in the length and time scales, both techniques show a reduced Langevin recombination with a prefactor close to 0.05. For TQ1:PC71BM blends, the value is independent of temperature. On comparing TRMC data with electroluminescence measurements it is concluded that the encounter complex and the charge transfer state have very similar energetic properties. The value for annealed poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):(6,6)-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) is approximately 10(-4), while for blend systems containing an amorphous polymer values are close to 1. These large differences can be related to the extent of charge delocalization of opposite charges in an encounter complex. Insight is provided into factors governing the bimolecular recombination process, which forms a major loss mechanism limiting the efficiency of polymer solar cells.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Tang, Zheng, et al.
(författare)
-
Semi-Transparent Tandem Organic Solar Cells with 90% Internal Quantum Efficiency
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley. - 1614-6840 .- 1614-6832. ; 2:12, s. 1467-1476
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Semi-transparent (ST) organic solar cells with potential application as power generating windows are studied. The main challenge is to find proper transparent electrodes with desired electrical and optical properties. In this work, this is addressed by employing an amphiphilic conjugated polymer PFPA-1 modified ITO coated glass substrate as the ohmic electron-collecting cathode and PEDOT:PSS PH1000 as the hole-collecting anode. For active layers based on different donor polymers, considerably lower reflection and parasitic absorption are found in the ST solar cells as compared to solar cells in the standard geometry with an ITO/PEDOT:PSS anode and a LiF/Al cathode. The ST solar cells have remarkably high internal quantum efficiency at short circuit condition (similar to 90%) and high transmittance (similar to 50%). Hence, efficient ST tandem solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to a single ST solar cell can be constructed by connecting the stacked two ST sub-cells in parallel. The total loss of photons by reflection, parasitic absorption and transmission in the ST tandem solar cell can be smaller than the loss in a standard solar cell based on the same active materials. We demonstrate this by stacking five separately prepared ST cells on top of each other, to obtain a higher photocurrent than in an optimized standard solar cell.
|
|
| 8. |
- Vandewal, Koen, et al.
(författare)
-
Quantification of Quantum Efficiency and Energy Losses in Low Bandgap Polymer:Fullerene Solar Cells with High Open-Circuit Voltage
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley-VCH Verlag Berlin. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 22:16, s. 3480-3490
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In organic solar cells based on polymer:fullerene blends, energy is lost due to electron transfer from polymer to fullerene. Minimizing the difference between the energy of the polymer exciton (ED*) and the energy of the charge transfer state (ECT) will optimize the open-circuit voltage (Voc). In this work, this energy loss ED*-ECT is measured directly via Fourier-transform photocurrent spectroscopy and electroluminescence measurements. Polymer:fullerene photovoltaic devices comprising two different isoindigo containing polymers: P3TI and PTI-1, are studied. Even though the chemical structures and the optical gaps of P3TI and PTI-1 are similar (1.4 eV1.5 eV), the optimized photovoltaic devices show large differences in Voc and internal quantum efficiency (IQE). For P3TI:PC71BM blends a ED*-ECT of similar to 0.1 eV, a Voc of 0.7 V and an IQE of 87% are found. For PTI-1:PC61BM blends an absence of sub-gap charge transfer absorption and emission bands is found, indicating almost no energy loss in the electron transfer step. Hence a higher Voc of 0.92 V, but low IQE of 45% is obtained. Morphological studies and field dependent photoluminescence quenching indicate that the lower IQE for the PTI-1 system is not due to a too coarse morphology, but is related to interfacial energetics. Losses between ECT and qVoc due to radiative and non-radiative recombination are quantified for both material systems, indicating that for the PTI-1:PC61BM material system, Voc can only be increased by decreasing the non-radiative recombination pathways. This work demonstrates the possibility of obtaining modestly high IQE values for material systems with a small energy offset (andlt;0.1 eV) and a high Voc.
|
|
| 9. |
- Yang, Fan, et al.
(författare)
-
Performance limitations in thieno[3,4-c] pyrrole4,6-dione-based polymer: ITIC solar cells
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 19:35, s. 23990-23998
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report a systematic study of the efficiency limitations of non-fullerene organic solar cells that exhibit a small energy loss (E-loss) between the polymer donor and the non-fullerene acceptor. To clarify the impact of Eloss on the performance of the solar cells, three thieno[3,4-c] pyrrole-4,6-dione-based conjugated polymers (PTPD3T, PTPD2T, and PTPDBDT) are employed as the electron donor, which all have complementary absorption spectra compared with the ITIC acceptor. The corresponding photovoltaic devices show that low Eloss (0.54 eV) in PTPDBDT: ITIC leads to a high open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 1.05 V, but also to a small quantum efficiency, and in turn photocurrent. The high Voc or small energy loss in the PTPDBDT-based solar cells is a consequence of less non-radiative recombination, whereas the low quantum efficiency is attributed to the unfavorable micro-phase separation, as confirmed by the steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence experiments, grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, and resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS) measurements. We conclude that to achieve high performance non-fullerene solar cells, it is essential to realize a large Voc with small Eloss while simultaneously maintaining a high quantum efficiency by manipulating the molecular interaction in the bulk-heterojunction.
|
|
| 10. |
- Zhen, Hongyu, et al.
(författare)
-
Inverted indium-tin-oxide-free cone-shaped polymer solar cells for light trapping
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Applied Physics Letters. - : American Institute of Physics (AIP). - 0003-6951 .- 1077-3118. ; 100:21, s. 213901-
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Based on the flexibility of polymer film, cone-shaped polymer solar cells (PSCs) are fabricated and studied. Effective light trapping is achieved due to multi-absorption in all 360 degrees directions. Monte Carlo ray tracing is used to simulate the absorption of cone-shaped PSCs with two variables: wavelength and half cone angle. With an inverted indium-tin-oxide-free device structure, a 43% enhanced light utilization without loss of material utilization is realized in the cone-shaped PSCs with a half cone angle of 45 degrees, compared with the planar PSCs.
|
|
