Efficiency rise in PCDTBT:PC70BM organic solar cell using interface additive
Rashmi Swami, Rajesh Awasthi, Sanjay Tiwari
Low efficiency is one of the biggest problems with organic solar cell. In order to increase the efficiency of bulk hetero-junction organic solar cell we are using interface surfactant additive poly(oxyethylene tridecyl ether) (PTE) with blend photoactive layer. Here we are reporting on the enhanced photovoltaic (PV) effects by means of a polymer bulk-hetero-junction (BHJ) layer having PCDTBT as a low-band gap e’ donor/HTL polymer and PC70BM as an acceptor/ETL, doped with poly(oxyethylene tridecyl ether) (PTE) which is an interface surfactant additive. For PCDTBT:PC70BM OSC , we recorded 0.886 V open-circuit voltage (VOC), 11.7 mA/cm2 short-circuit current density (JSC), 47.3% fill factor (FF) and PCE of 4.9%. For PCDTBT:PCBM70:PTE organic solar cell, we recorded VOC of 0.904 V, higher values of JSC of 13.8 mA/cm2, FF of 48.2% and improved PCE of 6.0% for a PTE concentration of ca. 0.164 wt%. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) reaches to 6.0%, by the addition of PTE to a PCDTBT:PC70BM system which is much higher than a reference device not including the additive (4.9%). Increase in efficiency is because of the increase in lifetime of charge carrier, which is due to the existence of PTE molecules at the interfaces sandwiched between the BHJ photovoltaic active layer and the anode and cathode, in addition to the phase-separated BHJ domains interfaces.
Keywords
Organic Solar Cell, PCDTBT, PCBM, PTE, IPCE, Bulk Hetero-junction
Published online 8/2/2017, 8 pages
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21741/9781945291371-9
Part of Recent Advances in Photovoltaics
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