Inverted organic solar cells with solvothermal synthesized vanadium-doped TiO2 thin films as efficient electron transport layer

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/26/9/097203

Abstract We investigated the effects of using different thicknesses of pure and vanadium-doped thin films of TiO₂ as the electron transport layer in the inverted configuration of organic photovoltaic cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) P3HT: [6-6] phenyl-(6) butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). 1% vanadium-doped TiO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized via the solvothermal method. Crystalline structure, morphology, and optical properties of pure and vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin films were studied by different techniques such as x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmittance electron microscopy, and UV-visible transmission spectrum. The doctor blade method which is compatible with roll-2-roll printing was used for deposition of pure and vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin films with thicknesses of 30 nm and 60 nm. The final results revealed that the best thickness of TiO₂ thin films for our fabricated cells was 30 nm. The cell with vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin film showed slightly higher power conversion efficiency and great J_sc of 10.7 mA/cm² compared with its pure counterpart. In the cells using 60 nm pure and vanadium-doped TiO₂ layers, the cell using the doped layer showed much higher efficiency. It is remarkable that the external quantum efficiency of vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin film was better in all wavelengths.

Keywords: inverted polymer solar cells electron transport layer vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin films solvothermal

Received: 12 March 2017
Revised: 13 May 2017
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	72.80.Le	(Polymers; organic compounds (including organic semiconductors))
	73.61.-r	(Electrical properties of specific thin films)
	73.22.-f	(Electronic structure of nanoscale materials and related systems)

Corresponding Authors: Mehdi Ahmadi
E-mail: m.ahmadi@vru.ac.ir

Cite this article:

Mehdi Ahmadi, Sajjad Rashidi Dafeh, Samaneh Ghazanfarpour, Mohammad Khanzadeh Inverted organic solar cells with solvothermal synthesized vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin films as efficient electron transport layer 2017 Chin. Phys. B 26 097203

[1]	N Yeh and Yeh P 2013 Renew. Sustainable Energy Rev. 21 421
[2]	Capasso A, Salamandra L, Chou A, Carlo A D and Motta N 2014 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 122 297
[3]	M A Ibrahem, h Y Wei, M H Tsai, K C Ho, J J Shyue and C W Chu 2013 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 108 156
[4]	Jin F 2013 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 117 189
[5]	Noh Y J, Na S I and Kim S S 2013 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 117 139
[6]	Sio A D, Chakanga K, Sergeev O, Maydell K V, Parisi J and Hauff E V 2012 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 98 52
[7]	Zhang B, Lee D H, Chae H, Park C and Cho S M 2010 Korean J. Chem. Eng. 27 999
[8]	Lee S B 2013 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 117 203
[9]	Ahmadi M, Mirabbaszadeh K, Salari S and Fatehy H 2014 Electron. Mater. Lett. 10 951
[10]	Hu Z, Zhang J and Zhu Y 2013 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 117 610
[11]	Mirabbaszadeh K, Ahmadi M, Khosravi M, Mokhtari R and Salari S 2013 J. Inorg. Organomet. Polym. 23 1219
[12]	Ahmadi M and Rashidi D S 2015 Chin. Phys. B 24 11723
[13]	Jiang Z L 2013 Sci. China. Chem. 56 1573
[14]	Harrison L R and Bruce H R 2007 J. Phys. Chem. C 111 18765
[15]	Wiranwetchayan O, Liang Z, Zhang Q, Cao G and Singjai P 2011 Mate. Sci. Appl. 2 1697
[16]	Brabec C J, Shaheen S E, Winder C, Sariciftci N S and Denk P 2002 Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 1288
[17]	Liao H H, Chen L M, Xu Z, Li G and Yang Y 2008 Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 17 3303
[18]	Lee Y I, Youn J H, Ryu M S, Kim J and Moon H T 2011 J. Jang. Org. Electron. 12 353
[19]	Zhao D W 2010 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 94 985
[20]	Jorgensen M, Norrman K and Krebs F C 2008 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 92 686
[21]	Schattauer S 2012 Colloid. Polym. Sci. 290 1843
[22]	Peng R, Yang F, Ouyang X, Liu Y, Kim Y S and Ge Z 2014 Appl. Phys. A 114 429
[23]	Lee J and Jho J Y 2011 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C 95 3152
[24]	Kim D 2014 Ceram. Int. 40 1457
[25]	Saehana S, Prasetyowati R, Hidayat M I, Arifin P, Khairurrijal and Abdullah M 2011 IJBAS 11 15
[26]	Quan W, Cheng C, Liu J, Zhang J, Yan D and Qin D 2011 Appl. Phys. A 104 47
[27]	Sio A D, Chakanga K, Sergeev O, Maydell K V, Parisi J and Hauff E V 2012 Sol Energ. Mat. Sol. C 98 52
[28]	Stubhan T, Oh H, Pinna L, Krantz J, Litzov I and Brabec C J 2011 Org. Electron. 12 1539
[29]	Ihn S G 2011 Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol. C. 95 1610
[30]	Pal E, Hornok V, Oszkoo A and Dekany I 2009 Colloid Surf. A 340 1
[31]	Fei H, Fang M, Tao L and Guangxing L 2013 Chin. J. Catal. 34 2263
[32]	Li L, Liu C Y and Liu Y 2009 Mater. Chem. Phys. 113 551
[33]	Liu Y 2010 ACS Nano 4 5373
[34]	Feng X, Shankar K, Paulose M and Grimes C A 2009 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 8095
[35]	Samanta P K, Basak S and Chaudhuri P R 2011 Inter. J. Nano Sci. 1 69
[36]	Asmar R A, Zaouk D, Bahouth P, Podleki J and Foucaran A 2006 Microelectron. Eng. 83 393
[37]	Salari S, Ahmadi M and Mirabbaszadeh K 2014 Electron. Mater. Lett. 10 13
[38]	J H Lee, K H Ko and B O Park 2003 J. Cryst. Growth. 247 119
[39]	Reddy K M, Manorama S V and Reddy A R 2002 Mater. Chem. Physics. 78 239
[40]	Brabec C j, Dyakonov V, Parisi J and Sariciftci N S 2003 Organic Photovoltaics: Concepts and Realization (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag Berlin)

[1]	TiO₂/SnO₂ electron transport double layers with ultrathin SnO₂ for efficient planar perovskite solar cells Can Li(李灿), Hongyu Xu(徐宏宇), Chongyang Zhi(郅冲阳), Zhi Wan(万志), and Zhen Li(李祯). Chin. Phys. B, 2022, 31(11): 118802.
[2]	Exciton emissions of CdS nanowire array fabricated on Cd foil by the solvothermal method Yong Li(李勇), Peng-Fei Ji(姬鹏飞), Ya-Juan Hao(郝亚娟), Yue-Li Song(宋月丽), Feng-Qun Zhou(周丰群), and Shu-Qing Yuan(袁书卿). Chin. Phys. B, 2021, 30(1): 016104.
[3]	TiO₂ composite electron transport layers for planar perovskite solar cells by mixed spray pyrolysis with precursor solution incorporating TiO₂ nanoparticles Jiaqi Tian(田嘉琪), Hongcui Li(李红翠), Haiyue Wang(王海月), Bo Zheng(郑博), Yebin Xue(薛叶斌), Xizhe Liu(刘喜哲). Chin. Phys. B, 2018, 27(1): 018810.
[4]	Inverted polymer solar cells with employing of electrochemical-anodizing synthesized TiO₂ nanotubes Mehdi Ahmadi, Sajjad Rashidi Dafeh, Hamed Fatehy. Chin. Phys. B, 2016, 25(4): 047201.
[5]	Photoactive area modification in bulk heterojunctionorganic solar cells using optimization of electrochemicallysynthesized ZnO nanorods Mehdi Ahmadi, Sajjad Rashidi Dafeh. Chin. Phys. B, 2015, 24(11): 117203.
[6]	n-type ZnS used as electron transport material in organic light-emitting diodes Du Peng (杜鹏), Zhang Xi-Qing (张希清), Sun Xue-Bai (孙学柏), Yao Zhi-Gang (姚志刚), Wang Yong-Sheng (王永生). Chin. Phys. B, 2006, 15(6): 1370-1373.

No Suggested Reading articles found!

Viewed

Full text

Abstract

Cited

Metrics
Related Articles

Inverted organic solar cells with solvothermal synthesized vanadium-doped TiO2 thin films as efficient electron transport layer

Cite this article:

Online attention

Inverted organic solar cells with solvothermal synthesized vanadium-doped TiO₂ thin films as efficient electron transport layer