Influence of small-molecule material on performance of polymer solar cells based on MEH-PPV:PCBM blend

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/19/11/118601

Abstract In this work, the influence of a small-molecule material, tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq₃), on bulk heterojunction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) is investigated in devices based on the blend of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) and [6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). By doping Alq₃ into MEH-PPV:PCBM solution, the number of MEH-PPV excitons can be effectively increased due to the energy transfer from Alq₃ to MEH-PPV, which probably induces the increase of photocurrent generated by excitons dissociation. However, the low carrier mobility of Alq₃ is detrimental to the efficient charge transport, thereby blocking the charge collection by the respective electrodes. The balance between photon absorption and charge transport in the active layer plays a key role in the performance of PSCs. For the case of 5 wt.% Alq₃ doping, the device performance is deteriorated rather than improved as compared with that of the undoped device. On the other hand, we adopt Alq₃ as a buffer layer instead of commonly used LiF. All the photovoltaic parameters are improved, yielding an 80% increase in power conversion efficiency (PCE) at the optimum thickness (1 nm) as compared with that of the device without any buffer layer. Even for the 5 wt.% Alq₃ doped device, the PCE has a slight enhancement compared with that of the standard device after modification with 1 nm (or 2 nm) thermally evaporated Alq₃. The performance deterioration of Alq₃-doped devices can be explained by the low solubility of Alq₃, which probably deteriorates the bicontinuous D-A network morphology; while the performance improvement of the devices with Alq_3 as a buffer layer is attributed to the increased light harvesting, as well as blocking the hole leakage from MEH-PPV to the aluminum (Al) electrode due to the lower highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of Alq₃ compared with that of MEH-PPV.

Keywords: bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells Alq₃ doping buffer layer

Received: 12 April 2010
Revised: 21 May 2010
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	73.50.Dn	(Low-field transport and mobility; piezoresistance)
	73.50.Pz	(Photoconduction and photovoltaic effects)
	73.61.Ph	(Polymers; organic compounds)
	84.60.Jt	(Photoelectric conversion)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 60978060, 10804006, 10974013 and 10774013), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, China (Grant Nos. 20090009110027 and 20070004024), the Research Fund for the Youth Scholars of the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, China (Grant No. 20070004031), the Beijing Nova Program (Grant No. 2007A024)), the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 1102028), the National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar (Grant No. 60825407), the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (Grant No. Z090803044009001), and the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2010CB327705).

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Liu Xiao-Dong(刘晓东), Xu Zheng(徐征), Zhang Fu-Jun(张福俊), Zhao Su-Ling(赵谡玲), Zhang Tian-Hui(张天慧), Gong Wei(龚伟), Song Jing-Lu (宋晶路), Kong Chao(孔超), Yan Guang(闫光), and Xu Xu-Rong(徐叙瑢) Influence of small-molecule material on performance of polymer solar cells based on MEH-PPV:PCBM blend 2010 Chin. Phys. B 19 118601

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Influence of small-molecule material on performance of polymer solar cells based on MEH-PPV:PCBM blend

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