Effects of annealing rate and morphology of sol–gel derived ZnO on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/22/11/118801

Abstract The effects of annealing rate and morphology of sol–gel derived zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells (IPSCs) are investigated. ZnO films with different morphologies are prepared at different annealing rates and used as the electron transport layers in IPSCs. The undulating morphologies of ZnO films fabricated at annealing rates of 10 ℃/min and 3 ℃/min each possess a rougher surface than that of the ZnO film fabricated at a fast annealing rate of 50 ℃/min. The ZnO films are characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical transmittance measurements, and simulation. The results indicate that the ZnO film formed at 3 ℃/min possesses a good-quality contact area with the active layer. Combined with a moderate light-scattering, the resulting device shows a 16% improvement in power conversion efficiency compared with that of the rapidly annealed ZnO film device.

Keywords: polymer solar cells zinc oxide thin film morphology annealing

Received: 25 March 2013
Revised: 22 April 2013
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	88.40.jr	(Organic photovoltaics)
	77.55.hf	(ZnO)
	81.40.Ef	(Cold working, work hardening; annealing, post-deformation annealing, quenching, tempering recovery, and crystallization)

Fund: Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2011CBA00705, 2011CBA00706, and 2011CBA00707) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61377031).

Corresponding Authors: Zhang Jian-Jun
E-mail: jjzhang@nankai.edu.cn

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Yu Xuan (余璇), Hu Zi-Yang (胡子阳), Huang Zhen-Hua (黄振华), Yu Xiao-Ming (于晓明), Zhang Jian-Jun (张建军), Zhao Geng-Shen (赵庚申), Zhao Ying (赵颖) Effects of annealing rate and morphology of sol–gel derived ZnO on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells 2013 Chin. Phys. B 22 118801

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Effects of annealing rate and morphology of sol–gel derived ZnO on the performance of inverted polymer solar cells

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