Abstract:A morphologically-stable polymer/fullerene heterojunction has been prepared by minimizing the intermixing between polymer and fullerene via sequential deposition (SqD) of a polymer and a fullerene solution. A low crystalline conjugated polymer of PCPDTBT (poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta [2,1-b;3,4-b ]dithiophene)-alt-4,7(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)]) has been utilized for the polymer layer and PC 71 BM (phenyl-C 71 -butyric-acid-methyl ester) for the fullerene layer, respectively. Firstly, a nanostructured PCPDTBT bottom layer was developed by utilizing various additives to increase the surface area of the polymer film. The PC 71 BM solution was prepared by dissolving it in the 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE), exhibiting a lower vapor pressure and slower diffusion into the polymer layer. The deposition of the PC 71 BM solution on the nanostructured PCPDTBT layer forms an inter-digitated bulk heterojunction (ID-BHJ) with minimized intermixing. The organic photovoltaic (OPV) device utilizing the ID-BHJ photoactive layer exhibits a highly reproducible solar cell performance. In spite of restricted intermixing between the PC 71 BM and the PCPDTBT, the efficiency of ID-BHJ OPVs (3.36%) is comparable to that of OPVs (3.87%) prepared by the conventional method (deposition of a blended solution of polymer:fullerene). The thermal stability of the ID-BHJ is superior to the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) prepared by the conventional method. The ID-BHJ OPV maintains 70% of its initial efficiency after thermal stress application for twelve days at 80 • C, whereas the conventional BHJ OPV maintains only 40% of its initial efficiency.

A ternary solvent system consisting of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), γ-butyrolactone (GBL) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) has been developed to improve the uniformity of CHNHPbI (MAPbI) perovskite domains. Compared to MAPbI perovskite films prepared using a binary solvent consisting of DMSO and GBL, the surface roughness and uniformity of MAPbI films fabricated by using the ternary solvent system are greatly improved. The thermogravimetric analysis reveals that a NMP-PbI-MAI intermediate, a DMSO-PbI-MAI intermediate and MAPbI crystals co-existed in the as-cast MAPbI films. Furthermore, it is found that the thermal stability of intermediate phases and the solvent evaporation rate are critical for the nucleation of the perovskite crystals during the thermal annealing treatment. The thermally stable intermediates prepared with the ternary solvent are converted to MAPbI films with a highly uniform and smooth surface. The film forms an intimate contact with the charge transporting layer when the layer is applied as a photoactive layer in the solar cell. As a result, the power conversion efficiency of ternary solvent processed solar cells is enhanced by 38.2% compared to that of the binary solvent processed one. Furthermore, the stability of the ternary processed perovskite solar cells is greatly improved, as well. This investigation provides a better understanding about the role of different processing solvents or additives in effecting the perovskite film quality.

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Organic/silicon hybrid solar cells have great potential as low-cost, high-efficiency photovoltaic devices. The superior light trapping capability, mediated by the optical resonances, of the organic/silicon hybrid nanostructure-based cells enhances their optical performance. In this work, we fabricated Si nanopillar (NP) arrays coated with organic semiconductor, poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), layers. Experimental and calculated optical properties of the samples showed that Mie-resonance strongly concentrated incoming light in the NPs. Spatial mapping of surface photovoltage, i.e., changes in the surface potential under illumination, using Kelvin probe force microscopy enabled us to visualize the local behavior of the photogenerated carriers in our samples. Under red light, surface photovoltage was much larger (63 meV) on the top surface of a NP than on a planar sample (13 meV), which demonstrated that the confined light in the NPs produced numerous carriers within the NPs. Since the silicon NPs provide pathways for efficient carrier transportation, high collection probability of the photogenerated carriers near the NPs can be expected. This suggests that the optical resonance in organic/silicon hybrid nanostructures benefits not only broad-band light trapping but also efficient carrier collection.

A near infrared organic photodiode (OPD) utilizing a double electron blocking layer (EBL) fabricated by the sequential deposition of molybdenum (VI) oxide (MoO₃) and poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene-sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is reported. The double EBL improves the on/off current ratio of OPD up to 1.36 x 10⁴ at -1V, which is one order of magnitude higher than PEDOT:PSS single EBL (2.45 x 10³) and three orders of magnitude higher than that of MoO₃ single EBL (7.86). The detectivity at near infrared (800 nm) at -1V is 4.90 x 10¹¹ Jones, which is 2.83 times higher than the PEDOT:PSS single EBL and 2 magnitudes higher compared to the MoO₃ single EBL.