Gold nanorod enhanced organic photovoltaics: The importance of morphology effects

Wadams, Robert C.; Yen, Chun Wan; Butcher, Dennis P.; Koerner, Hilmar; Durstock, Michael F.; Fabris, Laura; Tabor, Christopher E.

doi:10.1016/j.orgel.2014.03.039

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Despite this enhancement in PSCs, the influence of the nanorods on PSCs has not been explored in sufficient detail. In a recent paper by Wadam et al [21], it was shown that the PCE enhancement mechanism in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): fullerene BHJ cells incorporated with Au nanorods was not due to plasmonic effects but rather by a favorable modification of the BHJ nano-morphology by the nanorods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The two different geometries of NPs, namely nanorod and nanosphere were examined and the geometry effect on SM devices were studied by comparing total light scattering and the quality factor for LSPR. In addition, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and surface morphology measurements at the optimized Au-silica nanorod concentration were conducted to verify that the SM BHJ structure does not change with the Au-silica nanorods unlike P3HT system [21]. The experimental results confirm that for the p-DTS(FBTTh 2 ) 2 :PC 70 BM system, light scattering and LSPR effect rather than morphology of the BHJ layer contribute to the enhancement of PCE in plasmonic SM device.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of gold-silica nanoparticles on the performance of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells

Kyaw

Peng

et al. 2015

Organic Electronics

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a b s t r a c tLight trapping by gold (Au)-silica nanospheres and nanorods embedded in the active layer of small-molecule (SM) organic solar cell has been systematically compared. Nanorod significantly outperforms nanosphere because of more light scattering and higher quality factor for localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) triggered by nanorods. The optimum concentration of nanorod was characterized by charge carrier transport and morphology of the active layers. At optimum nanorod concentration, almost no change in the morphology of the active layer reveals that LSPR and scattering effects rather than the morphology are mainly responsible for the enhanced power conversion efficiency. In addition, the preliminary lifetime studies of the SM solar cells with and without Au-silica nanorods were conducted by measuring the current density-voltage characteristics over 20 days. The results show that plasmonic device with nanorods has no adverse impact on the device stability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of gold-silica nanoparticles on the performance of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells

Kyaw

Peng

et al. 2015

Organic Electronics

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“…We have previously demonstrated coupling between excitons in conjugated polymers and surface plasmons arising from metasurfaces [ 43 , 44 ], nanoparticle-on-mirror [ 45 ], and semiconductor-metal-insulator waveguide [ 46 ] geometries. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that when plasmonic nanostructures are embedded into broadband, conjugated polymer-fullerene photovoltaic absorber layers that the largest absorption enhancements occur at wavelengths slightly red-shifted from the absorption edge of the absorber (i.e., at the “red-edge”) [ 43 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. This red-edge absorption enhancement occurs frequently for a wide range of different plasmonic-enhanced conjugated polymer photovoltaics, which suggests the pervasive presence of plasmon–exciton coupling, where the long wavelength plasmon–exciton hybrid mode leads to the strongest absorption enhancement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong Plasmon–Exciton Coupling in Ag Nanoparticle—Conjugated Polymer Core-Shell Hybrid Nanostructures

2020

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Strong plasmon–exciton coupling between tightly-bound excitons in organic molecular semiconductors and surface plasmons in metal nanostructures has been studied extensively for a number of technical applications, including low-threshold lasing and room-temperature Bose-Einstein condensates. Typically, excitons with narrow resonances, such as J-aggregates, are employed to achieve strong plasmon–exciton coupling. However, J-aggregates have limited applications for optoelectronic devices compared with organic conjugated polymers. Here, using numerical and analytical calculations, we demonstrate that strong plasmon–exciton coupling can be achieved for Ag-conjugated polymer core-shell nanostructures, despite the broad spectral linewidth of conjugated polymers. We show that strong plasmon–exciton coupling can be achieved through the use of thick shells, large oscillator strengths, and multiple vibronic resonances characteristic of typical conjugated polymers, and that Rabi splitting energies of over 1000 meV can be obtained using realistic material dispersive relative permittivity parameters. The results presented herein give insight into the mechanisms of plasmon–exciton coupling when broadband excitonic materials featuring strong vibrational–electronic coupling are employed and are relevant to organic optoelectronic devices and hybrid metal–organic photonic nanostructures.

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“…Selection and the distribution of NPs within OSCs play very important roles in determining the performance of PCE 22 . Aiming for exploiting the plasmonic effect, NPs should be introduced into the active layer [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] or at least at the buffer/active interface [50][51][52][53][54][55] . There have been many existing endeavors of doping NPs into the buffer layer (hole transport or electron transport layer) [32][33][34][35] or at the electrode/buffer interface [36][37][38] , but the large distance between the plasmonic elements and the active material alleviate the enhancement effect in photon-to-exciton generation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been many existing endeavors of doping NPs into the buffer layer (hole transport or electron transport layer) [32][33][34][35] or at the electrode/buffer interface [36][37][38] , but the large distance between the plasmonic elements and the active material alleviate the enhancement effect in photon-to-exciton generation. A series of core-shell plasmonic NPs, like silica-coated Ag (Ag@SiO 2 ) nanospheres 45 , silica-coated Au (Au@SiO 2 ) nanospheres 46 or nanorods (NRs) 47 , et al 48 , were introduced in the active layer of OSCs, all of which displayed significant enhancement in PCEs. At an early stage, there was a debate about whether bare plasmonic NPs in contact with the active materials would deteriorate the cell performance 43,44,54 or improve it [39][40][41] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency enhancement in organic solar cells by incorporating silica-coated gold nanorods at the buffer/active interface

et al. 2015

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The performance of organic solar cells (OSCs) can be greatly improved by incorporating silica-coated gold nanorods (Au@SiO 2 NRs) at the interface between the hole transporting layer and the active layer due to the plasmonic effect. The silica shell impedes the aggregation effect of the Au NRs in ethanol solution which otherwise would bring forward serious reduction in the open circuit voltage when incorporating the Au NRs at the buffer/active interface. As a result, while the high open circuit voltage being demonstrated, the optimized plasmonic OSCs possess an increased short circuit current, and correspondingly an elevated power conversion efficiency with the enhancement factor of ~11%. The origin of performance improvement in OSCs with the Au@SiO 2 NRs was analyzed systematically using morphological, electrical, optical characterizations along with theoretical simulation. It is found that the broadband enhancement in absorption, which yields the broadband enhancement in exciton generation in the active layer, is the major factor contributing to the increase in the short circuit current density. Simulation results suggest that the excitation of the transverse and longitudinal surface plasmon resonances of individual NRs as well as their mutual coupling can generate strong electric field near the vicinity of the NRs, thereby an improved exciton generation profile in the active layer. The incorporation of Au@SiO 2 NRs at the buffer/active interface also improves hole extraction in the OSCs, resulting in an increase in the open circuit voltage along with a decrease in the series resistance.

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Gold nanorod enhanced organic photovoltaics: The importance of morphology effects

Cited by 27 publications

References 45 publications

Influence of gold-silica nanoparticles on the performance of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells

Influence of gold-silica nanoparticles on the performance of small-molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells

Strong Plasmon–Exciton Coupling in Ag Nanoparticle—Conjugated Polymer Core-Shell Hybrid Nanostructures

Efficiency enhancement in organic solar cells by incorporating silica-coated gold nanorods at the buffer/active interface

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