High‐Performance Metal‐Free Solar Cells Using Stamp Transfer Printed Vapor Phase Polymerized Poly(3,4‐Ethylenedioxythiophene) Top Anodes

Abstract

The use of vapor phase polymerized poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (VPP‐PEDOT) as a metal‐replacement top anode for inverted solar cells is reported. Devices with both i) standard bulk heterojunction blends of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) donor and 1‐(3‐methoxycarbonyl)‐propyl‐1‐phenyl‐(6,6)C60 (PCBM) soluble fullerene acceptor and ii) hybrid inorganic/organic TiO2/P3HT acceptor/donor active layers are studied. Stamp transfer printing methods are used to deposit both the VPP‐PEDOT top anode and a work function enhancing PEDOT:polystyrenesulphonate (PEDOT:PSS) interlayer. The metal‐free devices perform comparably to conventional devices with an evaporated metal top anode, yielding power conversion efficiencies of 3% for bulk heterojunction blend and 0.6% for organic/inorganic hybrid structures. These encouraging results suggest that stamp transfer printed VPP‐PEDOT provides a useful addition to the electrode materials tool‐box available for low temperature and non‐vacuum solar cell fabrication.

Random Terpolymer Designed with Tunable Fluorescence Lifetime for Efficient Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

“…[2][3][4] Up to now, despite the developments of HSCs in recent years, their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are still low, mostly ranging from 1% to 3%. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Previously, many attempts have been devoted to narrow band gap polymers for the enhanced light harvest. 11,12 However, these demonstrations usually result in a low photoexcited carrier transfer efficiency, because suitable polymeric materials that have long lifetimes of the high lying excited state are not well deployed.…”

Influence of energetic disorder on electroluminescence emission in polymer:fullerene solar cells

“…[4][5][6][7] Just like classical thin film solar cells such as, e.g., amorphous silicon, 8,9 these materials are generally disordered, low mobility semiconductors. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] In these materials, disorder creates localized states or traps that have a strong effect on transport and likely also on nonradiative recombination.…”

Efficient organic solar cells using copper(I) iodide (CuI) hole transport layers

“…11 It is also acidic, causing corrosion of the ITO anode 12 and not very effective as an electron blocking material. 13 In an effort to address some/all of these issues, a range of alternative HTL materials have been investigated, including PSS-free vapor phase polymerized PEDOT, 14,15 graphene oxide, 16 22 It exhibits three crystalline phases, namely, a, b, and c, 23 of which the c-CuI zinc blende structure (cubic), known to form at deposition temperatures below 390 C, is the most interesting for our purpose. c-CuI is a ptype, wide-bandgap ($3.1 eV) 24 semiconductor and, due to its optical transparency and favourable Fermi level energy, has previously been used as a HTL in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells.…”