Interfacial Engineering Importance of Bilayered ZnO Cathode Buffer on the Photovoltaic Performance of Inverted Organic Solar Cells

被引:37
作者
Ambade, Rohan B. [1 ]
Ambade, Swapnil B. [1 ]
Mane, Rajaram S. [2 ]
Lee, Soo-Hyoung [1 ]
机构
[1] Chonbuk Natl Univ, Sch Semicond & Chem Engn, Jeonju 561756, Jeonbuk, South Korea
[2] Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada Univ, Ctr Nanomat & Energy Devices, Vishnupuri 431606, Nanded, India
基金
新加坡国家研究基金会;
关键词
inverted organic solar cells; cathode buffer layer; ZnO sol-gel/nanorods; bilayer; morphology; interfacial engineering; ELECTRON-TRANSPORT LAYER; OPTICAL-PROPERTIES; TITANIUM-OXIDE; EFFICIENT; FILMS; NANORODS; NANOSTRUCTURES; IMPROVEMENT; DEPOSITION; NETWORK;
D O I
10.1021/am509125c
中图分类号
TB3 [工程材料学];
学科分类号
0805 ; 080502 ;
摘要
The role of cathode buffer layer (CBL) is crucial in determining the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs). The hallmarks of a promising CBL include high transparency, ideal energy levels, and tendency to offer good interfacial contact with the organic bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) layers. Zinc oxide (ZnO), with its ability to form numerous morphologies in juxtaposition to its excellent electron affinity, solution processability, and good transparency is an ideal CBL material for IOSCs. Technically, when CBL is sandwiched between the BHJ active layer and the indium-tin-oxide (ITO) cathode, it performs two functions, namely, electron collection from the photoactive layer that is effectively carried out by morphologies like nanoparticles or nanoridges obtained by ZnO sol-gel (ZnO SG) method through an accumulation of individual nanoparticles and, second, transport of collected electrons toward the cathode, which is more effectively manifested by one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures like ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs). This work presents the use of bilayered ZnO CBL in IOSCs of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/[6, 6]-phenyl-C60-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) to overcome the limitations offered by a conventionally used single layer CBL. We found that the PCE of IOSCs with an appropriate bilayer CBL comprising of ZnO NRs/ZnO SG is similar to 18.21% higher than those containing ZnO SG/ZnO NRs. We believe that, in bilayer ZnO NRs/ZnO SG, ZnO SG collects electrons effectively from photoactive layer while ZnO NRs transport them further to ITO resulting significant increase in the photocurrent to achieve highest PCE of 3.70%. The enhancement in performance was obtained through improved interfacial engineering, enhanced electrical properties, and reduced surface/bulk defects in bilayer ZnO NRs/ZnO SG. This study demonstrates that the novel bilayer ZnO CBL approach of electron collection/transport would overcome crucial interfacial recombination issues and contribute in enhancing PCE of IOSCs.
引用
收藏
页码:7951 / 7960
页数:10
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