scholarly journals Optimization and Development of ITO-Free Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles  Assisted Inverted Organic Solar Cells

Author(s):  
Vishal Gupta ◽  
Anju Srivast ◽  
Reena Jain ◽  
Vijay Kumar Sharma ◽  
Lalit Kumar

Abstract This paper focuses on the fabrication of an ITO-free plasmonic assisted inverted organic solar cell (OSC) constituting aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) as front cathode and ultraviolet (UV) filtering layer. The gold nanoflowers are introduced in the device to increase the efficiency using localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) shown by plasmonic nanoparticles. We used GPVDM software to first optimize the cell, based on the geometry AZO/ZnO/PTB7:PC71BM/MoO3/Ag where AZO acts as the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) cathode and UV filter, zinc oxide (ZnO) behaves as the electron transport layer (ETL), Thieno[3,4 b]thiophene-alt-benzodithiophene: [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PTB7: PC71BM) mixture as the active layer, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) as the hole transport layer (HTL) and silver (Ag) serves as the anode layer. By modelling, we find that the optimized device with maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) includes 10 nm thick HTL, 200 nm thick photoactive layer and ETL thickness of 30 nm. Using the optimized thicknesses, we have fabricated three structurally identical inverted OSCs: first having AZO as the front cathode (AZO based device); second with ITO as the front cathode (ITO based control device); third includes AZO as cathode and plasmonic gold nanoflowers embedded inside the active layer (plasmonic assisted AZO based device). The AZO based device exhibited the PCE value of 6.19%, slightly less than the efficiency of 6.83% for ITO based control device. However, a remarkable increase in the lifetime was achieved for AZO based device under UV assisted acceleration ageing test. The stability enhancement of AZO based device is because of the UV filtering properties of AZO which prevent degradation in the device due to UV exposure. Also, the PCE of AZO based device was further enhanced to 7.01% when plasmonic gold nanoparticles were included in the active layer. This work provides a feasible way to develop an ITO free plasmonic assisted inverted organic solar cell to achieve cost-effectiveness, high efficiency and stability.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh Duc Tran ◽  
Nguyen Dinh Lam

Background: The active layer not only must have a strong light absorption in the visible spectrum, but must also be sufficient for charge carrier transport to the electrodes. Electrons in conducting polymer transport by hopping between different energy levels, resulted in much lower charge mobility. Therefore, the thickness of active layer must be limited so the separated charge can reach the corresponding electrodes without recombination. However, thin active layer has weaker light absorption, resulting in the low photogenerated current in organic solar cell devices. Furthermore, buffer layers usually have high charge mobility, which in turn would enhance the transportation of charge from the active layer to electrodes. Metal oxides have been studied to be used as cathode buffer layer such as titanium dioxide (TiO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), etc. Objective: In this work, behaviors of the photon-electrical characteristics with variation in thickness of the active (poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester blend) and buffer (zinc oxide) layers were investigated. Method: The influences of the thickness of the active and buffer layers on characteristic parameters of organic solar cells were investigated by solving the drift and diffusion equation with the photogenerated current given by Hetch equation. Results: The optimum thickness was obtained around 100 nm and below 10 nm for the active and the ZnO buffer layers, respectively. Conclusion: Thinner active layer resulted in lower photocurrent due to poor light absorption while at 150 nm thick and above, PCE of the device reduced rapidly because of high recombination rate of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. ZnO buffer layer was used as an electron transport layer and a hole blocking layer in order to improve the cell’s performance. The addition of ZnO enhanced the PCE up to 2.48 times higher than conventional device.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  

The efficiency of MASnI3 based solar cell with various hole transport material (HTM) layers including Spiro-OMeTAD, PEDOT:Pss, and Cu2O is studied. Zinc oxide (ZnO) layer is proposed as electron transport layer for lead-free CH3NH3SnI3 based Perovskite solar cells. The influence of device parameters such as doping level of the active layer, thickness of the CH3NH3SnI3 layer and working temperature is discussed. For optimum parameters of all three structures, efficiency of 24.17%, 24.50%, and 25.36% for PEDOT:Pss, Spiro-OMeTAD, and Cu2O, respectively is achieved. To study the optimized performance of this Perovskite solar cell, SCAPS-1D software is considered.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-347
Author(s):  
K. Bhavsar ◽  
◽  
P.B. Lapsiwala ◽  

Perovskite solar cells have become a hot topic in the solar energy device area due to high efficiency and low cost photovoltaic technology. However, their function is limited by expensive hole transport material (HTM) and high temperature process electron transport material (ETM) layer is common device structure. Numerical simulation is a crucial technique in deeply understanding the operational mechanisms of solar cells and structure optimization for different devices. In this paper, device modelling for different perovskite solar cell has been performed for different ETM layer, namely: TiO2, ZnO, SnO2, PCBM (phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester), CdZnS, C60, IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide), WS2 and CdS and effect of band gap upon the power conversion efficiency of device as well as effect of absorber thickness have been examined. The SCAPS 1D (Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator) has been a tool used for numerical simulation of these devices.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong In Kim ◽  
Ji Won Lee ◽  
Rak Hyun Jeong ◽  
Jin-Hyo Boo

AbstractOver the past number of years, the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells has remained at 25.5%, reflecting a respectable result for the general incorporation of organometallic trihalide perovskite solar cells. However, perovskite solar cells still suffer from long-term stability issues. Perovskite decomposes upon exposure to moisture, thermal, and UV-A light. Studies related to this context have remained ongoing. Recently, research was mainly conducted on the stability of perovskite against non-radiative recombination. This study improved a critical instability in perovskite solar cells arising from non-radiative recombination and UV-A light using a passivation layer. The passivation layer comprised a polyaniline (PANI) polymer as an interfacial modifier inserted between the active layer and the electron transport layer. Accordingly, the UV-A light did not reach the active layer and confined the Pb2+ ions at PANI passivation layer. This study optimized the perovskite solar cells by controlling the concentration, thickness and drying conditions of the PANI passivation layer. As a result, the efficiency of the perovskite solar cell was achieved 15.1% and showed over 84% maintain in efficiency in the ambient air for one month using the 65 nm PANI passivation layer.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lung-Chien Chen ◽  
Ching-Ho Tien ◽  
Zong-Liang Tseng ◽  
Jun-Hao Ruan

We describe a method to enhance power conversion efficiency (PCE) of MAPbI3 perovskite solar cell by inserting a FAPbX3 perovskite quantum dots (QD-FAPbX3) layer. The MAPbI3 and QD-FAPbX3 layers were prepared using a simple, rapid spin-coating method in a nitrogen-filled glove box. The solar cell structure consists of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MAPbI3/QD-FAPbX3/C60/Ag, where PEDOT:PSS, MAPbI3, QD-FAPbX3, and C60 were used as the hole transport layer, light-absorbing layer, absorption enhance layer, and electron transport layer, respectively. The MAPbI3/QD-FAPbX3 solar cells exhibit a PCE of 7.59%, an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.9 V, a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 17.4 mA/cm2, and a fill factor (FF) of 48.6%, respectively.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-63
Author(s):  
Naman Shukla ◽  
Dharamlal Prajapati ◽  
Sanjay Tiwari

Perovskite solar cells fabricated with inexpensive and simple technology exhibits high efficiency has witnessed worldwide boom in research. The optimization of solar cell can be done through modeling and simulation. The optical and electrical modeling are the ways to optimize different parameter such as thickness, defect density, doping density and material selection for fabricating stable and highly efficient perovskite solar cells. In this research work, electrical modeling of solar cell is done throughSolar Cell Capacitance Simulator(SCAPS-1D).The architecture of the solar cell is n-i-p device structure. CH3NH3PbI3-xClx acts as light absorber active layer, TiO2 as electron transport layer and Spiro-OMeTADas hole transport layer with device structure FTO/ TiO2/ CH3NH3PbI3-xClx/ Spiro-OMeTAD/Au. The open circuit voltage Voc, short circuit current density Isc, fill factor and power conversion efficiency are 1.28 V, 21.63 mA/cm2, 0.78 and 21.53% respectively. The result showed that the optimize parameter can be applied for fabrication of the solar cell experimentally. Various metal contact materials of the anodeare also studied and analyzed.


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