scholarly journals Optimization of Sb2S3 Nanocrystal Concentrations in P3HT: PCBM Layers to Improve the Performance of Polymer Solar Cells

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2152
Author(s):  
E. M. Mkawi ◽  
Y. Al-Hadeethi ◽  
R. S. Bazuhair ◽  
A. S. Yousef ◽  
E. Shalaan ◽  
...  

In this study, polymer solar cells were synthesized by adding Sb2S3 nanocrystals (NCs) to thin blended films with polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric-acid-methyl-ester (PCBM) as the p-type material prepared via the spin-coating method. The purpose of this study is to investigate the dependence of polymer solar cells’ performance on the concentration of Sb2S3 nanocrystals. The effect of the Sb2S3 nanocrystal concentrations (0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04 mg/mL) in the polymer’s active layer was determined using different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) displayed doped ratio dependences of P3HT crystallite orientations of P3HT crystallites inside a block polymer film. Introducing Sb2S3 NCs increased the light harvesting and regulated the energy levels, improving the electronic parameters. Considerable photoluminescence quenching was observed due to additional excited electron pathways through the Sb2S3 NCs. A UV–visible absorption spectra measurement showed the relationship between the optoelectronic properties and improved surface morphology, and this enhancement was detected by a red shift in the absorption spectrum. The absorber layer’s doping concentration played a definitive role in improving the device’s performance. Using a 0.04 mg/mL doping concentration, a solar cell device with a glass /ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT-PCBM: Sb2S3:NC/MoO3/Ag structure achieved a maximum power conversion efficiency of 2.72%. These Sb2S3 NCs obtained by solvothermal fabrication blended with a P3HT: PCBM polymer, would pave the way for a more effective design of organic photovoltaic devices.

2020 ◽  
Vol 02 (03) ◽  
pp. 214-222
Author(s):  
Bin Liu ◽  
Huiliang Sun ◽  
Chang Woo Koh ◽  
Mengyao Su ◽  
Bao Tu ◽  
...  

Compared with p-type terpolymers, less effort has been devoted to n-type analogs. Herein, we synthesized a series of n-type terpolymers via incorporating three electron-deficient third components including thienopyrroledione (TPD), phthalimide, and benzothiadiazole into an imide-functionalized parent n-type copolymer to tune optoelectronic properties without sacrificing the n-type characteristics. Due to effects of the third components with different electron-accepting ability and solubility, the resulting three polymers feature distinct energy levels and crystallinity. In addition, heteroatoms (S, O, and N) attached on the third components trigger intramolecular noncovalent interactions, which can increase molecule planarity and have a significant effect on the packing structures of the polymer films. As a result, the best power conversion efficiency of 8.28% was achieved from all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) based on n-type terpolymer containing TPD. This is contributed by promoted electron mobility and face-on polymer packing, showing the pronounced advantages of the TPD used as a third component for thriving efficient n-type terpolymers. The generality is also successfully validated in a benchmark polymer donor/acceptor system by introducing TPD into the benchmark n-type polymer N2200. The results demonstrate the feasibility of introducing suitable electron-deficient building blocks as the third components for high-performance n-type terpolymers toward efficient all-PSCs.


Author(s):  
Gabriela Lewinska ◽  
Jerzy Sanetra ◽  
Konstanty W. Marszalek

AbstractAmong many chemical compounds synthesized for third-generation photovoltaic applications, quinoline derivatives have recently gained popularity. This work reviews the latest developments in the quinoline derivatives (metal complexes) for applications in the photovoltaic cells. Their properties for photovoltaic applications are detailed: absorption spectra, energy levels, and other achievements presented by the authors. We have also outlined various methods for testing the compounds for application. Finally, we present the implementation of quinoline derivatives in photovoltaic cells. Their architecture and design are described, and also, the performance for polymer solar cells and dye-synthesized solar cells was highlighted. We have described their performance and characteristics. We have also pointed out other, non-photovoltaic applications for quinoline derivatives. It has been demonstrated and described that quinoline derivatives are good materials for the emission layer of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and are also used in transistors. The compounds are also being considered as materials for biomedical applications.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Funeka Matebese ◽  
Raymond Taziwa ◽  
Dorcas Mutukwa

P-type wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as CuI, NiO, Cu2O and CuSCN are currently undergoing intense research as viable alternative hole transport materials (HTMs) to the spiro-OMeTAD in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Despite 23.3% efficiency of PSCs, there are still a number of issues in addition to the toxicology of Pb such as instability and high-cost of the current HTM that needs to be urgently addressed. To that end, copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) HTMs in addition to robustness have high stability, high hole mobility, and suitable energy levels as compared to spiro-OMeTAD HTM. CuSCN HTM layer use affordable materials, require short synthesis routes, require simple synthetic techniques such as spin-coating and doctor-blading, thus offer a viable way of developing cost-effective PSCs. HTMs play a vital role in PSCs as they can enhance the performance of a device by reducing charge recombination processes. In this review paper, we report on the current progress of CuSCN HTMs that have been reported to date in PSCs. CuSCN HTMs have shown enhanced stability when exposed to weather elements as the solar devices retained their initial efficiency by a greater percentage. The efficiency reported to date is greater than 20% and has a potential of increasing, as well as maintaining thermal stability.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (45) ◽  
pp. 5468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengling Zhang ◽  
Johan Bijleveld ◽  
Erik Perzon ◽  
Kristofer Tvingstedt ◽  
Sophie Barrau ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 1087-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hengtao Zhao ◽  
Yinqi Luo ◽  
Linlin Liu ◽  
Zengqi Xie ◽  
Yuguang Ma

Asymmetric perylene bisimide enables a thick photoconductive cathode interlayer (100 nm), even the doping concentration is varied from 0.5 wt% to 5 wt%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Du ◽  
Ke Hu ◽  
Jinyuan Zhang ◽  
Lei Meng ◽  
Jiling Yue ◽  
...  

AbstractAll-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs) based on polymerized small molecular acceptors (PSMAs) have made significant progress recently. Here, we synthesize two A-DA’D-A small molecule acceptor based PSMAs of PS-Se with benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole A’-core and PN-Se with benzotriazole A’-core, for the studies of the effect of molecular structure on the photovoltaic performance of the PSMAs. The two PSMAs possess broad absorption with PN-Se showing more red-shifted absorption than PS-Se and suitable electronic energy levels for the application as polymer acceptors in the all-PSCs with PBDB-T as polymer donor. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy visualizes the aggregation behavior of the PBDB-T donor and the PSMA in their solutions. In addition, a bicontinuous-interpenetrating network in the PBDB-T:PN-Se blend film with aggregation size of 10~20 nm is clearly observed by the photoinduced force microscopy. The desirable morphology of the PBDB-T:PN-Se active layer leads its all-PSC showing higher power conversion efficiency of 16.16%.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (18) ◽  
pp. 4101
Author(s):  
Siyang Liu ◽  
Shuwang Yi ◽  
Peiling Qing ◽  
Weijun Li ◽  
Bin Gu ◽  
...  

The novel and appropriate molecular design for polymer donors are playing an important role in realizing high-efficiency and high stable polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this work, four conjugated polymers (PIDT-O, PIDTT-O, PIDT-S and PIDTT-S) with indacenodithiophene (IDT) and indacenodithieno [3,2-b]thiophene (IDTT) as the donor units, and alkoxy-substituted benzoxadiazole and benzothiadiazole derivatives as the acceptor units have been designed and synthesized. Taking advantages of the molecular engineering on polymer backbones, these four polymers showed differently photophysical and photovoltaic properties. They exhibited wide optical bandgaps of 1.88, 1.87, 1.89 and 1.91 eV and quite impressive hole mobilities of 6.01 × 10−4, 7.72 × 10−4, 1.83 × 10−3, and 1.29 × 10−3 cm2 V−1 s−1 for PIDT-O, PIDTT-O, PIDT-S and PIDTT-S, respectively. Through the photovoltaic test via using PIDT-O, PIDTT-O, PIDT-S and PIDTT-S as donor materials and [6,6]-phenyl-C-71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as acceptor materials, all the PSCs presented the high open circuit voltages (Vocs) over 0.85 V, whereas the PIDT-S and PIDTT-S based devices showed higher power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 5.09% and 4.43%, respectively. Interestingly, the solvent vapor annealing (SVA) treatment on active layers could improve the fill factors (FFs) extensively for these four polymers. For PIDT-S and PIDTT-S, the SVA process improved the FFs exceeding 71%, and ultimately the PCEs were increased to 6.05%, and 6.12%, respectively. Therefore, this kind of wide band-gap polymers are potentially candidates as efficient electron-donating materials for constructing high-performance PSCs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Cheng ◽  
Rong Hu ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Chengxi Zhang ◽  
Zhou Xie ◽  
...  

A novel ultrasonic spray pyrolysis for high-quality ZnO films based on zinc-ammonia solution was achieved in air. To investigate the structural and optical properties as well as the performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs), ZnO films at different substrate temperatures and thicknesses were prepared. The performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) based PSC was found to be improved due to the ZnO films. The crystal structure and roughness of the ZnO films fabricated at different temperatures were found to affect the performance of PSCs. The optimized power conversion efficiency was found to be maximum for PSCs with ZnO films prepared at 200°C. The growth process of these ZnO films is very simple, cost-effective, and compatible for larger-scale PSC preparation. The precursor used for spray pyrolysis is environmentally friendly and helps to achieve ZnO film preparation at a relative low temperature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (28) ◽  
pp. 13644-13651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Xiao ◽  
Fei Wu ◽  
MengMeng Han ◽  
Zhen Li ◽  
LinNa Zhu ◽  
...  

A new squaraine-based 2D conjugated polymer was developed as the donor material in polymer solar cells and dopant-free hole transporting material in inverted perovskite solar cells, reaching efficiencies of 6.35% and 18.29%, respectively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (17) ◽  
pp. 10505-10513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liangliang Han ◽  
Nergui Uranbileg ◽  
Shengshi Jiang ◽  
Yu Xie ◽  
Huanxiang Jiang ◽  
...  

A bulky cyclic side group admirably optimize the optical, electrochemical and crystalline characteristics of the donor polymers via its remarkable control on their polarities.


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