Issue 24, 2016

Improving the efficiency of polymer solar cells via a treatment of methanol : water on the active layers

Abstract

Significant improvement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of polymer solar cells (PSCs) has been observed when the active layer was treated with a mixture of methanol and water (M : W). For the PSCs based on ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PCDTBT:PC71BM/Al, the PCE was 6.58% when the surface of the PCDTBT:PC71BM film was treated with pure methanol. However M : W (6 : 1) treatment on the PCDTBT:PC71BM film could further improve the PCE to 7.44% which is even higher than the PCE values of the PSCs with LiF (6.00%) or PFN (6.88%) as a cathode interlayer. Similarly in the PSCs based on ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PTB7:PC71BM/LiF/Al, M : W (6 : 1) treatment on the surface of the PTB7:PC71BM film can increase the PCE to 8.47% while the PCE values of the PSCs with methanol treatment and without any treatment on the PTB7:PC71BM film are 8.14% and 7.41%, respectively. Combined contact angle measurements and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy depth profiling demonstrated that the M : W treatments resulted in a more favorable redistribution of the polymer and PC71BM in the active layer because evaporation of the solvents drove PC71BM to migrate from the interior of the blend film to the top (air) surface.

Graphical abstract: Improving the efficiency of polymer solar cells via a treatment of methanol : water on the active layers

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 May 2016
Accepted
25 May 2016
First published
26 May 2016

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 9644-9652

Improving the efficiency of polymer solar cells via a treatment of methanol : water on the active layers

B. Guo, W. Zhou, M. Wu, J. Lv, C. Yu, F. Li and Z. Hu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 9644 DOI: 10.1039/C6TA04026H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements