Issue 35, 2021

An underestimated photoactive area in organic solar cells based on a ZnO interlayer

Abstract

Solution-processed ZnO is commonly used as a charge-selective interlayer between an absorber and electrode in organic solar cells. In this work, the impact of the resistance of the sol–gel grown ZnO interlayer on solar cell performance is investigated. We find that the UV-induced doping effect leads to a significantly reduced ZnO resistance, which gives rise to an underestimated photoactive area and thus overestimated short-circuit current density (Jsc) for the solar cell measured without an aperture. Moreover, we show that this so far mostly overlooked issue can be unintentionally triggered during common fabrication and characterization processes, because the UV photons flux from a solar simulator, or from a light source for encapsulating the solar cell, are already sufficient in leading to the too much increased lateral conductivity of the ZnO. Finally, we demonstrate that interlayers with rather high sheet resistance can lead to an overestimation of Jsc (e.g. by 10% for a 10 MΩ per square interlayer in a 2 mm2 device). Therefore, the validity of the argument that high-resistance interlayers do not lead to overestimated Jsc should always be carefully evaluated.

Graphical abstract: An underestimated photoactive area in organic solar cells based on a ZnO interlayer

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 2月 2021
Accepted
26 3月 2021
First published
29 3月 2021

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021,9, 11753-11760

An underestimated photoactive area in organic solar cells based on a ZnO interlayer

Z. Chen, J. Wang, H. Jin, J. Yang, Q. Bao, Z. Ma, W. Tress and Z. Tang, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2021, 9, 11753 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC00745A

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