Abstract
This work focused on studying the influence of dyes, including a thiophene derivative dye with a cyanoacrylic acid group ((E)-2-cyano-3-(3′,3′′,3′′′-trihexyl-[2,2′:5′,2′′:5′′,2′′′- quaterthiophene]-5-yl) acrylicacid)(4T), on the photovoltaic performance of titanium dioxide (TiO2)/poly(3-hexyl thiophene)(P3HT) solar cells. The insertion of dye at the interface improved the efficiency regardless of the dye used. However, 4T dye significantly improved the efficiency by a factor of three when compared to the corresponding control. This improvement is mainly due to an increase in short circuit current density (JSC), which is consistent with higher hole-mobility reported in TiO2/P3HT nanocomposite with 4T dye. Optical absorption data further revealed that 4T extended the spectral response of the TiO2/P3HT nanocomposite, which could also enhance the JSC. The reduced dark current upon dye insertion ensured the carrier recombination was controlled at the interface. This, in turn, increased the open circuit voltage. An optimized hybrid TiO2/P3HT device with 4T dye as an interface modifier showed an average efficiency of over 2% under-simulated irradiation of 100 mWcm−2 (1 sun) with an Air Mass 1.5 filter.
Highlights
Hybrid nanoporous metal-oxide polymer photovoltaic devices have been intensively studied for more than two decades, as these devices offer potential advantages relative to organic acceptors, such as low cost, facile synthesis via wet chemical processing, control of heterojunction morphology, and the potential for higher physical and chemical stabilities [1]
Figure further shows that the spectrum in the visible region when compared to the metal-complex dyes, and the absorption polymer uptake and visible light absorption of the electrode treated with dye was much higher spectrum of the 4T dye compliments the polymer absorption in the visible region
It was found that the commercial dyes N719 and Z907 improved the performance of the solar cells by improving the hole-mobility of the polymer and by reducing the back-electron transfer at the interface
Summary
Hybrid nanoporous metal-oxide polymer photovoltaic devices have been intensively studied for more than two decades, as these devices offer potential advantages relative to organic acceptors, such as low cost, facile synthesis via wet chemical processing, control of heterojunction morphology, and the potential for higher physical and chemical stabilities [1]. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of these hybrid devices is limited due to several reasons, including interfacial carrier recombination [3,4] at the interface, poor mobilities in the metal-oxide polymer nanocomposite, and poor spectral response of the polymer [5,6,7,8]. The nanoporous metal oxides are the electron acceptors and the π-conjugated polymers are the donors [9,10,11] in hybrid metal-oxide polymer solar cells. The electron transfer from a donor into an acceptor produces a large proportion of charge carrier pairs across the donor/acceptor interface. The Coulombic attraction of these bound charge carrier pairs limit the device performance by feeding the recombination effects at the Polymers 2019, 11, 1752; doi:10.3390/polym11111752 www.mdpi.com/journal/polymers
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