Azomethine naphthalene diimides as component of active layers in bulk heterojunction solar cells

Abstract

This communication presents the preliminary investigations of the activity of azomethine naphthalene diimides in organic solar cell. This study explores the photovoltaic properties of four azomethine naphthalene diimides in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells under an illumination of 17mW/cm2. Organic solar cells in the configuration of indium tin oxide/poly(3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/active layer/aluminum (ITO/PEDOS:PSS/active layers/Al) were constructed. Three kinds of devices which differ in the composition of active layer were fabricated. In the first type of device the active layer contains of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) with the azomethine naphthalene diimide, whereas, in the second type active layer consists of blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) with the azomethine naphthalene diimide. The third type of device comprises of active layer containing P3HT and PCBM with azomethine naphthalene diimides. Compound end-capped with ethylenedioxythiophene units showed the highest value of power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.50%, being superior to the device based on P3HT and PCBM for which PCE of 3.88% was measured. To the best of our knowledge, first time the device based on azomethine naphthalene diimide exhibited such high value of power conversion efficiency.