Inverted polymer solar cells with employing of electrochemical-anodizing synthesized TiO2 nanotubes

Abstract

An inverted structure of polymer solar cells based on Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT):[6-6] Phenyl-(6) butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) with using thin films of TiO2 nanotubes and nanoparticles as an efficient cathode buffer layer is developed. A total of three cells employing TiO2 thin films with different thickness values are fabricated. Two cells use layers of TiO2 nanotubes prepared via self-organized electrochemical-anodizing leading to thickness values of 203 and 423.7 nm, while the other cell uses only a simple sol–gel synthesized TiO2 thin film of nanoparticles with a thickness of 100 nm as electron transport layer. Experimental results demonstrate that TiO2 nanotubes with these thickness values are inefficient as the power conversion efficiency of the cell using 100-nm TiO2 thin film is 1.55%, which is more than the best power conversion efficiency of other cells. This can be a result of the weakness of the electrochemical anodizing method to grow nanotubes with lower thickness values. In fact as the TiO2 nanotubes grow in length the series resistance (Rs) between the active polymer layer and electron transport layer increases, meanwhile the fill factor of cells falls dramatically which finally downgrades the power conversion efficiency of the cells as the fill factor falls.