Abstract
Polymer photovoltaics (PV) offer the advantage of low-cost, mass-produced, flexible PV films, but they generally suffer from a low-power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to silicon. This paper studies ITO/PEDOT:PSS/bulk heterojunction/Al PV cells, where two different bulk heterojunction blends are researched: P3HT/PC61BM and PCDTBT/PC70BM. The addition of multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNT) is explored as a conductive network to accelerate the electron transport and extraction to the outer aluminium current collector while reducing the chance of charge recombinations. Several layer deposition techniques are investigated: spin coating and casting, as well as techniques that would induce transverse orientation of polymer grains, including inkjet printing, electrophoresis and the application of a transverse AC field during annealing. Transverse orientation techniques produced architectures that would facilitate charge transport without recombinations, but it is recommended to avoid such techniques for the deposition of conductive PEDOT:PSS and CNT layers as they create a high surface roughness that leads to short circuiting. The best performing PV cell is the ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PCDTBT/PC70BM/CNT/Al structure with a PCE of 11%.
Highlights
Solar energy is a major renewable energy form, abundant on this planet, and can be harvested by static or moving user applications, including buildings, open spaces, land, air or sea transport vehicles
Plastic PV cells are light, flexible [4], easy to manufacture at a high volume and low cost, and have the potential to be used in a wide range of applications, such as laptops, to power LEDs, wearable electronics, be incorporated in textiles, and offer the potential of a large-scale, low-cost production of flexible, film-type solar cells for large energy conversion and storage systems in buildings, transport media and space applications
In the case of adding MWCNTs, the following procedure was performed: MWCNTs in NMP solution at a concentration of 0.14% w/v were deposited on aluminium foil using two alternative methods—casting from a 10 μL pipette or electrophoretic deposition to induce MWCNT orientation [34]; the polymer heterojunction blend was deposited on the MWCNT layer and, as a thin layer on the PEDOT:PSS/ITO-PET, and the two sides were quickly brought into contact before the heterojunction was completely dry
Summary
Solar energy is a major renewable energy form, abundant on this planet, and can be harvested by static or moving user applications, including buildings, open spaces, land, air or sea transport vehicles. A third method was applied, where the passive PEDOT:PSS layer was spin coated and the active bulk heterojunction blend was inkjet printed.
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