Solution Processed Vanadium Pentoxide as Charge Extraction Layer for Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Organic solar cells (OSCs) based on polymers and small molecules have seen a tremendous increase in interest during the past few years. Signifi cant progress in this fi eld seeded the prospect for a cost-effective and easy-to-fabricate photovoltaic technology—typical advantages claimed for organic (opto-)electronic devices. Very recently, certifi ed cell effi ciencies in excess of 7% have been reported for polymer based cells. [ 1 ] For large-scale and high-throughput production of OSCs, liquid processing of the functional layers is desirable. Aside from the active organic layers, inter-layers are typically required to facilitate the extraction of the photo-generated charges. Specifi cally, on the anode side, polyethylene dioxythiophene:polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is regularly used. [ 2 ] However, PEDOT:PSS is burdened with structural and electrical inhomogeneity [ 3,4 ] and has been demonstrated to be an origin of limited device lifetime. [ 5 ] Particularly, the aqueous PEDOT:PSS dispersion and the acidic nature can cause substantial degradation. [6,7 ] Very recently, transition metal-oxides (TMOs) such as molybdenum-, vanadium-, or tungsten-oxide (MoO 3 , V 2 O 5 , and WO 3 ) with high work functions (WFs) of up to 6.9 eV have been shown to be promising alternatives to PEDOT:PSS. [ 8‐11 ] TMOs have also been used as constituents of the connecting architecture in stacked organic light-emitting diodes and organic tandem solar cells. [ 12‐15 ] The unique energetics of these TMOs has so far been predominantly