Efficiency enhancement for bulk-heterojunction hybrid solar cells based on acid treated CdSe quantum dots and low bandgap polymer PCPDTBT

Optical Property and Photoelectrical Performance of a Low-bandgap Conducting Polymer Incorporated with Quantum Dots Used for Organic Solar Cells

“…The absorbance of the PQ1 and PQ2 samples is stronger than the one of the pure PCPDTBT. Similar results obtained for P3HT incorporated with CdSe-QDs were reported in [8] and were explained due to the forming of the QDs/conducting polymer blend (Fig. 5).…”

“…Recently, a novel low-bandgap polythiophene-benzothiadiazole copolymer, poly-2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b ]dithio-phene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole), abbreviated to PCPDTBT has been produced and commercialized. A slightly different value of the bandgap of PCPDTBT was reported as E g = 1.46 eV [7] or 1.40 eV [8]. This E g is much lower than that of the above-mentioned polymers.…”

“…1. The molecular structure (a) and schema of the bandgap of PCPDTBT (b) [8] The reason why the efficiency of an organic solar cell until now is still low is usually attributed to the strong decay of the excitons which are generated in the donors/acceptors junctions owing to the illumination of solar radiation. The exciton decay can be diminished by the creation of either appropriate heterojunctions or nanocomposites.…”

“…It has been known that by embedding inorganic nanocrystalline oxides like TiO 2 nanoparticles (nc-TiO 2 ) into polymer matrices, one can enhance the efficiency and service duration of the organic devices. The embedded oxides can substantially influence both the electrical and optical properties of the polymer, for instance MEH-PPV + nc-TiO 2 composite thin films were studied as a photoactive material [8][9]. Thomas et al [10] and Liu [11] gave reviews on the recent progress on hybrid/composite photovoltaic systems of inorganic semiconductors and organic conducting polymers.…”

Device and morphological engineering of organic solar cells for enhanced charge transport and photovoltaic performance

“…Most common polymers used in BHJ solar cells, including MEH-PPV, [20][21][22][23] poly[2-methoxy-5-(3′,7′-dimethyl-octyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene], [24][25][26][27][28] P3HT, [29][30][31][32][33] PDPP3T, 34,35 and poly (cyclopentadithiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole), 36 are reported to form phase separated donoracceptor blends with fullerene derivatives, such as PC 60 BM and PC 70 BM. The optimization of the polymer-fullerene blend is based on tuning the electronic properties and interactions of the donor and acceptor components, which will generate large numbers of free charge carriers without significant loss.…”