Enhancement of hole mobility in hybrid titanium dioxide/poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanocomposites by employing an oligothiophene dye as an interface modifier

Prashanthan, Karunanantharajah; Thivakarasarma, T.; Ravirajan, Punniamoorthy; Planells, Miquel; Robertson, Neil; Nelson, Jenny

doi:10.1039/c7tc02225e

Cited by 12 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…A metal-oxide nanoparticle (TiO 2 , ZnO) percolation network with thickness in the submicron scale provides a stable and transparent backbone network for free carrier transport in this type of solar cells [2]. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of these hybrid devices is limited due to several reasons, including interfacial carrier recombination [3,4] at the interface, poor mobilities in the metal-oxide polymer nanocomposite, and poor spectral response of the polymer [5,6,7,8]. Typically, the nanoporous metal oxides are the electron acceptors and the π-conjugated polymers are the donors [9,10,11] in hybrid metal-oxide polymer solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The electron transfer from a donor into an acceptor produces a large proportion of charge carrier pairs across the donor/acceptor interface. In that situation, the Coulombic attraction of these bound charge carrier pairs limit the device performance by feeding the recombination effects at the interface [8,12,13,14]. It has been shown that engineering the metal-oxide polymer interface can improve the PCE of hybrid solar cells [12,15,16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Quarterthiophene-Based Dye as an Efficient Interface Modifier for Hybrid Titanium Dioxide/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) Solar Cells

et al. 2019

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This work focused on studying the influence of dyes, including a thiophene derivative dye with a cyanoacrylic acid group ((E)-2-cyano-3-(3′,3′′,3′′′-trihexyl-[2,2′:5′,2′′:5′′,2′′′- quaterthiophene]-5-yl) acrylicacid)(4T), on the photovoltaic performance of titanium dioxide (TiO2)/poly(3-hexyl thiophene)(P3HT) solar cells. The insertion of dye at the interface improved the efficiency regardless of the dye used. However, 4T dye significantly improved the efficiency by a factor of three when compared to the corresponding control. This improvement is mainly due to an increase in short circuit current density (JSC), which is consistent with higher hole-mobility reported in TiO2/P3HT nanocomposite with 4T dye. Optical absorption data further revealed that 4T extended the spectral response of the TiO2/P3HT nanocomposite, which could also enhance the JSC. The reduced dark current upon dye insertion ensured the carrier recombination was controlled at the interface. This, in turn, increased the open circuit voltage. An optimized hybrid TiO2/P3HT device with 4T dye as an interface modifier showed an average efficiency of over 2% under-simulated irradiation of 100 mWcm−2 (1 sun) with an Air Mass 1.5 filter.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Quarterthiophene-Based Dye as an Efficient Interface Modifier for Hybrid Titanium Dioxide/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) Solar Cells

et al. 2019

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“…6,14,15 In this study, we bound a series of oligothiophene dyes to ZnO NCs through a cyanoacrylate anchoring group ( Figure 1) and measured their excited state electron transfer rates using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. Compounds 3T and 4T are known to be effective interface modifiers in dye-sensitized solar cells, 6,16 and 5T itself has been demonstrated an effective dye for solar cells. 17,18 This series of compounds is of particular interest because, despite large differences in their absorption spectra, the energies of the LUMOs, which are primarily localized on the cyanoacrylate moiety and the adjacent thiophene ring, of 2T, 3T, 4T and 5T were reported to be similar.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of extending conjugation via thiophene-based oligomers on the excited state electron transfer rates to ZnO nanocrystals

Oehrlein

Sánchez-Díaz

Goff

et al. 2019

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.

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“…TiO 2 thin film on the ITO substrate was fabricated by simple spray pyrolysis as reported earlier [26,27]. The precursor solution for the spray was prepared as follows.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer/Fullerene Blend Solar Cells with Cadmium Sulfide Thin Film as an Alternative Hole-Blocking Layer

et al. 2019

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In this work, chemical bath-deposited cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films were employed as an alternative hole-blocking layer for inverted poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) bulk heterojunction solar cells. CdS films were deposited by chemical bath deposition and their thicknesses were successfully controlled by tailoring the deposition time. The influence of the CdS layer thickness on the performance of P3HT:PCBM solar cells was systematically studied. The short circuit current densities and power conversion efficiencies of P3HT:PCBM solar cells strongly increased until the thickness of the CdS layer was increased to ~70 nm. This was attributed to the suppression of the interfacial charge recombination by the CdS layer, which is consistent with the lower dark current found with the increased CdS layer thickness. A further increase of the CdS layer thickness resulted in a lower short circuit current density due to strong absorption of the CdS layer as evidenced by UV-Vis optical studies. Both the fill factor and open circuit voltage of the solar cells with a CdS layer thickness less than ~50 nm were comparatively lower, and this could be attributed to the effect of pin holes in the CdS film, which reduces the series resistance and increases the charge recombination. Under AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW/cm2) conditions, the optimized PCBM:P3HT solar cells with a chemical bath deposited a CdS layer of thickness 70 nm and showed 50% power conversion efficiency enhancement, in comparison with similar solar cells with optimized dense TiO2 of 50 nm thickness prepared by spray pyrolysis.

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Enhancement of hole mobility in hybrid titanium dioxide/poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanocomposites by employing an oligothiophene dye as an interface modifier

Abstract: Hole-mobility in nanocrystalline TiO2/P3HT composites is increased by over an order of magnitude when the TiO2 surface is treated with a 3-hexylthiophene oligomer bearing a cyanoacrylic acid group (4T).

Cited by 12 publications

References 34 publications

A Quarterthiophene-Based Dye as an Efficient Interface Modifier for Hybrid Titanium Dioxide/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) Solar Cells

A Quarterthiophene-Based Dye as an Efficient Interface Modifier for Hybrid Titanium Dioxide/Poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) Solar Cells

Effect of extending conjugation via thiophene-based oligomers on the excited state electron transfer rates to ZnO nanocrystals

Polymer/Fullerene Blend Solar Cells with Cadmium Sulfide Thin Film as an Alternative Hole-Blocking Layer

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