Hybrid Solar Cells Using a Zinc Oxide Precursor and a Conjugated Polymer

Abstract

We describe a new method towards bulk‐heterojunction hybrid polymer solar cells based on composite films of zinc oxide (ZnO) and a conjugated polymer poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(3′,7′‐dimethyloctyloxy)‐1,4‐phenylene vinylene] (MDMO‐PPV). Spin‐coating diethylzinc as a ZnO precursor and MDMO‐PPV from a common solvent at 40 % humidity and annealing at 110 °C provides films in which crystalline ZnO is found to be intimately mixed with MDMO‐PPV. Photoluminescence and photoinduced spectroscopy demonstrate that photoexcitation of these hybrid composite films results in a fast and long‐lived charge transfer from the polymer as a donor to ZnO as ato be obtained n acceptor. Using the ZnO‐precursor method, hybrid polymer solar cells have been made with an estimated air‐mass of 1.5 (AM 1.5) energy conversion efficiency of 1.1 %. This new method represents a fivefold improved performance compared to similar hybrid polymer solar cells based on amorphous TiO2.

Optical Properties of ZnO/ZnS and ZnO/ZnTe Heterostructures for Photovoltaic Applications

“…Unfortunately, the ZnO band gap (3.4 eV) is too large for use in efficient photovoltaic devices. 13 Nonetheless, this has not prevented numerous attempts to construct photovoltaics from this material, with schemes such as n-ZnO/p-CdTe thin film heterojunctions, 14,15 ZnO/CdSe composites, 16 n-ZnO/p-Cu 2 O heterojunctions, 17,18 n-ZnO/p-Si heterostructures, 19,20 ZnO-nanocrystal/organic-polymer hybrid photovoltaics, [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] and ZnO-nanocolumns as electrodes for dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells. 29 One idea to reduce the band gap of ZnO is to stack it with another environmentally benign and abundant material, such as ZnS.…”

P-type semiconductor surfactant modified zinc oxide nanorods for hybrid bulk heterojunction solar cells

“…Such hybrid nanomaterials combine the electronic properties of inorganic materials with the low-temperature solution processability of polymers [1]. Different inorganic nanoparticles such as TiO 2 [2][3][4], ZnO [5][6][7][8], PbS [9,10], CdS, CdSe or CdTe [11][12][13][14], and PbSSe [15] have been used as n-type semiconductor to produce hybrid bulk heterojunction solar cells with efficiencies up to 5.5%.…”

Photophysical Properties of Two New Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Copolymers and Their Model Compounds: Applications in Polymer Light Emitting Diodes (PLEDs) and Polymer Photovoltaic Cells (PPCs)

“…In this direction, greater efforts have been devoted to seek new possibilities for use in optoelectronic devices such as Polymer Light Emitting Diodes (PLEDs) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11], Polymer Photovoltaic Cells (PPCs) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] and Polymer Field Effect Transistors (PFET) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. The field of PLEDs is still an active research area since the first conjugated conducting or semiconducting polymeric material, poly(p-phenylene-vinylene) (PPV), was reported by Burroughes et al in 1990 [34].…”