Low temperature efficient interconnecting layer for tandem polymer solar cells

Mitul, Abu Farzan; Mohammad, Lal; Venkatesan, Swaminathan; Adhikari, Nirmal; Sigdel, Sudhan; Wang, Qi; Dubey, Ashish; Khatiwada, Devendra; Qiao, Qiquan

doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2014.09.026

Cited by 38 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In fact, tin oxide proved to be resistant against the acidity of the commercial formulation of PEDOT:PSS (Al 4083), while zinc oxide layers are washed away. Mitul et al implemented solution‐processed aluminum‐doped zinc oxide (AZO) in a PEDOT:PSS/AZO/PEIE ICL . Thermal annealing at 150 °C was required to form AZO from its precursor.…”

Section: Tandem Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

2018

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Single-junction solar cells are principally limited in performance by two factors (Figure 1a). Electrons excited by photons with energy higher than the bandgap relax to the band edges, releasing surplus energy as heat (thermalization loss). Photons with energy lower than the bandgap are not absorbed (transmission loss). These losses can be alleviated with two or more absorber layers. The first layer should feature a wide bandgap material to reduce the thermalization loss for high-energy photons. The second layer should have a lower bandgap to absorb the low-energy photons that pass the first layer. In such configuration a tandem cell provides less thermalization and less transmission losses than each of the corresponding single-junction cells. In the detailed-balance limit, a double-junction (tandem) cell can reach an efficiency of 42% and a triple-junction cell 49%. [6] To construct a tandem cell, the two complementary absorber layers must be stacked optically and electrically ( Figure 1b). The interconnecting layer (ICL) between the two subcells must pass light and sustain the photocurrent by providing an optically transparent electrical contact for recombination of electrons and holes from the adjacent photoactive layers. The Fermi level of the hole-transporting layer (HTL) and the electron-transporting layer (ETL) that jointly form the ICL must match the relevant highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels in the adjacent photoactive layers (Figure 1b). The ICL should not cause voltage losses and have low resistance. The open-circuit voltage (V OC ) of the tandem solar cell is ideally the sum of the V OC s of the subcells and the photocurrent is limited by the subcell generating less current. To overcome the intrinsic performance limits of single-junction cells, the subcells should absorb complementary regions of the solar spectrum and generate equal photocurrent.In the first organic tandem solar cells, materials were thermally evaporated. Initially only metal clusters were used to interconnect the subcells, [7][8][9] later complemented by p-and n-doped organic transport layers. [10,11] In 2007, the first fully solution-processed tandem polymer solar cells were reported by Gilot et al. [12] and Kim et al. [13] In both examples the ICL featured a layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as HTL, stacked on top of either a zinc oxide or a titanium oxide layer as ETL. Kim et al. achieved a PCE of 6.5%. Since then PCEs have steadily increased. Major improvements involved the use of more efficient photoactive blends that afford a high V OC relative to their optical bandgap The efficiency of organic solar cells can benefit from multijunction device architectures, in which energy losses are substantially reduced. Herein, recent developments in the field of solution-processed multijunction organic solar cells are described. Recently, various strategies have been investigated and implemented to improve the performance of these device...

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Section: Tandem Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

2018

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“…The n-type metal oxide nanoparticles, such as zinc oxide (ZnO), [81,82,206] titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), [33,140,154,207] and tin oxide (SnO 2 ), [77] are prepared by hydrothermal methods and dispersed in polar organic solvents. The surface defects of ZnO and aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) can be modified by self-assembled monolayer (C 60 -SAM) with anchoring groups, [155] and polymer electrolytes of poly(9,9 0 -bis(6 00 -N,N,N-trimethylammoniumhexyl) fluorene-co-alt-phenylene) dibromide (FPQ-Br), [89] polyethylenimine (PEI), [69,115] partially ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE), [108,138,164] etc. PEDOT:PSS can be dispersed in water and has poor wettability on hydrophobic surface of active layers.…”

Section: The Icls For Tandem Oscsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances Toward Highly Efficient Tandem Organic Solar Cells

Peng

2020

Small Structures

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Organic solar cells (OSCs) have attracted considerable attentions and have witnessed rapid progress from the aspects of material design, device engineering, and device physics. Tandem OSCs stacking more than one single-junction device in series or parallel connection are developed to diminish the thermalization and/ or transmission losses for improving the device performances. The optical managements by developing new photoactive materials, using high-conductive semitransparent interconnecting layers and smart device architectures are the key factors toward high-performance tandem OSCs. Herein, the recent advances in tandem OSCs are summarized from the aspects of photosensitive materials, interconnecting layers, and specific device structures. Finally, challenges and perspectives in the future development of tandem OSCs are also presented.

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“…Inaccuracies can arise if the chosen model fails to perfectly reproduce the experimental data. That is why, so far, only a single report discusses impedance data of organic tandem solar cells …”

Section: Impedance Spectroscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic tandem solar cells: How impedance analyses can improve the quality of external quantum efficiency measurements

Bahro

Wilck

Mertens

et al. 2018

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Tandem architectures are one of the most promising concepts towards superior power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells. An accurate determination of the power conversion efficiency requires correction of the spectral mismatch and thus relies on accurate external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra. Due to the series connection of 2 subcells in the tandem architecture, the EQE of the tandem solar cell reproduces the EQE of one subcell if an appropriate bias light is chosen to selectively illuminate and hence forward bias the other subcell. The resulting internal voltage drop is then compensated by applying an external voltage to the tandem solar cell.In this work, we use impedance spectroscopy to accurately predict the minimum bias light intensity and the external voltage to enable accurate EQE measurements on both subcells. We exemplify this procedure on organic tandem solar cells comprising spectrally complementary absorbers and suggest an extended protocol for future measurements of the EQE.

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Low temperature efficient interconnecting layer for tandem polymer solar cells

Cited by 38 publications

References 35 publications

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

Advances in Solution‐Processed Multijunction Organic Solar Cells

Recent Advances Toward Highly Efficient Tandem Organic Solar Cells

Organic tandem solar cells: How impedance analyses can improve the quality of external quantum efficiency measurements

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