Efficient Polymer Solar Cells with Alcohol-Soluble Zirconium(IV) Isopropoxide Cathode Buffer Layer

Zhen Luo, Bo Yang, Yiming Bai, Tasawar Hayat, Ahmed Alsaedi and Zhan’ao Tan
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Zhen Luo: State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Bo Yang: State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Yiming Bai: State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Tasawar Hayat: Department of Mathematics, Quiad-I-Azam University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Ahmed Alsaedi: NAAM Research Group, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
Zhan’ao Tan: State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: Interfacial materials are essential to the performance and stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs). Herein, solution-processed zirconium(IV) isopropoxide (Zr[OCH(CH 3 ) 2 ] 4 , ZrIPO) has been employed as an efficient cathode buffer layer between the Al cathode and photoactive layer. The ZrIPO buffer layer is prepared simply via spin-coating its isopropanol solution on the photoactive layer at room temperature without any post-treatment. When using ZrIPO/Al instead of the traditionally used Ca/Al cathode in PSCs, the short-circuit current density ( J sc ) is significantly improved and the series resistance of the device is decreased. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the P3HT:PCBM-based device with ZrIPO buffer layer reaches 4.47% under the illumination of AM1.5G, 100 mW/cm 2 . A better performance with PCE of 8.07% is achieved when a low bandgap polymer PBDTBDD is selected as donor material. The results indicate that ZrIPO is a promising electron collection material as a substitute of the traditional low-work-function cathode for high performance PSCs.

Keywords: polymer solar cells; cathode buffer layer; zirconium(IV) isopropoxide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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