Mauro Morana

Highly efficient inverted organic photovoltaics using solution based titanium oxide as electron selective contact

The challenge to reversing the layer sequence of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is to prepare a selective contact bottom cathode and to achieve a suitable morphology for carrier collection in the inverted structure. The authors report the creation of an efficient electron selective bottom contact based on a solution-processed titanium oxide interfacial layer on the top of indium tin oxide. The use of o-xylene as a solvent creates an efficient carrier collection network with little vertical phase segregation, providing sufficient performance for both regular and inverted solar cells. The authors demonstrate inverted layer sequence OPVs with AM 1.5 calibrated power conversion efficiencies of over 3%.

Influence of the bridging atom on the performance of a low-bandgap bulk heterojunction solar cell.

Bulk heterojunction solar cells have attracted considerable attention over the past several years due to their potential for low-cost photovoltaic technology. The possibility of manufacturing modules via a standard printing/coating method in a roll-to-roll process in combination with the use of low-cost materials will lead to a watt-peak price of less than 1 US

Recombination Dynamics as a Key Determinant of Open Circuit Voltage in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Comparison of Four Different Donor Polymers

within the next few years. [1] Despite the low-cost potential, the power conversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction devices is low compared to inorganic solar cells. Efficiencies in the range of 5‐6% have been certified at NREL and AIST usually on devices with small active areas. [2] The current understanding of bulk heterojunction solar cells suggests that the maximum efficiency is in the range of 10‐12%. [3] Several reasons for the power conversion efficiency limitation have been identified. [1] Some of the prerequisites for achieving highest efficiencies are donor and acceptor materials with optimized energy levels [highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO)], efficient charge transport in the donor‐acceptor blend, efficient charge generation and limited recombination losses. Power conversion efficiency is strongly dependent on charge transport and charge generation, which are dominated by the phase behavior of the donor and acceptor molecules. The resulting, and often unfavorable, nanomorphology of this two-component blend limits the power conversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction solar cells. Precise control of the nanomorphology is very difficult and has been achieved only for a few systems. [4‐6] The relation between the chemical structure of donor and acceptor materials and the nanomorphology that they form when they are blended is currently not well understood, and as will be shown in this paper, minor changes in the chemical structure can cause major changes in the performance of the materials in organic solar cells. In this work we demonstrate the effect of replacing a carbon atom with a silicon atom on the main chain of the conjugated polymer. The approach has been used previously, and promising materials for field-effect transistors and organic solar cells have been demonstrated. [7‐9] We find that making this simple substitution in poly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4b 0 ]-dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] (PCPDTBT) yields a polysilole, e.g., poly[(4,4 0 -bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2b:2 0 ,3 0 -d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(4,7-bis(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-5,5 0 -diyl] (Si-PCPDTBT), with a higher crystallinity, improved charge transport properties, reduced bimolecular recombination, and a reduced formation of charge transfer complexes when blended with a fullerene derivative. This silole-based polymer is found to form a highly functional nanomorphology when blended with [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (C70-PCBM), and solar cells prepared using this blend gave efficiencies of 5.2%, certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. [1] The presented polymer is the first low-bandgap semiconducting polymer to have a certified efficiency of over 5%. The chemical structure of the subject polymer is shown in Figure 1. The material was synthesized following the procedure described previously. [10] The synthesis and properties of the carbon-bridged polymer have been described before. [11,12] Figure 2a shows the absorbance and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of a thin solid film of the pristine Si-bridged polymer and

Enhanced dissociation of charge-transfer states in narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed with 1,8-octanedithiol

[*] Prof. J. R. Durrant, Mr. A. Maurano, Dr. R. Hamilton, Dr. C. G. Shuttle, Dr. B. O’Regan, Dr. W. Zhang, Prof. I. McCulloch Departments of Chemistry, Imperial College London South Kensington SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom) E-mail: j.durrant@imperial.ac.uk Dr. A. M. Ballantyne, Prof. J. Nelson Departments of Physics, Imperial College London South Kensington SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom) Dr. H. Azimi, Dr. M. Morana, Prof. C. J. Brabec Konarka Austria, Altenbergerstrasse 69 A-4040 Linz (Austria) Dr. H. Azimi Christian Doppler Laboratory for Surface Optics Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria)

Design Rules for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

The improved photovoltaic performance of narrow band gap polymer:fullerene solar cells processed from solutions containing small amounts of 1,8-octanedithiol is analyzed by modeling of the experimental photocurrent. In contrast to devices that are spin coated from pristine chlorobenzene, these cells do not produce a recombination-limited photocurrent. Modeling of the experimental data reveals that a sixfold reduction in the decay rate of photogenerated bound electron-hole pairs can account for the marked increase in short-circuit current density and fill factor. At short-circuit conditions, the dissociation probability of bound pairs is found to increase from 48% to 70%.

Processible Cyclopentadithiophene Copolymers for Photovoltaic Applications

There has been an intensive search for cost-effective photovoltaics since the development of the first solar cells in the 1950s [1-3]. Among all the alternative technologies to silicon-based pn-junction solar cells, organic solar cells are the approach that could lead to the most significant cost reduction [4]. The field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) is composed of organic/inorganic nanostructures, like the dyesensitized solar cell, multilayers of small organic molecules and mixtures of organic materials (bulk-heterojunction solar cell). A review of several so-called organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies was recently presented [5].

Alternative device concepts for future requirements of organic photovoltaic cells

We designed and synthesized a series of conjugated polymers containing alternating 4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b:3,4-b′]dithiophene units and comonomers consisting of 2,2′-bithiophene, 3″, 4″ -dihexyl-α -pentathiophene, 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene and 5,5′ -bis(2-thienyl)-4,4′ -dihexyl-2,2′ -bithiazole. These polymers possess optical bandgaps in the range of 1.75 to 2.0 eV. The desirable absorption attributes of these materials make then excellent candidates for use in photovoltaic cells. Electrochemical studies indicate desirable HOMO-LUMO levels for use with fullerene derivatives as electron transporters. Field effect transistors made of these materials show hole mobilities in the range of 7.5 × 10−4 cm2/Vs to 2.0 × 10−3 cm2/Vs. Due to the combination of these characteristics, power conversion efficiencies up to 3.1% were achieved on devices made of bulk heterojunction composites of these materials with soluble fullerene derivatives.

High Photovoltaic Performance of a Low‐Bandgap Polymer

The challenge to reversing the layer sequence of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) is to prepare a selective contact bottom cathode and to achieve a suitable morphology for carrier collection in the inverted structure. We report the creation of an efficient electron selective bottom contact based on a solution-processed Titania layer on top of Indium Tin Oxide. The use of o-xylene as the casting solvent creates an efficient carrier collection network with little vertical phase segregation, providing sufficient performance for both regular as well as inverted solar cells. We demonstrate inverted layer sequence OPVs with AM 1.5-calibrated power conversion efficiencies of over 3%.