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Role of proton conducting polyelectrolyte on the organic photovoltaics efficiency

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Abstract

Most of the efficient organic solar cells (OSC) often utilize reactive low-work-function metals like calcium and LiF as a buffer layer. Over a period of time, these types of buffer layer degrade, reacts and diffuses into electrode, photoactive layer. These type of changes results in reduction in efficiency and less lifetime of the OSC. This work demonstrated fabrication of OSC with ionic conducting non-conjugated polyelectrolytes polyethyleneimine (PEI) and perfluorinated ionomer (PFI) instead of conventional transport layer. PEI and PFI were used as a cathode and anode buffer, respectively, in the following device configuration ITO/PEI/P3HT:PC61BM/PFI/Ag. For various PFI thickness, OSC efficiency was optimized. The highest efficiency of 1.82% was obtained for 1:15 PFI ratio device, which was significant improvement than the reference device without PFI. The obtained results were analyzed and critical changes were discussed in this work.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP2024R373), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The authors would like to thank, IISC Bangalore-560012 Karnataka, India, for providing laboratory access. The authors would like to thank, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur-603203, Tamil Nadu, India, for providing the required infrastructure.

Funding

The authors declare that this work is partially supported by Science and Engineering Research Board, New Delhi, India. The grant number is SRG/2021/001690.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics & Nanotechnology, SRM Institute of Science & Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, 603203, India

    Dheebanathan Azhakanantham, Gurusriram Raghu & Arul Varman Kesavan

  2. Department of Physiology, Saveetha Dental College & Hospitals, SIMATS, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600077, India

    Muthamizh Selvamani

  3. Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Praveen C. Ramamurthy

  4. Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, 11421, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Asiful H. Seikh

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  1. Dheebanathan Azhakanantham
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  4. Praveen C. Ramamurthy
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Contributions

DA: Data curation; Formal analysis; Writing & Editing. GR: Data curation; writing. MS: Writing; Review & Editing. AVK: Conceptualization, methodology, Formal analysis; Writing, Reviewing & Editing, Investigation. PCR: Conceptualization; Resources; Funding acquisition; review & editing; Project administration; Supervision. ASH: Review and Edited original manuscript.

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Correspondence to Praveen C. Ramamurthy or Arul Varman Kesavan.

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Azhakanantham, D., Raghu, G., Selvamani, M. et al. Role of proton conducting polyelectrolyte on the organic photovoltaics efficiency. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 776 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12547-y

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