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High-efficiency solution processable polymer photovoltaic cells by self-organization of polymer blends

Nature Materials volume 4, pages 864–868 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

Converting solar energy into electricity provides a much-needed solution to the energy crisis the world is facing today. Polymer solar cells have shown potential to harness solar energy in a cost-effective way. Significant efforts are underway to improve their efficiency to the level of practical applications. Here, we report highly efficient polymer solar cells based on a bulk heterojunction of polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) and methanofullerene. Controlling the active layer growth rate results in an increased hole mobility and balanced charge transport. Together with increased absorption in the active layer, this results in much-improved device performance, particularly in external quantum efficiency. The power-conversion efficiency of 4.4% achieved here is the highest published so far for polymer-based solar cells. The solution process involved ensures that the fabrication cost remains low and the processing is simple. The high efficiency achieved in this work brings these devices one step closer to commercialization.

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Figure 1: Effect of thermal annealing and film growth rate on the performance of the plastic solar cells.
Figure 2: Effect of film growth rate on EQE of polymer solar cells.
Figure 3: Effect of film growth rate on the mobility of charge carriers in the active layer.
Figure 4: Effect of film growth rate and thermal annealing on the absorbance of the P3HT/PCBM films.
Figure 5: Effect of growth rate and thermal annealing on the morphology of the active layer.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Ouyang for very helpful technical discussions. This research work is supported in part by the Office of Naval Research (grant no. N00014-01-1-0136, program manager P. Armistead), and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant no. F49620-03-1-0101, program manager C. Lee).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA

    Gang Li, Vishal Shrotriya, Jinsong Huang, Yan Yao & Yang Yang

  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, 80401, USA

    Tom Moriarty & Keith Emery

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  1. Gang Li
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Correspondence to Yang Yang.

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Li, G., Shrotriya, V., Huang, J. et al. High-efficiency solution processable polymer photovoltaic cells by self-organization of polymer blends. Nature Mater 4, 864–868 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1500

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