Ambient Layer-by-Layer ZnO Assembly for Highly Efficient Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
Type
ArticleAuthors
Eita, Mohamed SamirEl Labban, Abdulrahman

Cruciani, Federico

Usman, Anwar
Beaujuge, Pierre

Mohammed, Omar F.

KAUST Department
Chemical Science ProgramKAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Material Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy and Four-dimensional Electron Imaging Research Group
Date
2015-02-04Online Publication Date
2015-02-04Print Publication Date
2015-03Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/564045
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The use of metal oxide interlayers in polymer solar cells has great potential because metal oxides are abundant, thermally stable, and can be used in fl exible devices. Here, a layer-by-layer (LbL) protocol is reported as a facile, room-temperature, solution-processed method to prepare electron transport layers from commercial ZnO nanoparticles and polyacrylic acid (PAA) with a controlled and tunable porous structure, which provides large interfacial contacts with the active layer. Applying the LbL approach to bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells with an optimized ZnO layer thickness of H25 nm yields solar cell power-conversion effi ciencies (PCEs) of ≈6%, exceeding the effi ciency of amorphous ZnO interlayers formed by conventional sputtering methods. Interestingly, annealing the ZnO/PAA interlayers in nitrogen and air environments in the range of 60-300 ° C reduces the device PCEs by almost 20% to 50%, indicating the importance of conformational changes inherent to the PAA polymer in the LbL-deposited fi lms to solar cell performance. This protocol suggests a new fabrication method for solution-processed polymer solar cell devices that does not require postprocessing thermal annealing treatments and that is applicable to fl exible devices printed on plastic substrates.Citation
Eita, M., Labban, A. E., Cruciani, F., Usman, A., Beaujuge, P. M., & Mohammed, O. F. (2015). Ambient Layer-by-Layer ZnO Assembly for Highly Efficient Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells. Advanced Functional Materials, 25(10), 1558–1564. doi:10.1002/adfm.201402637Sponsors
M.E. and A.E.L. contributed equally to this work. The research reported here was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.Publisher
WileyJournal
Advanced Functional Materialsae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/adfm.201402637