Organic photovoltaic cell employing organic heterojunction as buffer layer

Hexadecafluorophthalocyaninatocopper (F16CuPc)/zine phthalocyanine (ZnPc) heterojunction layer has been used as buffer layer in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells based on ZnPc and C-60. The F16CuPc/ZnPc heterojunction with highly conductive property decreased the contact resistance between the indium-tin-oxide anode and the organic layer. As a result, the short-circuit current density and fill factor were increased, and the power-conversion efficiency was improved by over 60%. Therefore, the method provides an effective path to improve the performance of OPV cells.

Controlled phase separation for efficient energy conversion in dye/polymer blend bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells

Low-cost photovoltaic energy conversion using conjugated polymers has achieved great improvement due to the invention of organic bulk heterojunction. in which the nanoscale phase separation of electron donor and acceptor favors realizing efficient charge separation and collection. We investigated the polymer photovoltaic cells using N, N'-bis(1-ethylpropyl)-3,4,9,10-perylene bis(tetracarboxyl diimide)/poly(3-hexyl thiophene) blend as an active layer. It is found that processing conditions for the blend films have major effects on its morphology and hence the energy conversion efficiency of the resulting devices. By optimizing the processing conditions, the sizes of donor/acceptor phase separation can be adjusted for realizing efficient charge separation and collection. The overall energy conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cell processed with optimized conditions increases by nearly 40% compared to the normally spin-coated and annealed cell.

Single-crystal-like organic heterojunction with 40 nm thick charge accumulation layers

Single-crystal-like organic heterojunction films of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and copper-hexadecafluoro-phthalocyanine (F16CuPc) were fabricated by weak-epitaxy-growth method. The intrinsic properties of organic heterojunction were revealed through threshold voltage shift of field-effect transistors and measurement of single-crystal-like diodes. At both sides of the heterojunction interface 40 nm thick charge accumulation layers formed, which showed that the long carriers' diffusion length is due to the high crystallinity and low density of deep bulk traps of single-crystal-like films.

The first liquid crystalline phthalocyanine derivative capable of edge-on alignment for solution processed organic thin-film transistors

Tetraoctyl-substituted vanadyl phthalocyanine (OVPc4C8) as a new NIR-absorbing discotic liquid crystalline material can form highly ordered thin films with edge-on alignment of the molecules and molecular packing mode identical to that in the phase II of OVPc for solution processed OTFTs with mobility up to 0.017 cm(2) V-1 s(-1).

Photovoltaic effect in a photon storage cell

The response of photonic memory effect in I-V characteristics of a specially designed photonic memory cell was reported. When the cell is biased in a storage mode, the optical excitation with the photon's energy larger than the energy gap gives rise to a step-like jump in the current. A set-up was used to measure the transient photocurrent at the biases where the step-like jump showed up. It is proved that the falling transient edge of the photocurrent, as the photoexcitation turns off, mainly maps the decaying of electrons and holes, which were previously stored in the cell during the illumination. Its time constant is a measure of photonic memory time.

The effect of interposing nanocrystalline Si(B) P plus layer on the photovoltaic properties of a-Si: H tandem solar cells

Tandem amorphous silicon solar cells have attracted extensive interest because of better performance than single junction counterpart. As n/p junctions play an important role in the current transportation of tandem solar cells, it is important to design and fabricate good n/p junctions.The properties of the n/p junction of amorphous silicon (a-Si) were studied. We investigate the effect of interposing a nanocrystalline p(+) layer between n (top cell) and p (bottom cell) layers of a tandem solar cell. The crystalline volume fraction, the band gap, the conductivity and the grain size of the nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) p(+) layer could be modulated by changing the deposition parameters.Current transport in a-Si based n/p ("tunnel") junctions was investigated by current-voltage measurements. The voltage dependence on the resistance (V/J) of the tandem cells was examined to see if n/p junction was ohmic contact. To study the affection of different doping concentration to the properties of the nc-Si p(+) layers which varied the properties of the tunnel junctions, three nc-Si p(+) film samples were grown, measured and analyzed.

Reliable concentrated photovoltaic system with compound concentrator

Concentrated photovoltaic systems (CPVSs) draw more and more attention because of high photovoltaic conversion efficiency, low consumption of solar cell, and low cost of power generation. However, the fallibility of the tracker in such systems has hindered their practical application for more than twenty years. The tracker is indispensable for a CPVS since only normal-incident sunlight can be focused on the solar cell chips, even a slight deviation of incident light will result in a significant loss of solar radiation, and hence a distinct decrease in electricity output. Generally, the more accurate the tracker is, the more reliable the system is. However, it is not exactly the case for a CPVS reliability, because the more accurate the tracker is, the better environment it demands. A CPVS is usually has to subjected to harsh environmental conditions, such as strong wind, heavy rain or snow, and huge changes of temperature, which leads to the invalidation of the system's high-accuracy tracker. Hence, the reliability of a CPVS cannot be improved only by enhancing the tracker's accuracy. In this paper, a novel compound concentrator, combination of Fresnel lens and photo-funnel, has been adopted in a prototype CPVS. Test results show that the compound concentrator can relax the angle tolerance from one tenth to five degrees of arc at 400 suns, which can help a CPVS endure serious environment and remain its reliability over long period. The CPVS with compound concentrator is attractive for commercial application.

Evaluating the effect of dislocation on the photovoltaic performance of metamorphic tandem solar cells

The photovoltaic conversion efficiency for monolithic GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction cell with various bandgap combination (300 suns, AM1.5d) was theoretically calculated. An impressive improvement on conversion efficiency was observed for a bandgap combination of 1.708, 1.194, and 0.67 eV. A theoretical investigation was carried out on the effect of dislocation on the metamorphic structure's efficiency by regarding dislocation as minority-carrier recombination center. The results showed that only when dislocation density was less than 1.6x10(6) cm(-2), can this metamorphic combination exhibit its efficiency advantage over the fully-matched combination. In addition, we also briefly evaluated the lattice misfit dependence of the dislocation density for a group of metamorphic triple-junction system, and used it as guidance for the choice of the proper cell structure.

All-organic tunnel junctions as connecting units in tandem organic solar cell

We employed organic heterojunction films as all-organic connecting units to fabricate tandem organic photovoltaic cells by continuous deposition. The all-organic connecting units with a better transparence and a lower sublimation temperature became an effective recombination center for electrons and holes photogenerated in front cell and back cell, respectively. Tunnel mechanism was proposed to explain the combination of photogenerated carrier.

Enhanced charge collection in polymer photovoltaic cells by using an ethanol-soluble conjugated polyfluorene as cathode buffer layer

We report enhanced polymer photovoltaic (PV) cells by utilizing ethanol-soluble conjugated poly (9, 9-bis (6'-diethoxylphosphorylhexyl) fluorene) (PF-EP) as a buffer layer between the active layer consisting of poly(3-hexylthiophene)/[6, 6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester blend and the Al cathode. Compared to the control PV cell with Al cathode, the introduction of PF-EP effectively increases the shunt resistance and improves the photo-generated charge collection since the slightly thicker semi-conducting PF-EP layer may restrain the penetration of Al atoms into the active layer that may result in increased leakage current and quench photo-generated excitons. The power conversion efficiency is increased ca. 8% compared to the post-annealed cell with Al cathode.

Efficient tandem polymer photovoltaic cells with two subcells in parallel connection

Tandem polymer photovoltaic cells with the subcells having different absorption characteristics in series connection are widely investigated to enhance absorption coverage over the solar spectrum. Herein. we demonstrate efficient tandem polymer photovoltaic cells with the two stacked subcells comprising different band-gap conjugated polymer and fullerene derivative bulk heterojunction in parallel connection. A semitransparent metal layer combined with inorganic semiconductor compounds is utilized as the intermediate electrode of the two stacked subcells to create the required built-in potential for collecting photo-generated charges. The short-circuit current of the stacked cell is the sum of the subcells and the open-circuit voltage is similar to the subcells.

Solvent-vapor treatment induced performance enhancement of poly(3-hexylthiophene): methanofullerene bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic cells

The authors report enhanced poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):methanofullerene (PCBM) bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic cells via 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) vapor treatment and thermal annealing. DCB vapor treatment can induce P3HT self-organizing into ordered structure leading to enhanced absorption and high hole mobility. Further annealing the device at a high temperature, PCBM molecules begin to diffuse into aggregates and together with the ordered P3HT phase form bicontinuous pathways in the entire layer for efficient charge separation and transport. Compared to the control device that is merely annealed, optical absorption, short-circuit current, and power conversion efficiency are increased for the DCB vapor-treated cell.

Progress in polymer solar cell

This review outlines current progresses in polymer solar cell. Compared to traditional silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) technology, the completely different principle of optoelectric response in the polymer cell results in a novel configuration of the device and more complicated photovoltaic generation process. The conception of bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) is introduced and its advantage in terms of morphology is addressed. The main aspects including the morphology of photoactive layer, which limit the efficiency and stability of polymer solar cell, are discussed in detail. The solutions to boosting up both the efficiency and stability (lifetime) of the polymer solar cell are highlighted at the end of this review.