Effects of HTL and ETL Thicknesses on the Performance of PQT-12/PCDTBT:PC61BM/ZnO QDs Solar Cells

Abstract

In this letter, floating film transfer method (FTM) based poly (3, 3''- dialkylquaterthiophene) (PQT-12) hole transfer layer (HTL) has been explored for the performance improvement of poly[N-9'-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2', 1', 3'-benzothiadiazole)]:[6,6]-phenyl-C61butyric acid methyl ester (PCDTBT:PC61 BM) based bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The BHJ is formed by sandwiching PCDTBT:PC61 BM between FTM coated PQT-12 HTL and spin-coated ZnO quantum dots (QDs) electron transport layer (ETL). The better phase matching of FTM deposited PQT-12 HTL to the PCDTBT:PC61 BM based blend polymeric active layer along with the visible absorption spectrum of the PQT-12 enhances the energy harvesting capability of the solar cell structure. The solar cell performance parameters such as the open circuit voltage ( VOC ), short circuit current density ( JSC ), fill factor ( FF ) and power conversion efficiency ( PCE ) are investigated for 20 to 60 nm thin PQT-12 and 20 to 35 nm thin ZnO films. The obtained VOC , JSC , FF , and PCE are 0.672 V, 10.42 mA/cm2 , 38%, and 2.66%, respectively for 20 nm PQT-12 and 35 nm ZnO QDs. © 1989-2012 IEEE.