UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS

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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2018 Meeting


Section: Solid State Physics and Materials Science


Title:
Photovoltaic cells with polymeric/chlorophyll-a thin films - electrical and photo- electrical characterization


Authors:
A. Calugar,1 S. Iftimie,1 A. Radu,1 V.A. Antohe,1 L. Dan1, D. Coman,1 L. Ion,1 and S. Antohe1,2


*
Affiliation:
1University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Magurele, 077125, Ilfov, Romania

2Academy of Romanian Scientists, Bucharest, Romania



E-mail
alina.calugar@fizica.unibuc.ro


Keywords:
P3HT, PCBM, Chl-a, photovoltaic structures


Abstract:
Due to their unique electrical and optical properties, conductive polymers are usually used in the architecture of different electronic and optoelectronic devices, including the organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs), belonging to 3rd generation of solar cells. In this study, we present the experimental results obtained for photovoltaic cells based on conductive polymers and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), by customizing either the hole selective layer (HSL) or the active layer. All the polymeric thin films and Chl-a were deposited by spin-coating method, while the back electrode was obtained by thermal evaporation (TVE). The HSL involves either a 4:1 ratio mixture between poly(3.4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(stryrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and Chl-a or a layer-by-layer deposition of Chl-a and PEDOT:PSS. The active layer was built as a mixture either between poly(3-hexylthiophene-2.5-diyl) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), or P3HT:PCBM:Chl-a. In order to facilitate the electrons’ collection to cathode, a very thin lithium fluoride layer (LiF) was grown, by TVE too. The electrical and photo-electrical results obtained for the customized samples were discussed in the frame of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM (1:1)/LiF/Al conventional structures. We demonstrated that a customized PEDOT:PSS + Chl-a (4:1) holes selective layer improved with more than 50% the external quantum efficiency of fabricated photovoltaic cells, compared with the results of conventional structures. Modest values of open circuit voltage and fill factor were calculated in the case of Chl-a/PEDOT:PSS HSL based photovoltaic cells, most likely due to a non-optimized interface between Chl-a and PEDOT:PSS containing in our opinion a great number of defects acting as recombination centers for the photo-generated charge carriers.


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Acknowledgement:
This work was partially financially supported by FPRD project no. 40/2018 financed by UEFISCDI Romania.