Thermal Stability and Reproducibility Enhancement of Organic Solar Cells by Tris(hydroxyquinoline)gallium Dopant Forming a Dual Acceptor Active Layer

Keywords: Active layer, dual acceptor, Gaq3 dopant, organic solar cell, reproducibility, thermal stability.

Abstract

Nowadays, the main barriers facing organic solar cells (OSCs) from being commercialized and widely applied are their weak thermal stability and reproducibility problems. To tackle these problems, researchers usually consider various strategies which include modification in the devices architectural design, utilizing low energy gap materials, functionalizing their active layers, and the use of various optimization procedures. In this research work, we are specifically focused on the utilization of a small molecular organometallic, tris(hydroxyquinoline)gallium (Gaq3), as a secondary acceptor dopant, aiming at improving thermal stability, and reproducibility of OSCs. All-solution processed technique with the help of spin coater was used to deposit the active layer of the devices. Results showed that the addition of 29% molar fraction of Gaq3 into the devices active layer has considerably improved the thermal stability, photo-absorption, and reproducibly of the solar cells thanks to the excellent thermal stability and electron mobility of Gaq3 molecules. Our devices based on DH6T: PCBM:Gaq3 performed highest stable performance at 180°C, implying higher thermal stability compared to that of the reported P3HT: PCBM:F8BT and PTB7:PCBM: F8BT based solar cells. In spite of improved reproducibility, the efficiency of the devices was increased by 5.8 times compared to that of the control ones.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Fahmi F. Muhammad, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Kurdistan Region
Fahmi is an Assistant Professor and Group Leader (SMDRG) at the Department of Physics, Koya University. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Physics from the University of Sulaimani and University of Mosul in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He completed his PhD at the Department of Physics, University of Malaya in 2012 through working on the Organic Solar Cells incorporating Organometallics. He achieved Post-doctorate Fellow (PDF) from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and completed his project in the filed of Organic Electronics/hybrid ternary solar cells. He is also working as Section Editor with ARO Journal
 
Khaulah Sulaiman, Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
Khaulah Sulaiman is Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her current research interests are organic semiconductor device physics, solution process-able organic semiconductor thin films, organic/metal interface and organic solar cells.

References

Ameri, T., Dennler, G., Lungenschmied, C. and Brabec, C.J., 2009. Organic tandem solar cells: A review. Energy and Environmental Science, 2, pp.347-363.

Ansari, M.I.H., Qurashi, A. and Nazeeruddin, M.K., 2018. Frontiers, opportunities, and challenges in perovskite solar cells: A critical review. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews, 35, pp.1-24.

Cheng, P. and Zhan, X., 2016. Stability of organic solar cells: Challenges and strategies. Chemical Society Reviews, 45, pp.2544-2582.

Cook, S., Ohkita, H., Kim, Y., Benson-Smith, J.J., Bradley, D.D.C. and Durrant, J.R., 2007. A photophysical study of PCBM thin films. Chemical Physics Letters, 445, pp.276-280.

Dennler, G., Scharber, M.C. and Brabec, C.J., 2009. Polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction solar cells. Advanced materials, 21, pp.1323-1338.

Elumalai, N., Mahmud, M., Wang, D. and Uddin, A., 2016. Perovskite solar cells: Progress and advancements. Energies, 9, pp.861.

Garnier, F., Yassar, A., Hajlaoui, R., Horowitz, G., Deloffre, F., Servet, B., Ries, S. and Alnot, P., 1993. Molecular engineering of organic semiconductors: Design of self-assembly properties in conjugated thiophene oligomers. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 115, pp.8716-8721.

Hau, S.K., Yip, H.L., Baek, N.S., Zou, J., O’malley, K. and Jen, A.K.Y., 2008. Air-stable inverted flexible polymer solar cells using zinc oxide nanoparticles as an electron selective layer. Applied Physics Letters, 92, pp.225.

Hernández, I., Gillin, W. and Somerton, M., 2009. Spectroscopic study of Mq3 (M= Al, Ga, In, q= 8-hydroxyquinolinate) at high pressure. Journal of Luminescence, 129, pp.1835-1839.

Huajun, X., Hideo, O., Hiroaki, B. and Shinzaburo, I., 2014. Open-circuit voltage of ternary blend polymer solar cells. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 53, pp.01AB10.

Hwang, I., Mcneill, C.R. and Greenham, N.C., 2014. Evolution of phase separation upon annealing and the influence on photocurrent generation in ternary blend organic solar cells. Synthetic Metals, 189, pp.63-68.

Ji, J., Ma, S., Shan, F., Wang, F. and Song, Y., 2016. Improving the performance of ternary bulk heterojunction polymer cell by regioregular poly (3-hexylthiophene)- grafted oxide graphene on in situ doping of CdS. Journal of Materials Science, 51, pp.7395-7406.

Jo, J., Kim, S.S., Na, S.I., Yu, B.K. and Kim, D.Y., 2009. Time-dependent morphology evolution by annealing processes on polymer: Fullerene blend solar cells. Advanced Functional Materials, 19, pp.866-874.

Johansson, T.B., Patwardhan, A.P., Nakićenović, N. and GOMEZ-Echeverri, L. 2012. Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kaltenbrunner, M., White, M.S., Głowacki, E.D., Sekitani, T., Someya, T., Sariciftci, N.S. and Bauer, S., 2012. Ultrathin and lightweight organic solar cells with high flexibility. Nature Communications, 3, pp.770.

Kim, H., Shin, M. and Kim, Y., 2009. Distinct annealing temperature in polymer: Fullerene: Polymer ternary blend solar cells. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113, pp.1620-1623.

Koeppe, R. and Sariciftci, N.S., 2006. Photoinduced charge and energy transfer involving fullerene derivatives. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 5, pp.1122-1131.

Kwon, J.H. and Seo, J.H., 2007. P-type semiconducting a,w-dihexylsexithiophene for an organic thin film transistor. Journal of Applied Physics, 101, pp.064502.

Liang, Y., Feng, D., Wu, Y., Tsai, S.T., Li, G., Ray, C. and Yu, L., 2009. Highly efficient solar cell polymers developed via fine-tuning of structural and electronic properties. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131, pp.7792-7799.

Liu, L., Li, H., Yao, S., Wei, Y. and Tian, W., 2015. Synthesis, characterization, and photovoltaic properties of a solution-processable two-dimensional-conjugated organic small molecule containing a triphenylamine core. Journal of Materials Science, 50, pp.57-65.

Liu, T., Guo, Y., Yi, Y., Huo, L., Xue, X., Sun, X., Fu, H., Xiong, W., Meng, D. and Wang, Z., 2016. Ternary organic solar cells based on two compatible nonfullerene acceptors with power conversion efficiency> 10%. Advanced Materials, 28, pp.10008-10015.

Marinova, N., Valero, S. and Delgado, J.L., 2017. Organic and perovskite solar cells: Working principles, materials and interfaces. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 488, pp.373-389.

Mathew, S., Yella, A., Gao, P., Humphry-Baker, R., Curchod, B.F., Ashari-Astani, N., Tavernelli, I., Rothlisberger, U., Nazeeruddin, M.K. and Grätzel, M., 2014. Dye-sensitized solar cells with 13% efficiency achieved through the molecular engineering of porphyrin sensitizers. Nature Chemistry, 6, pp.242.

Minxia, S., Xinge, Y., Xu, Y., Hanyu, W., Lei, Z., Quan, J. and Hui, L., 2015. Effect of different solvents on the performance of ternary polymer solar cells based on PTB7: PC71BM: F8BT. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 48, pp.295105.

Muhammad, F.F. and Sulaiman, K., 2011a. Effects of thermal annealing on the optical, spectroscopic, and structural properties of tris (8-hydroxyquinolinate) gallium films grown on quartz substrates. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 129, pp.1152-1158.

Muhammad, F.F. and Sulaiman, K., 2011b. Photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells based on DH6T/PCBM thin film active layers. Thin Solid Films, 519, pp.5230-5233.

Muhammad, F.F. and Sulaiman, K., 2011c. Tuning the optical band gap of DH6T by Alq3 dopant. Sains Malaysiana, 40, pp.17-20.

Muhammad, F.F. and Sulaiman, K., 2011d. Utilizing a simple and reliable method to investigate the optical functions of small molecular organic films–Alq3 and Gaq3 as examples. Measurement, 44, pp.1468-1474.

Muhammad, F.F., 2014. Design approaches to improve organic solar cells. Journal of Technology Innovations in Renewable Energy, 3, pp.63.

Muhammad, F.F., Hapip, A.I.A. and Sulaiman, K., 2010. Study of optoelectronic energy bands and molecular energy levels of tris (8-hydroxyquinolinate) gallium and aluminum organometallic materials from their spectroscopic and electrochemical analysis. Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, 695, pp.2526 2531.

Muhammad, F.F., Ketuly, K.A. and Yahya, M.Y., 2018. Effect of thermal annealing on a ternary organic solar cell incorporating Gaq3 organometallic as a boosting acceptor. Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials, 28, pp.102-109.

Muhammad, F.F., Yahya, M.Y. and Sulaiman, K., 2017b. Improving the performance of solution-processed organic solar cells by incorporating small molecule acceptors into a ternary bulk heterojunction based on DH6T: Mq3: PCBM (M= Ga, Al). Materials Chemistry and Physics, 188, pp.86-94.

Muhammad, F.F., Yahya, M.Y., Hameed, S.S., Aziz, F., Sulaiman, K., Rasheed, M.A. and Ahmad, Z., 2017a. Employment of single-diode model to elucidate the variations in photovoltaic parameters under different electrical and thermal conditions. PloS One, 12, pp.e0182925.

Muhammad, F.F., Yahya, M.Y., Ketuly, K.A., Muhammad, A.J. and Sulaiman, K., 2016. A study on the spectroscopic, energy band, and optoelectronic properties of α, ω-dihexylsexithiophene/tris (8-hydroxyquinolinate) gallium blends; DH6T/Gaq3 composite system. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 169, pp.144-151.

Mulherin, R.C., Jung, S., Huettner, S., Johnson, K., Kohn, P., Sommer, M., Allard, S., Scherf, U. and Greenham, N.C., 2011. Ternary photovoltaic blends incorporating an all-conjugated donor–acceptor diblock copolymer. Nano Letters, 11, pp.4846-4851.

Peterson, E.D., Smith, G.M., Fu, M., Adams, R.D., Coffin, R.C. and Carroll, D.L., 2011. Charge balance and photon collection in polymer based ternary bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices containing cadmium selenide nanoparticles. Applied Physics Letters, 99, p.073304.

Reddy, S.S., Gunasekar, K., Heo, J.H., Im, S.H., Kim, C.S., Kim, D.H., Moon, J.H., Lee, J.Y., Song, M. and Jin, S.H., 2016. Highly efficient organic hole transporting materials for perovskite and organic solar cells with long-term stability. Advanced Materials, 28, pp.686-693.

Sariciftci, N.S., 2004. Plastic photovoltaic devices. Materials Today, 7, pp.36-40.

Schmager, R., Gomard, G., Richards, B.S. and Paetzold, U.W., 2019. Nanophotonic perovskite layers for enhanced current generation and mitigation of lead in perovskite solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 192, pp.65-71.

Sehati, P., Braun, S., Lindell, L., Xianjie, L., Andersson, L.M. and Fahlman, M., 2010. Energy-level alignment at metal-organic and organic-organic interfaces in bulk-heterojunction solar cells. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 16, pp.1718-1724.

Shang, M., Yu, X., Ye, X., Zhang, L., Jiang, Q. and Lin, H., 2015. Effect of thermal annealing on the performance of ternary organic photovoltaics based on PTB7: PC71BM: F8BT. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 26, pp.5708-5714.

Song, Q., Li, F., Yang, H., Wu, H., Wang, X., Zhou, W., Zhao, J., Ding, X., Huang, C. and Hou, X., 2005. Small-molecule organic solar cells with improved stability. Chemical Physics Letters, 416, pp.42-46.

Sotgiu, G., Zambianchi, M., Barbarella, G. and Botta, C., 2002. Synthesis and optical properties of soluble sexithiophenes with one central head-to-head junction. Tetrahedron, 58, pp.2245-2251.

Street, R.A., Davies, D., Khlyabich, P.P., Burkhart, B. and Thompson, B.C., 2013. Origin of the tunable open-circuit voltage in ternary blend bulk heterojunction organic solar cells. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 135, pp.986-989.

Tang, C.W., 1986. Two-layer organic photovoltaic cell. Applied Physics Letters, 48, pp.183-185.

Treat, N.D., Brady, M.A., Smith, G., Toney, M.F., Kramer, E.J., Hawker, C.J. and Chabinyc, M.L. 2011. Interdiffusion of PCBM and P3HT reveals miscibility in a photovoltaically active blend. Advanced Energy Materials, 1, pp.82-89.

Von Hauff, E., Dyakonov, V. and Parisi, J., 2005. Study of field effect mobility in PCBM films and P3HT: PCBM blends. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 87, pp.149-156.

Xue, J., Rand, B.P., Uchida, S. and Forrest, S.R., 2005. Mixed donor-acceptor molecular heterojunctions for photovoltaic applications. II. Device performance. Journal of Applied Physics, 98, pp.124903.

Zhao, W., Li, S., Yao, H., Zhang, S., Zhang, Y., Yang, B. and Hou, J., 2017a. Molecular optimization enables over 13% efficiency in organic solar cells. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139, pp.7148-7151.

Zhao, W., Li, S., Zhang, S., Liu, X. and Hou, J., 2017b. Ternary polymer solar cells based on two acceptors and one donor for achieving 12.2% efficiency. Advanced Materials, 29, pp.1604059.

Zhu, W., Wu, Y., Wang, S., Li, W., Li, X., Chen, J., Wang, Z.S. and Tian, H., 2011. Organic D-A-π-A solar cell sensitizers with improved stability and spectral response. Advanced Functional Materials, 21, pp.756-763.

Published
2018-12-30
How to Cite
Muhammad, F. F. and Sulaiman, K. (2018) “Thermal Stability and Reproducibility Enhancement of Organic Solar Cells by Tris(hydroxyquinoline)gallium Dopant Forming a Dual Acceptor Active Layer”, ARO-THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF KOYA UNIVERSITY, 6(2), pp. 69-78. doi: 10.14500/aro.10491.