Light Management in Organic Photovoltaics Processed in Ambient Conditions Using ZnO Nanowire and Antireflection Layer with Nanocone Array

Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Dastjerdi, Hadi Tavakoli; Zhao, Jiayuan; Shulenberger, Katherine E.; Carbonera, Chiara; Po, Riccardo; Cominetti, Alessandra; Bianchi, Gabriele; Klein, Nathan D.; Bawendi, Moungi G.; Gradecak, Silvija; Kong, Jing

doi:10.1002/smll.201900508

Light Management in Organic Photovoltaics Processed in Ambient Conditions Using ZnO Nanowire and Antireflection Layer with Nanocone Array

Journal Article · Tue May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Small

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201900508· OSTI ID:1511064

^[1]; Dastjerdi, Hadi Tavakoli ^[2]; Zhao, Jiayuan ^[1]; Shulenberger, Katherine E. ^[3]; Carbonera, Chiara ^[4]; Po, Riccardo ^[4]; Cominetti, Alessandra ^[4]; Bianchi, Gabriele ^[4]; Klein, Nathan D. ^[3]; Bawendi, Moungi G. ^[3]; Gradecak, Silvija ^[2]; Kong, Jing ^[1]

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA 02139 USA
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA 02139 USA
Department of Chemistry Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge MA 02139 USA
Decarbonization and Environmental R&,D Eni SpA Via Fauser 4 28100 Novara Italy

Abstract

Low carrier mobility and lifetime in semiconductor polymers are some of the main challenges facing the field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) in the quest for efficient devices with high current density. Finding novel strategies such as device structure engineering is a key pathway toward addressing this issue. In this work, the light absorption and carrier collection of OPV devices are improved by employment of ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays with an optimum NW length (50 nm) and antireflection (AR) film with nanocone structure. The optical characterization results show that ZnO NW increases the transmittance of the electron transporting layer as well as the absorption of the polymer blend. Moreover, the as‐deposited polymer blend on the ZnO NW array shows better charge transfer as compared to the planar sample. By employing PC70BM:PV2000 as a promising air‐stable active‐layer, power conversion efficiencies of 9.8% and 10.1% are achieved for NW devices without and with an AR film, indicating 22.5% and 26.2% enhancement in PCE as compared to that of planar device. Moreover, it is shown that the AR film enhances the water‐repellent ability of the OPV device.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46454

OSTI ID:: 1511064

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1609909

Journal Information:: Small, Journal Name: Small Journal Issue: 25 Vol. 15; ISSN 1613-6810

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

References (33)

Hybrid Silver Nanowire and Graphene-Based Solution-Processed Transparent Electrode for Organic Optoelectronics Ricciardulli, Antonio Gaetano; Yang, Sheng; Wetzelaer, Gert-Jan A. H. Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201706010	journal	January 2018
Low-Cost, Flexible, and Self-Cleaning 3D Nanocone Anti-Reflection Films for High-Efficiency Photovoltaics Tsui, Kwong-Hoi; Lin, Qingfeng; Chou, Hungtao Advanced Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201304938	journal	January 2014
High-Performance As-Cast Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with Thicker Active Layer and Large Area Exceeding 11% Power Conversion Efficiency Fan, Qunping; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Maojie Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201704546	journal	December 2017
Polymer Solar Cells with 90% External Quantum Efficiency Featuring an Ideal Light- and Charge-Manipulation Layer Chen, Jing-De; Li, Yan-Qing; Zhu, Jingshuai Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201706083	journal	February 2018
Enhanced Photocurrent in PbS Quantum Dot Photovoltaics via ZnO Nanowires and Band Alignment Engineering Rekemeyer, Paul H.; Chang, Sehoon; Chuang, Chia-Hao Marcus Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201600848	journal	September 2016
Surface Engineering of TiO ₂ ETL for Highly Efficient and Hysteresis-Less Planar Perovskite Solar Cell (21.4%) with Enhanced Open-Circuit Voltage and Stability Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Yadav, Pankaj; Tavakoli, Rouhollah Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201800794	journal	May 2018
Performance improvement of solution-processed CdS/CdTe solar cells with a thin compact TiO 2 buffer layer Waleed, Aashir; Zhang, Qianpeng; Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi Science Bulletin, Vol. 61, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-015-0963-0	journal	January 2016
Formation and characterization of one-dimensional ZnS nanowires for ZnS/P3HT hybrid polymer solar cells with improved efficiency Matras-Postołek, Katarzyna; Żaba, Adam; Nowak, Elżbieta M. Applied Surface Science, Vol. 451 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2018.04.239	journal	September 2018
High performance thin film solar cells on plastic substrates with nanostructure-enhanced flexibility Lin, Qingfeng; Lu, Linfeng; Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi Nano Energy, Vol. 22 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.02.042	journal	April 2016
Solution processed transition metal oxide anode buffer layers for efficiency and stability enhancement of polymer solar cells Ameen, M. Yoosuf; Shamjid, P.; Abhijith, T. Optical Materials, Vol. 75 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2017.11.006	journal	January 2018
Interfacial engineering of ZnO nanoarrays as electron transport layer for polymer solar cells Fu, Haiyan; Li, Bing; Meng, Xiangchuan Organic Electronics, Vol. 26 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2015.08.014	journal	November 2015
Buffer layers in inverted organic solar cells and their impact on the interface and device characteristics: An experimental and modeling analysis Banerjee, Suman; Gupta, Shailendra Kumar; Singh, Arjun Organic Electronics, Vol. 37 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgel.2016.06.031	journal	October 2016
ZnO–Ag–MoO3 transparent composite electrode for ITO-free, PEDOT: PSS-free bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells Choi, Hyung Woo; Theodore, N. David; Alford, T. L. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.07.009	journal	October 2013
Organic Halides and Nanocone Plastic Structures Enhance the Energy Conversion Efficiency and Self-Cleaning Ability of Colloidal Quantum Dot Photovoltaic Devices Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Simchi, Abdolreza; Tavakoli, Rouhollah The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 121, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b02394	journal	May 2017
Asymmetrical Small Molecule Acceptor Enabling Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cell with Fill Factor Approaching 79% Gao, Wei; Liu, Tao; Zhong, Cheng ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.8b00825	journal	June 2018
Highly Efficient Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells with Antireflection and Self-Cleaning Nanostructures Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Tsui, Kwong-Hoi; Zhang, Qianpeng ACS Nano, Vol. 9, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b04284	journal	September 2015
Design of Nanostructured Heterojunction Polymer Photovoltaic Devices Kannan, Balaji; Castelino, Kenneth; Majumdar, Arun Nano Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl034810v	journal	December 2003
Aggregation and morphology control enables multiple cases of high-efficiency polymer solar cells Liu, Yuhang; Zhao, Jingbo; Li, Zhengke Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6293	journal	November 2014
Morphology evolution via self-organization and lateral and vertical diffusion in polymer:fullerene solar cell blends Campoy-Quiles, Mariano; Ferenczi, Toby; Agostinelli, Tiziano Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2102	journal	January 2008
Organic solar cells based on non-fullerene acceptors Hou, Jianhui; Inganäs, Olle; Friend, Richard H. Nature Materials, Vol. 17, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat5063	journal	January 2018
High fabrication yield organic tandem photovoltaics combining vacuum- and solution-processed subcells with 15% efficiency Che, Xiaozhou; Li, Yongxi; Qu, Yue Nature Energy, Vol. 3, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0134-z	journal	April 2018
Al-doped ZnO/Ag-nanowire Composite Electrodes for Flexible 3-Dimensional Nanowire Solar Cells Pathirane, Minoli K.; Hosseinzadeh Khaligh, Hadi; Goldthorpe, Irene A. Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07180-1	journal	August 2017
The role of buffer layers in polymer solar cells Po, Riccardo; Carbonera, Chiara; Bernardi, Andrea Energy Environ. Sci., Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/C0EE00273A	journal	January 2011
Efficient, flexible and mechanically robust perovskite solar cells on inverted nanocone plastic substrates Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Lin, Qingfeng; Leung, Siu-Fung Nanoscale, Vol. 8, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NR08836D	journal	January 2016
High efficiency, fully inkjet printed organic solar cells with freedom of design Eggenhuisen, T. M.; Galagan, Y.; Biezemans, A. F. K. V. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 3, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TA00540J	journal	January 2015
Addition of adamantylammonium iodide to hole transport layers enables highly efficient and electroluminescent perovskite solar cells Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Tress, Wolfgang; Milić, Jovana V. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 11, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02404A	journal	January 2018
A graphene/ZnO electron transfer layer together with perovskite passivation enables highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Tavakoli, Rouhollah; Yadav, Pankaj Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1039/C8TA10857A	journal	January 2019
Recent advances in solution-processed interfacial materials for efficient and stable polymer solar cells Yip, Hin-Lap; Jen, Alex K.-Y. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 5, Issue 3, p. 5994-6011 https://doi.org/10.1039/c2ee02806a	journal	January 2012
Nanostructured interfaces in polymer solar cells Wiedemann, W.; Sims, L.; Abdellah, A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 96, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3458809	journal	June 2010
A Review on the Development of the Inverted Polymer Solar Cell Architecture Hau, Steven K.; Yip, Hin-Lap; Jen, Alex K. -Y. Polymer Reviews, Vol. 50, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1080/15583724.2010.515764	journal	October 2010
Organic and solution-processed tandem solar cells with 17.3% efficiency Meng, Lingxian; Zhang, Yamin; Wan, Xiangjian Science, Vol. 361, Issue 6407 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat2612	journal	August 2018
Zinc Stannate Nanorod as an Electron Transporting Layer for Highly Efficient and Hysteresis-less Perovskite Solar Cells Tavakoli, Mohammad Mahdi; Prochowicz, Daniel; Yadav, Pankaj Engineered Science https://doi.org/10.30919/es8d749	journal	August 2018
Sol-Gel Processing of MgF2 Antireflective Coatings Löbmann, Peer Nanomaterials, Vol. 8, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8050295	journal	May 2018

Similar Records

Light Confinement-Induced Antireflection of ZnO Nanocones

Journal Article · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2010 · Applied Physics Letters · OSTI ID:1027836

Optical Absorption Enhancement in Amorphous Silicon Nanowire and Nanocone Arrays

Journal Article · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2008 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1022347

Broadband optical absorption by tunable Mie resonances in silicon nanocone arrays

Journal Article · Wed Jan 14 19:00:00 EST 2015 · Scientific Reports · OSTI ID:1193750

Light Management in Organic Photovoltaics Processed in Ambient Conditions Using ZnO Nanowire and Antireflection Layer with Nanocone Array

Citation Formats

References (33)

Similar Records

Related Subjects