Cascade Organic Solar Cells

Cody W. Schlenker; Vincent S. Barlier; Stephanie W. Chin; Matthew T. Whited; R. Eric McAnally; Stephen R. Forrest; Mark E. Thompson

doi:10.1021/cm200525h

Cascade Organic Solar Cells

Cody W. Schlenker, Vincent S. Barlier, Stephanie W. Chin, Matthew T. Whited, R. Eric McAnally, Stephen R. Forrest, Mark E. Thompson

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87 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate planar organic solar cells consisting of a series of complementary donor materials with cascading exciton energies, incorporated in the following structure: glass/indium-tin-oxide/donor cascade/C 60/bathocuproine/Al. Using a tetracene layer grown in a descending energy cascade on 5,6-diphenyl-tetracene and capped with 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyl- tetracene, where the accessibility of the π-system in each material is expected to influence the rate of parasitic carrier leakage and charge recombination at the donor/acceptor interface, we observe an increase in open circuit voltage (Voc) of approximately 40% (corresponding to a change of +200 mV) compared to that of a single tetracene donor. Little change is observed in other parameters such as fill factor and short circuit current density (FF = 0.50 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.55 ± 0.23 mA/cm2) compared to those of the control tetracene-C60 solar cells (FF = 0.54 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.86 ± 0.23 mA/cm2). We demonstrate that this cascade architecture is effective in reducing losses due to polaron pair recombination at donor-acceptor interfaces, while enhancing spectral coverage, resulting in a substantial increase in the power conversion efficiency for cascade organic photovoltaic cells compared to tetracene and pentacene based devices with a single donor layer. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	4132-4140
Number of pages	9
Journal	Chemistry of Materials
Volume	23
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/cm200525h
State	Published - Sep 27 2011
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-C1-015-21
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge generous financial support from Global Photonic Energy Corporation, from the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics (CAMP) (KUS-C1-015-21) of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The Center for Energy Nanoscience, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0001013 is also acknowledged for supporting C.S.W. and REM., who performed the balance of the OPV preparation/testing and analysis presented here. We also acknowledge insightful discussions with Dr. M. Dolores Perez (CNEA) and Professor Chongwu Zhou for the use of his AFM.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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10.1021/cm200525h

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@article{ace2dc6416e04565b30f303d49a405ff,

title = "Cascade Organic Solar Cells",

abstract = "We demonstrate planar organic solar cells consisting of a series of complementary donor materials with cascading exciton energies, incorporated in the following structure: glass/indium-tin-oxide/donor cascade/C 60/bathocuproine/Al. Using a tetracene layer grown in a descending energy cascade on 5,6-diphenyl-tetracene and capped with 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyl- tetracene, where the accessibility of the π-system in each material is expected to influence the rate of parasitic carrier leakage and charge recombination at the donor/acceptor interface, we observe an increase in open circuit voltage (Voc) of approximately 40% (corresponding to a change of +200 mV) compared to that of a single tetracene donor. Little change is observed in other parameters such as fill factor and short circuit current density (FF = 0.50 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.55 ± 0.23 mA/cm2) compared to those of the control tetracene-C60 solar cells (FF = 0.54 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.86 ± 0.23 mA/cm2). We demonstrate that this cascade architecture is effective in reducing losses due to polaron pair recombination at donor-acceptor interfaces, while enhancing spectral coverage, resulting in a substantial increase in the power conversion efficiency for cascade organic photovoltaic cells compared to tetracene and pentacene based devices with a single donor layer. {\textcopyright} 2011 American Chemical Society.",

author = "Schlenker, {Cody W.} and Barlier, {Vincent S.} and Chin, {Stephanie W.} and Whited, {Matthew T.} and McAnally, {R. Eric} and Forrest, {Stephen R.} and Thompson, {Mark E.}",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-C1-015-21 Acknowledgements: We acknowledge generous financial support from Global Photonic Energy Corporation, from the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics (CAMP) (KUS-C1-015-21) of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The Center for Energy Nanoscience, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0001013 is also acknowledged for supporting C.S.W. and REM., who performed the balance of the OPV preparation/testing and analysis presented here. We also acknowledge insightful discussions with Dr. M. Dolores Perez (CNEA) and Professor Chongwu Zhou for the use of his AFM. This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.",

year = "2011",

month = sep,

day = "27",

doi = "10.1021/cm200525h",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "23",

pages = "4132--4140",

journal = "Chemistry of Materials",

issn = "0897-4756",

publisher = "American Chemical Society",

number = "18",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Cascade Organic Solar Cells

AU - Schlenker, Cody W.

AU - Barlier, Vincent S.

AU - Chin, Stephanie W.

AU - Whited, Matthew T.

AU - McAnally, R. Eric

AU - Forrest, Stephen R.

AU - Thompson, Mark E.

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-C1-015-21 Acknowledgements: We acknowledge generous financial support from Global Photonic Energy Corporation, from the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics (CAMP) (KUS-C1-015-21) of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The Center for Energy Nanoscience, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0001013 is also acknowledged for supporting C.S.W. and REM., who performed the balance of the OPV preparation/testing and analysis presented here. We also acknowledge insightful discussions with Dr. M. Dolores Perez (CNEA) and Professor Chongwu Zhou for the use of his AFM. This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

PY - 2011/9/27

Y1 - 2011/9/27

N2 - We demonstrate planar organic solar cells consisting of a series of complementary donor materials with cascading exciton energies, incorporated in the following structure: glass/indium-tin-oxide/donor cascade/C 60/bathocuproine/Al. Using a tetracene layer grown in a descending energy cascade on 5,6-diphenyl-tetracene and capped with 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyl- tetracene, where the accessibility of the π-system in each material is expected to influence the rate of parasitic carrier leakage and charge recombination at the donor/acceptor interface, we observe an increase in open circuit voltage (Voc) of approximately 40% (corresponding to a change of +200 mV) compared to that of a single tetracene donor. Little change is observed in other parameters such as fill factor and short circuit current density (FF = 0.50 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.55 ± 0.23 mA/cm2) compared to those of the control tetracene-C60 solar cells (FF = 0.54 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.86 ± 0.23 mA/cm2). We demonstrate that this cascade architecture is effective in reducing losses due to polaron pair recombination at donor-acceptor interfaces, while enhancing spectral coverage, resulting in a substantial increase in the power conversion efficiency for cascade organic photovoltaic cells compared to tetracene and pentacene based devices with a single donor layer. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

AB - We demonstrate planar organic solar cells consisting of a series of complementary donor materials with cascading exciton energies, incorporated in the following structure: glass/indium-tin-oxide/donor cascade/C 60/bathocuproine/Al. Using a tetracene layer grown in a descending energy cascade on 5,6-diphenyl-tetracene and capped with 5,6,11,12-tetraphenyl- tetracene, where the accessibility of the π-system in each material is expected to influence the rate of parasitic carrier leakage and charge recombination at the donor/acceptor interface, we observe an increase in open circuit voltage (Voc) of approximately 40% (corresponding to a change of +200 mV) compared to that of a single tetracene donor. Little change is observed in other parameters such as fill factor and short circuit current density (FF = 0.50 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.55 ± 0.23 mA/cm2) compared to those of the control tetracene-C60 solar cells (FF = 0.54 ± 0.02 and Jsc = 2.86 ± 0.23 mA/cm2). We demonstrate that this cascade architecture is effective in reducing losses due to polaron pair recombination at donor-acceptor interfaces, while enhancing spectral coverage, resulting in a substantial increase in the power conversion efficiency for cascade organic photovoltaic cells compared to tetracene and pentacene based devices with a single donor layer. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/597737

UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cm200525h

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053005987&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/cm200525h

DO - 10.1021/cm200525h

M3 - Article

SN - 0897-4756

VL - 23

SP - 4132

EP - 4140

JO - Chemistry of Materials

JF - Chemistry of Materials

IS - 18

ER -

Cascade Organic Solar Cells

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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