Structure, Optical Absorption, and Performance of Organic Solar Cells Improved by Gold Nanoparticles in Buffer Layers

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b07983
• Publication Date: 2015-10-19T12:10:20Z
• Authors: Yingguo Yang; Shanglei Feng; Meng Li; Zhongwei Wu; Xiao Fang; Fei Wang; Dongping Geng; Tieying Yang; Xiaolong Li; Baoquan Sun; Xingyu Gao
• Keywords: Buffer (optical fiber)

11-Mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA)-stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) embedded in copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) were used as a buffer layer between poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (P3HT)/[6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric methyl ester (PCBM) bulk heterojunction and anodic indium–tin oxide (ITO) substrate. As systematic synchrotron-based grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) experiments demonstrated that the AuNPs present can improve microstructure of active with better lamella packing P3HT from surface to interior, UV–visible absorption spectrum measurements revealed enhanced optical due localized plasma resonance (LSPR) generated by AuNPs. The device ITO/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate/CuPc:MUA-stabilized AuNPs/P3HT:PCBM/LiF/Al was found over 24% enhancement power conversion efficiency (PCE) comparison reference devices without This remarkable improvement PCE should be partially attributed LSPR improved crystallization well preferred orientation order presence AuNPs, which would promote more applications metal NPs organic photovoltaic other multilayer devices.