Time-dependent efficiency measurements of polymer solar cells with dye additives: unexpected initial increase of efficiency

We report the effects of the addition of two azo-dye additives on the time-dependent efficiency of polymer solar cells. Although the maximum efficiencies of devices containing different amounts of dye do not vary greatly over the selected concentration range, the time dependence results reveal a sur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEPJ Photovoltaics Vol. 9; p. 4
Main Authors Bandaccari, Kyle J., Chesmore, Grace E., Bugaj, Mitchel, Valverde, Parisa Tajalli-Tehrani, Barber, Richard P., McNelis, Brian J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Les Ulis EDP Sciences 2018
Subjects
Absorptivity
Additives
Annealing
Atomic force microscopes
Atomic force microscopy
dye additives
Dyes
Efficiency
Glass substrates
Heterojunctions
Leakage current
Morphology
Photovoltaic cells
polymer photovoltaic
Polymers
Solar cells
Time dependence
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Summary:We report the effects of the addition of two azo-dye additives on the time-dependent efficiency of polymer solar cells. Although the maximum efficiencies of devices containing different amounts of dye do not vary greatly over the selected concentration range, the time dependence results reveal a surprising initial increase in efficiency in some samples. We observe this effect to be correlated with a leakage current, although a specific mechanism is not yet identified. We also present the measured lifetimes of these solar cells, and find that variations in dye concentrations produce a small effect at most. Characterization of the bulk heterojunction layer (active layer) morphology using atomic-force microscope (AFM) imaging reveals reordering patterns which suggest that the primary effects of the dyes arise via structural, not absorptive, characteristics.
ISSN:2105-0716
2105-0716
DOI:10.1051/epjpv/2018003