Relating open-circuit voltage losses to the active layer morphology and contact selectivity in organic solar cellsShow others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, ISSN 2050-7488, Vol. 6, no 26, p. 12574-12581Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
We demonstrate that voltage losses due to both radiative and non-radiative recombination of charge carriers are strongly dependent on D/A phase separation. By processing the active layer with various solvent additives, we create distinct morphologies that lead to significantly different device open-circuit voltages (V-OC), even though the charge transfer state energy (E-CT) of the D/A blend remains rather constant. We find that radiative recombination losses are significantly increased for a finely intermixed morphology, due to the large D/A interface area. This leads to a total recombination loss of E-CT - qV(OC) approximate to 0.7 eV. However, considerably smaller losses (0.5 eV), due to suppressed non-radiative recombination, are possible in solar cells where the D/A materials are organized to only allow for selective charge carrier extraction. Using a drift diffusion model, we show that the origin of the reduced non-radiative recombination losses is related to an effect which has not been considered for optimized solar cells - the suppression of minority carrier diffusion to the wrong contact. Our results suggest that the built-in field is not sufficiently strong even in optimized organic solar cells and that selective carrier extraction is critical for further improvements in V-OC.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY , 2018. Vol. 6, no 26, p. 12574-12581
National Category
Physical Chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-149848DOI: 10.1039/c8ta01195hISI: 000437469300041OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-149848DiVA, id: diva2:1236449
Note
Funding Agencies|Swedish Energy Agency; Swedish Science Council; Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Ministry of Science and Technology [2016YFA0200700]; NSFC [21504066, 21534003]; Swiss National Science Foundation; Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
2018-08-022018-08-022018-08-02