By introducing a thin ZnO layer as an optical spacer, we have demonstrated that inserting this layer between an active layer and a reflective electrode results in a re-distribution of the optical electric field inside bulk heterojunction solar cells. A theoretical analysis by optical modeling showed that the thin ZnO layer could shift the position of the maximum of the electric field into the a...

Amide functionalized anthradithiophenes (ADTs) play active acceptor roles in polymer bulk-heterojunction solar cells. The first separation of ADT isomers is reported, and the regiochemistry of the ADT has significant impact on crystal packing and solar cell performance. Cell efficiency up to 0.80%, due in large part to high open-circuit voltage (V(OC) > 1.0 V), is achieved in bulk-heterojunctio...

Despite numerous organic semiconducting materials synthesized for organic photovoltaics in the past decade, fullerenes are widely used as electron acceptors in highly efficient bulk-heterojunction solar cells. None of the non-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells have achieved efficiencies as high as fullerene-based solar cells. Design principles for fullerene-free acceptors remain unclear ...

Abstract. Organic and hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells are investigated. We describe the synthesis and solar cell characteristics of well-defined functional thiophene dendrimers. Three-dimensional morphologies of the polymer – metal oxide bulk heterojunctions are analysed with electron tomography and are analysed and simulated with stochastic models, to establish the effect of processing ...

A nanocrystal thin-film solar cell operating on an exciton splitting pattern requires a highly efficient separation of electron-hole pairs and transportation of separated charges. A hybrid bulk-heterojunction (HBH) nanostructure providing a large contact area and interpenetrated charge channels is favorable to an inorganic nanocrystal solar cell with high performance. For this freshly appeared ...

Constructing a highly efficient bulk-heterojunction is of critical importance to the hybrid organic/inorganic solar cells. Here in this work, we introduce a novel hybrid architecture containing P3HT nanowire and CdSe nanotetrapod as bicontinuous charge channels for holes and electrons, respectively. Compared to the traditionally applied P3HT molecules, the well crystallized P3HT nanowires quali...

   A modified morphology was introduced for poly(3-hexylthiophene):phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PC71BM) bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells by thermal and solvent annealing treatments in the presence of hydrophilic-hydrophobic block copolymers. Power conversion efficiency (PCE) plummet was prohibited during both thermal and solvent treatments for all BHJ devices modified wit...

Bulk heterojunction organic solar cells based on small molecules are often fabricated by the co-deposition of donor and accepter materials on substrates placed horizontally. An intimate blend of donor and acceptor molecules is the common product in as-prepared samples. Using metal phthalocyanine as the donor and fullerene as the acceptor, we tilt the substrate to deposit the active layer. Both ...

We have fabricated inverted heterojunction solar cell devices incorporating [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester/poly(3-hexylthiophene) core/shell nanorod arrays by using an anodic alumina oxide template. The internal quantum efficiencies and external quantum efficiencies of these core/shell nanorod inverted solar cells were higher than those of the corresponding conventional inverted b...

A chemical model of deterioration of a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell containing a photooxidized product of 1,4-bis(dimethylphenylsilylmethyl)[60]fullerene suggests that molecular oxygen degrades device performance by two mechanisms.