Experimentally Calibrated Kinetic Monte Carlo Model Reproduces Organic Solar Cell Current-Voltage Curve

Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations are a powerful tool to study the dynamics of charge carriers in organic photovoltaics. However, the key characteristic of any photovoltaic device, its current-voltage ($J$-$V$) curve under solar illumination, has proven challenging to simulate using KMC. The main challenges arise from the presence of injecting contacts and the importance of charge recombination when the internal electric field is low, i.e., close to open-circuit conditions. In this work, an experimentally calibrated KMC model is presented that can fully predict the $J$-$V$ curve of a disordered organic solar cell. It is shown that it is crucial to make experimentally justified assumptions on the injection barriers, the blend morphology, and the kinetics of the charge transfer state involved in geminate and nongeminate recombination. All of these properties are independently calibrated using charge extraction, electron microscopy, and transient absorption measurements, respectively. Clear evidence is provided that the conclusions drawn from microscopic and transient KMC modeling are indeed relevant for real operating organic solar cell devices.Comment: final version; license update

A Simple Organic Solar Cell

Finding renewable sources of energy is becoming an increasingly important component of scientific research. Greater competition for existing sources of energy has strained the world’s supply and demand balance and has increased the prices of traditional sources of energy such as oil, coal, and natural gas. The experiment discussed in this paper is designed to identify and build an inexpensive and simple method for creating an effective organic solar cell

Optimization of PEDOT: PSS thin film for organic solar cell application

As a clean and renewable energy source, the development of the organics solar cells is very promising due to the inorganic solar cell inconvenient production process and material shortness. In this work, P3HT: PCBM bulk-heterojunction devices were produced by spin coating organic layers onto ITO coated glass in air, and deposited it with an Au layer as top metal electrode. Inverted devices were fabricated with and without PEDOT:PSS. Then, several attempts have been conducted to improve power conversion efficiency by optimizing different thicknesses of the interlayer between active layer and metal. Power conversion efficiency, short circuit current, open circuit voltage and fill factor were measured on all produced devices. In contrast, the devices with 50 nm thickness of PEDOT: PSS layer showed as better solar cell with 0.0394% efficiency compared to the devices without PEDOT:PSS. As a result, introduction of PEDOT:PSS layer on active layer improves hole collection at the metal / active layer interface

Photovoltaic characterizations of nanocomposited MEH-PPV: TiO₂ organic solar cell / Fazlinashatul Suhaidah Zahid

Recently, interest has been growing in these past few years in incorporating poly [2- methoxy-5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-l,4-phenylene-vinylene] (MEH-PPV) polymer and Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) nanocomposite based organic solar cell devices. The MEHPPV: TiO₂ nanocomposite was being studied more closely because it is possible to combine the desirable characteristics between MEH-PPV and TiO₂ within a single composite for organic solar cell application. In this study, several critical parameters were studied regarding the optimum properties of MEH-PPV: TiO₂ for use in organic solar cell including the composition of TiO₂ nanoparticles present in MEH-PPV polymer matrix (0- 40wt%), the choice of organic solvent to dissolve MEH-PPV polymer (chloroform,tetrahydrofuran, toluene, xylene and dichlorobenzene) and the influence of nanocomposite thin film’s drying temperature (50-125°C). Moreover, synthesize and modification of TiO₂ nanoparticles size to be embed in MEH-PPV polymer been studied by varied its precursor molar concentrations (0.1-0.5M) and Niobium (Nb) doping concentrations (0-10 at.%) prepared by sol-gel immerse heated method. The deposition and fabrication of MEH-PPV: TiO₂ nanocomposite based organic solar cell has been carried out by spin-coating deposition method. The properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles and MEH-PPV: TiO₂ nanocomposite thin films were analyzed using X-Ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy ultraviolet-near-infrared spectrophotometer, surface profiler and two-probe current-voltage measurement systems

Organic Solar Cell at Room Temperature

Organic electronics have become of great interest in the field of materials science research due to the potential for flexible electronic devices and low cost technologies. Difficulties emerge with creating a stable and efficient device, while still maintaining a simple and room-temperature production process. With the advent of relatively stable organic semiconductors and graphene (or other nanotube or fullerene morphologies), it is possible to fabricate photovoltaic cells at near room temperature. By stacking these cells, devices of reasonable efficiencies \u3e5% can be fabricated. Devices were created with a perylene-P3HT photoactive layer, polyaniline buffer layer, and PEDOT:PSS as the hole transport material. Devices were fabricated, tested for J-V characteristics, and re-designed for a final structure

Organic solar cell exploratory research

Principles governing the photovoltaic effect in organic materials on the molecular level are studied and applied to the design and fabrication of laboratory devices having a photovoltaic organic polymer film as their key element. Progress to date has been in three areas: (1) materials synthesis; (2) apparatus development; and (3) ultra-thin film fabrication

Organic photovoltaics: pushing the knowledge of interfaces

The use of a spectroscopy technique called pump–push–probe electro-absorption provides insight into the energetic landscape of nanostructured donor–acceptor interfaces in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cell