Temperature Dependence of Transport Properties of Spiro-MeOTAD as a Hole Transport Material in Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

The internal transport and recombination parameters of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSCs) using the amorphous organic semiconductor 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(<i>N,N</i>-di-<i>p</i>-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-MeOTAD) as a hole transport material (HTM) are investigated using electrical impedance spectroscopy. Devices were fabricated using flat and nanostructured TiO₂ and compared to systems using nanostructured ZrO₂ to differentiate between the transport processes within the different components of the ssDSC. The effect of chemically p-doping the HTM on its transport was investigated, and its temperature dependence was examined and analyzed using the Arrhenius equation. Using this approach the activation energy of the hole hopping transport within the undoped spiro-MeOTAD film was determined to be 0.34 ± 0.02 and 0.40 ± 0.02 eV for the mesoporous TiO₂ and ZrO₂ systems, respectively