ID 19

2021 18TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING,

COMPUTING SCIENCE AND AUTOMATIC CONTROL
(CCE 2021)

“Double ETL in ITO-free poly-3-hexylthiophene-based organic solar cells”

Speaker: M. C. Jesús Fernando Solís Vivanco

Principal Advisor: PhD. José Santos Cruz
Second Advisor: PhD. María Concepción Arenas Arrocena

Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro

Facultad de Química
Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía

Santiago de Querétaro, Querétaro. November 10th, 2021.

Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Content

• Introduction
• Methodology
• Results
• References

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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Introduction

“They are particularly promising due to the abundance of base

materials, low cost and relatively easy chemical synthesis”
Amador Bedolla et. al. 2013

“It is the only cell technology that can fully address the challenge of
large-scale cell manufacturing”
M. Hösel et. al., 2013

“They have promising applications due to their excellent electrical,

optical, thermal and mechanical properties”
Kavitha Pathakoti et. al., 2018

“They can be flexible and light ... can be used on windows”

Jacob Marsh, 2019

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 Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Introduction
Ag
• Great electrical properties.
• Work function = 4.4 eV

MoO3 • Improves the stability of cells in air.

• Work function = 5.3 eV • Increases the life time.
• Band gap = 3.2 eV • Low surface roughness.

P3HT
Donor material • Relative stability and scalability.
• HOMO = 5.2 eV. PC61BM
• Absorption in the range between
• LUMO = 3.3 eV.
Acceptor material 300 and 650 nm.
• Band gap= 1.9 eV. • HOMO = 5.9 eV.
• Relative low cost
• LUMO = 3.9 eV.
• Band gap = 2 eV.

PFN
•Work function =4.2 eV
• High transmission over 300 nm.
TiO2 • Increase air stability.
• VB = 7.2 eV • Low surface roughness.
Fig. 1. Structure of an inverted organic cell and its • CB = 4.2 eV
energy levels’ diagram • Band gap = 3.2 eV

FTO • Thermal stability over 350 °C.

P3HT: Poly(3-hexylthiophene)
PC61BM: [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester •Work function = 4.4 eV • Less expensive. 4
PFN: Poly [(9,9-bis(3'-(N,N-dimethylamino)propyl)-2,7-fluorene)-alt-2,7-(9,9–dioctylfluorene)]
Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Methodology

Deposition
Cleaning of Deposition Deposition Deposition
of Active
substrates of ETL of HTL of contacts
layer
In ultrasonic bath
using soap, acetone, Prepare a sol-gel of
and ethanol TiO2
(15 min each one)

Deposit using Spin-

coating and anneal
at 550 °C for 1 hour
(~70 nm)

Deposit using Spin-

Prepare a solution Deposition of MoO3 Deposition of Ag
coating and anneal
of PFN in methanol using PVD system using PVD system
at 100 °C for 8 min
(2 mg/mL) (~10 nm) (~100 nm)
(~250 nm)

Deposit using Spin-

Prepare a
coating and anneal
P3HT:PCBM solution
at 100 °C for 8 min
(25 mg/mL)
(~10 nm)
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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Results

Fig. 2. Energy level diagram of structures a) FTO/TiO2/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag, b)

FTO/PFN/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag and c) FTO/TiO2/PFN/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag.

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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Results

Fig. 3. Transmission spectra of TiO2, PFN, and TiO2/PFN layers. Fig. 4. Tauc’s plot of a) TiO2 and b) TiO2/PFN layers.

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 Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Results
Table I. Electrical properties of the constructed cells using
TiO2, PFN and TiO2/PFN as transport layers.
Jsc Voc PCE Av. PCE
ETL Sample FF
(mA/cm2) (Volts) (%) (%)
1 11.97 0.28 0.41 1.35
2 11.92 0.40 0.42 1.97

TiO2
3 11.81 0.28 0.42 1.37 1.59
4 12.39 0.33 0.43 1.77
5 12.04 0.30 0.41 1.49
1 13.01 0.60 0.55 4.29

TiO2 /PFN
2 12.19 0.60 0.43 3.14
3 12.47 0.60 0.54 4.06 3.90
4 12.51 0.60 0.54 4.10
5 11.99 0.60 0.55 3.93
1 11.35 0.42 0.32 1.54
2 11.15 0.40 0.33 1.46

PFN
3 11.44 0.39 0.34 1.55 1.52
4 11.30 0.40 0.33 1.52
5 11.29 0.38 0.35 1.53

Table II. Electrical properties of the best constructed cells using TiO2, PFN
and TiO2/PFN as transport layers against a typical organic solar cell.
Jsc Voc PCE
Structure configuration
(mA/cm2) (Volts) FF (%)
Fig. 5. J-V curves of organic solar cells with structure configuration a)
FTO/TiO2/AL/MoO3/Ag 11.92 0.40 0.42 1.97
FTO/TiO2/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag, b) FTO/TiO2/PFN/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag
FTO/PFN/AL/MoO3/Ag 11.44 0.39 0.34 1.55
and c) FTO/PFN/P3HT:C61BM/MoO3/Ag. FTO/TiO2/PFN/AL/MoO3/Ag 13.01 0.60 0.55 4.29
ITO/PEDOT:PSS/AL/Al* 12.80 0.64 0.63 5.15
*AL: Active layer (P3HT:PC61BM).
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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Conclusions

1. UV-Vis spectra shows that TiO2 layer decrease its Eg, by using a PFN layer, from 3.23
eV to 3.12 eV reducing the energy required to transport the electrons.
2. Cells built with FTO/TiO2/P3HT:PC61BM/MoO3/Ag,
FTO/PFN/P3HT:PC61BM/MoO3/Ag and FTO/TiO2/PFN/P3HT:PC61BM/MoO3/Ag
configuration showed good electrical properties.
3. While PFN like ETL manages to increase open circuit voltage, TiO 2 has a considerable
impact on short circuit current density and fill factor.
4. In addition, when using a double ETL composed of TiO2/PFN, the benefits of both
layers are complemented by increasing energy conversion efficiency almost 2.5 times,
compared to using only one of them.
5. The best cell built has a configuration FTO/TiO2/PFN/P3HT:PC61BM/MoO3/Ag with a
Jsc of 13.01 mA/cm2, a Voc of 0.60 Volts, a FF of 0.55 and a power conversion
efficiency of 4.29%.

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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro References

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Posgrado en Ciencias de la Energía
Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro

¡Thank you!

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