Full Paper

Enhanced Performance in Polymer Solar Cells by Surface Energy Control

  1. Xavier Bulliard1,
  2. Soo-Ghang Ihn1,
  3. Sungyoung Yun1,
  4. Yungi Kim1,
  5. Dukhyun Choi3,
  6. Jae-Young Choi1,
  7. Min Kim2,
  8. Myungsun Sim2,
  9. Jong-Hwan Park2,
  10. Woong Choi1,*,
  11. Kilwon Cho2,*

Article first published online: 20 OCT 2010

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201000960

Issue

Advanced Functional Materials

Advanced Functional Materials

Volume 20, Issue 24, pages 4381–4387, December 21, 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Bulliard, X., Ihn, S.-G., Yun, S., Kim, Y., Choi, D., Choi, J.-Y., Kim, M., Sim, M., Park, J.-H., Choi, W. and Cho, K. (2010), Enhanced Performance in Polymer Solar Cells by Surface Energy Control. Adv. Funct. Mater., 20: 4381–4387. doi: 10.1002/adfm.201000960

Author Information

  1. 1

    Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Samsung Electronics, Yongin 446–712, South Korea

  2. 2

    Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790–784, South Korea

  3. 3

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 446–701, South Korea

*Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Samsung Electronics, Yongin 446–712, South Korea

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 15 DEC 2010
  2. Article first published online: 20 OCT 2010
  3. Manuscript Received: 14 MAY 2010

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (473K)

Keywords:

  • solar cells;
  • organic electronics;
  • self-assembly;
  • photovoltaic devices;
  • structure-property relationships

Abstract

Enhanced performance of an inverted-type polymer solar cell is reported by controlling the surface energy of a zinc oxide (ZnO) buffer layer, on which a photoactive layer composed of a polymer:fullerene-derivative bulk heterojunction is formed. With the approach based on a mixed self-assembled monolayer, the surface energy of the ZnO buffer layer can be controlled between 40 mN m−1 and 70 mN m−1 with negligible changes in its work function. For the given range of surface energy the power conversion efficiency increases from 3.27% to 3.70% through enhanced photocurrents. The optimized morphology obtained by surface energy control results in the enhanced photocurrent and transmission electron microscopy analysis verifies the correlation between the surface energy and the phase morphology of the bulk heterojunction. These results demonstrate that surface energy control is an effective method for further improving the performance of polymer solar cells, with potentially important implications for other organic devices containing an interface between a blended organic active layer and a buffer or an electrode layer.

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (473K)