Enhanced photovoltaic performance of inverted hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells using TiO2/reduced graphene oxide films as electron transport layers

Andreia Morais; João Paulo C. Alves; Francisco Anderson S. Lima; Monica Lira-Cantu; Ana Flavia Nogueira

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.5.057408

12 March 2015 Enhanced photovoltaic performance of inverted hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells using TiO2/reduced graphene oxide films as electron transport layers

Andreia Morais, João Paulo C. Alves, Francisco Anderson S. Lima, Monica Lira-Cantu, Ana Flavia Nogueira

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 5, Issue 1, 057408 (March 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.5.057408

Abstract

In this study, we investigated inverted hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells with the following configuration: fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) |TiO₂/RGO|P3HT:PC₆₁BM|V₂O₅ or PEDOT:PSS|Ag. The TiO₂/GO dispersions were prepared by sol-gel method, employing titanium isopropoxide and graphene oxide (GO) as starting materials. The GO concentration was varied from 0.1 to 4.0 wt%. The corresponding dispersions were spin-coated onto FTO substrates and a thermal treatment was performed to remove organic materials and to reduce GO to reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The TiO₂/RGO films were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and microscopy techniques. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images showed that the addition of RGO significantly changes the morphology of the TiO₂ films, with loss of uniformity and increase in surface roughness. Independent of the use of V₂O₅ or PEDOT: PSS films as the hole transport layer, the incorporation of 2.0 wt% of RGO into TiO₂ films was the optimal concentration for the best organic photovoltaic performance. The solar cells based on TiO₂/RGO (2.0 wt%) electrode exhibited a ∼22.3% and ∼28.9% short circuit current density (J_sc) and a power conversion efficiency enhancement, respectively, if compared with the devices based on pure TiO₂ films. Kelvin probe force microscopy images suggest that the incorporation of RGO into TiO₂ films can promote the appearance of regions with different charge dissipation capacities.

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Andreia Morais, João Paulo C. Alves, Francisco Anderson S. Lima, Monica Lira-Cantu, and Ana Flavia Nogueira "Enhanced photovoltaic performance of inverted hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells using TiO2/reduced graphene oxide films as electron transport layers," Journal of Photonics for Energy 5(1), 057408 (12 March 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.5.057408

Published: 12 March 2015

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