am6b10173_si_001.pdf (306 kB)
Improved Performance of Polymer Solar Cells by Thermal Evaporation of AgAl Alloy Nanostructures into the Hole-Transport Layer
journal contribution
posted on 2016-09-13, 00:00 authored by Jinfeng Wang, Xiangkun Jia, Jianping Zhou, Likun Pan, Sumei Huang, Xiaohong ChenThe performance characteristics of
polymer solar cells (PSCs) incorporated
with AgAl and Ag nanostructures and MoO3 spacer layers
were investigated. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PSCs is
sensitive to the nominal thicknesses of the AgAl nanostructures and
the MoO3 spacer layer. The PCE of a PSC with a 3-nm-thick
layer of AgAl nanostructures and a 1-nm-thick MoO3 isolation
layer reached 9.79%, which is higher than the PCE (8.55%) of the reference
PSC without metal nanostructures. Compared to PSCs with Ag nanostructures,
PSCs with AgAl nanostructures showed better stability and still retained
60% of their initial PCE values after aging for 120 days in air without
encapsulation. The enhanced stability of the PSCs is attributed to
the formation of AlOx, which can inhibit
the diffusion of Ag atoms into the neighboring layer. The localized
surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) effect of AgAl nanostructures was
retained by inserting an only 1-nm-thick MoO3 spacer layer
between the metal nanostructures and the metal electrode. Our work
has demonstrated that using AgAl alloy instead of Ag as plasmonic
nanostructures is a better strategy for improving the performance
of PSCs, especially in terms of the stability of the cells.