Journal Article

Effects of Solvent Additive and Micro-Patterned Substrate on the Properties of Thin Films Based on P3HT:PC70BM Blends Deposited by MAPLE

Thanner, Christine, Stanculescu, Anca, Rasoga, Oana, Stavarache, Ionel, Stochioiu, Andrei, Petre, Gabriela, Popescu-Pelin, Gianina, Iftimie, Sorina, Preda, Nicoleta, Breazu, Carmen, Socol, Gabriel, Socol, Marcela

2022

Overview

Lately, there is a growing interest in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells due to the organic materials’ properties and compatibility with various types of substrates. However, their efficiencies are low relative to the silicon ones; therefore, other ways (i.e., electrode micron/nanostructuring, synthesis of new organic materials, use of additives) to improve their performances are still being sought. In this context, we studied the behavior of the common organic bulk heterojunction (P3HT:PC70BM) deposited by matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) with/without 0.3% of 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) additive on flat and micro-patterned ITO substrates. The obtained results showed that in the MAPLE process, a small quantity of additive can modify the morphology of the organic films and decrease their roughness. Besides the use of the additive, the micro-patterning of the electrode leads to a greater increase in the absorption of the studied photovoltaic structures. The inferred values of the filling factors for the measured cells in ambient conditions range from 19% for the photovoltaic structures with no additive and without substrate patterning to 27% for the counterpart structures with patterning and a small quantity of additive.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Additives / Analysis / Chemical properties / Dielectric films / Electrodes / Glass substrates / Heterojunctions / Lasers / Methods / Morphology / Organic materials / Photovoltaic cells / Pulsed lasers / Semiconductors / Solvents / Substrates / Thin films / Vapor-plating