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Effect of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) dopant on photovoltaic performance improvement of organic solar cells

MAHDI FASIHBEIKI1, FARHAD A. BOROUMAND1,*

Affiliation

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, K.N. Toosi University of Technology, Shariati Street, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

In this study, 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) with different weight ratios (0, 5 and 20 wt %) of the active layer, located between buffer layer and cathode electrode of solar cells, was used to improve the photovoltaic performance of organic solar cells. To clearly evaluate the effect of BTD doping, we have fabricated the active layer with classic low cost (low efficiency) materials. The solar cell structure is poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET) / Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) / poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) / poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) : Fullerene-C60 nanoparticles (C60) (2:1) 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) / Al. The results show that addition of BTD with 20 wt % of the main active layer had the best effect on the output power of the fabricated solar cells with threefold increase (from 2.8 to 9.0 µW/cm2). Additionally, after implementing this method, increase in short circuit current (Jsc) was from 0.012 to 0.036 mA/cm2, while the open circuit voltage (Voc) did not change noticeably. In accordance with analytical models, this study practically suggests that a high mobility dopant such as BTD could be a promising active layer dopant to improve the efficiency of organic solar cells. This efficiency enhancing method is applicable to state of the art organic solar cells..

Keywords

MEH-PPV, Fullerene-C 60 nanoparticles, BTD, Organic solar cells.

Submitted at: June 21, 2018
Accepted at: April 8, 2019

Citation

MAHDI FASIHBEIKI, FARHAD A. BOROUMAND, Effect of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BTD) dopant on photovoltaic performance improvement of organic solar cells, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 21, Iss. 3-4, pp. 230-237 (2019)