Jeroen Drijkoningen

ABSTRACT A series of low bandgap copolymers composed of N-acyl-substituted dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrroles (DTPs) as the electron rich donor constituents (with various alkyl side chain patterns) combined with different electron deficient acceptor building blocks are developed for polymer solar cell applications. Due to the introduction of the N-acyl substituents, the HOMO energy levels of the push–pull copolymers decrease as compared to the N-alkyl-DTP analogues, resulting in an increased open-circuit voltage (Voc) and hence solar cell performance. For an N-acyl-DTP-alt-thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (PDTP-TPD) copolymer a bulk heterojunction device with a Voc up to 0.80 V and a power conversion efficiency of 4.0% is obtained, the highest value for DTP-based polymer materials to date. Moreover, by implementation of a conjugated polyelectrolyte cathode interlayer the short-circuit current noticeably increases, enhancing the solar cell efficiency to 5.8%.

ABSTRACT Printed chalcopyrite thin films have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to their potential in the high-throughput production of photovoltaic devices. To improve the homogeneity of printed CuInSe2 (CISe) layers, chemical additives such as binder can be added to the precursor ink. In this contribution, we investigate the influence of the dicyandiamide (DCDA) content, used as a binder in the precursor ink, on the physical and electrical properties of printed CISe solar cells. It is shown that the use of the binder leads to a dense absorber, composed of large CISe grains close to the surface, while the bulk of the layer consists of CISe crystallites embedded in a CuxS particle based matrix, resulting from the limited sintering of the precursor in this region. The expected additional carbon contamination of the CISe layer due to the addition of the binder appears to be limited, and the optical properties of the CISe layer are similar to the reference sample without additive. The electrical characterization of the corresponding CISe/CdS solar cells shows a degradation of the efficiency of the devices, due to a modification in the predominant recombination mechanisms and a limitation of the space charge region width when using the binder; both effects could be explained by the inhomogeneity of the bulk of the CISe absorber and high defect density at the CISe/CuxS-based matrix interface.

ABSTRACT Triplet exciton (TE) formation pathways are systematically investigated in prototype bulk heterojunction (BHJ) “super yellow” poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (SY-PPV) solar cell devices with varying fullerene compositions using complementary optoelectrical and electrically detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) spectroscopies. It is shown that EDMR spectroscopy allows the unambiguous demonstration of fullerene triplet production in BHJ polymer:fullerene solar cells. EDMR triplet detection under selective photoexcitation of each blend component and of the interfacial charge transfer (CT) state reveals that low lying fullerene TEs are produced by direct intersystem crossing from singlet excitons (SEs). The direct CT-TE recombination pathway, although energetically feasible, is kinetically suppressed in these devices. However, high energy CT states in the CT manifold can contribute to the population of the fullerene triplet state via a direct CT-SE conversion. This undesirable energetic alignment could be one of the causes for the severe reduction in photocurrent observed when the open-circuit voltage of polymer:fullerene solar cells is pushed to 1.0 V or beyond.