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. 2019 Nov 19;9(65):37714-37723.
doi: 10.1039/c9ra06974g.

The role of cation and anion dopant incorporated into a ZnO electron transporting layer for polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells

Soyeon Kim  1 , Jaehoon Jeong  1 , Quoc Viet Hoang  2 , Joo Won Han  3 , Adi Prasetio  1   3 , Muhammad Jahandar  1 , Yong Hyun Kim  3 , Shinuk Cho  4 , Dong Chan Lim  1
Affiliations

The role of cation and anion dopant incorporated into a ZnO electron transporting layer for polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells

Soyeon Kim et al. RSC Adv. .

Abstract

Doping is a widely-implemented strategy for enhancing the inherent electronic properties of charge transport layers in photovoltaic devices. A facile solution-processed zinc oxide (ZnO) and various cation and anion-doped ZnO layers were synthesized via the sol-gel method and employed as electron transport layers (ETLs) for inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs). The results indicated that all PSCs with doped ZnO ETLs exhibited better photovoltaic performance compared with the PSCs with a pristine ZnO ETL. By exploring the role of various anion and cation dopants (three compounds with the same Al3+ cation: Al(acac)3, Al(NO3)3, AlCl3 and three compounds with the same Cl- anion: NH4Cl, MgCl2, AlCl3), we found that the work function changed to favor electronic extraction only when the Cl anion was involved. In addition, the conductivity of ZnO was enhanced more with the Al3+ cation. Therefore, in inverted solar cells, doping with Al3+ and Cl- delivered the best power conversion efficiency (PCE). The maximum PCE of 10.38% was achieved from the device with ZnO doped with Al+ and Cl-.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. XPS analysis for the selective elements of doped ZnO. (a) C 1s and N 1s bonds of pristine ZnO, (b) C 1s and Al 2p bonds of Al(acac)3-doped ZnO, (c) N 1s and Al 2p peaks of Al(NO3)3-doped ZnO, (d) Cl 2p and Al 2p bonds of AlCl3-doped ZnO, (e) N 1s and Cl 2p peaks of NH4Cl-doped ZnO, (f) Cl 2p and Mg 2p bonds of MgCl2-doped ZnO.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. AFM images of ZnO ETLs. (a) Pristine ZnO, (b) ZnO doped with Al(acac)3, (c) ZnO doped with Al(NO3)3, (d) ZnO doped with AlCl3, (e) ZnO doped with NH4Cl, (f) ZnO doped with MgCl2.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Energy level diagram of doped ZnO layers obtained from the UPS study. Energy levels of active materials (PTB7-Th, PC71BM) and MoOx hole transport layer are presented together.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. (a) SCLC characteristics of PTB7-Th:PC71BM electron only devices (device structures: Al/LiF/PTB7-Th:PC71BM/ETLs/ITO), (b) Nyquist plots of PTB7-Th:PC71BM with various ETLs.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. (a and b) J–V curves and (c and d) EQE spectra of devices with different electron transporting layers.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6. Normalized PCEs of devices with different ETLs as a function of time monitored in an ambient atmosphere under the dark condition.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7. (a) J–V curves of unit cells with PEIE-modified pristine ZnO and an AlCl3-doped ZnO layer, (b) J–V curves of module devices with PEIE-modified pristine ZnO and AlCl3-doped ZnO.
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