• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.126-132
• /
• 2017

The power conversion efficiency of organic polymer solar cells was enhanced by introducing a ferroelectric polymer layer at the interface between active layer and metal electrode. The power conversion efficiency was increased by 50% through the enhancement of the open circuit voltage. To investigate the role of the ferroelectric layer on the dissociation process of the excitons, non-radiative portion of the exciton decay was directly measured by using photoacoustic technique. The results show that the ferroelectric nature of the buffer layer does not play any roles on the dissociation process of the excitons, which indicates the efficiency enhancement is not due to the ferroelectricity of the buffer layer.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.424-428
• /
• 2008

We prepared an ionic gel polymer electrolyte for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) without leakage problem. Triiodide compound (BTDI) was synthesized by the reaction of benzene tricarbonyl trichloride with diethylene glycol monotosylate and subsequent substitution of tosylate by iodide using NaI. Bisimidazole was prepared by the reaction of imidazole with the triethylene glycol ditosylate under strongly basic condition provided by NaH. BTDI and bisimidazole dissolved in an ionic liquid were injected into the cells and permeated into the $TiO_2$ nanopores. In situ crosslinking was then carried out by heating to form a network structure of poly(imidazolium iodide), thereby converting the ionic liquid electrolytes to a gel or a quasi-solid state. A monomer (BTDI and bisimidazole) concentration in the electrolytes of as low as 30 wt% was sufficient to form a stable gel type electrolyte. The DSSCs based on the gel polymer electrolytes showed a power conversion efficiency of as high as 1.15% with a short circuit current density of $5.69\;mAcm^{-2}$, an open circuit voltage of 0.525 V, and a fill factor of 0.43.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2006.10a
• /
• pp.274-274
• /
• 2006

Recently, conjugated polymer solar cells have attracted a great deal of attention. In this work, we applied the various scanning probe techniques to characterize composite materials typically used to fabricate polymer solar cells: poly-3(hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and P3HT/PCBM/Au nanoparticle (NP) samples. The latter is studied due to the idea of using the gold NP surface plasmon to enhance the optical absorption of the composite films. AFM is used to characterize the film morphology whereas conducting AFM is used to study the charge transport properties at the nanoscale. We found that there is a direct correlation between the nanoscale charge transport measurements and the device efficiencies.

• Polymer Science and Technology
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.557-562
• /
• 2010

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.467-474
• /
• 2020

Polymer solar cells have attracted extensive attention over the past decade due to their benefits, such as good solution-process-ability, light weight, low-cost, mechanically flexibility, and high efficiency. Conjugated (CPE) and non-conjugated (NPE) polyelectrolyte materials have been employed to avoid the typical weaknesses associated with conventional metal oxide interlayers. However, the application of CPEs is more complicated than that of NPEs because the synthesis procedures are complicated. NPEs containing charged ion groups can provide numerous benefits for renewable energy applications. Especially when implemented in polymer solar cells.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.10a
• /
• pp.1204-1207
• /
• 2009

We investigated the device performance of bulk heterojunction solar cells depending on the active layer thickness. For the systematic comparison, the polymer solar cells comprising RR-P3HT:PCBM (1:0.8 (wt%:wt%)) blend films with different thickness were characterized by impedance spectroscopy, and J-V measurement in dark and solar simulated illumination. The device with 120 nm thickness of active layer exhibited maximum power conversion efficiency of 3.5 % under AM 1.5 100mW/$cm^2$ illumination condition.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.179-184
• /
• 2014

In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (O-AgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (WAgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FT-IR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPs were highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymer layer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects on the device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density ($J_{SC}$) of the solar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPs introduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and their blending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.9
• /
• pp.589-594
• /
• 2016

P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction solar cells added with ferroelectric polymer were fabricated and characterized. By incorporating P3HT:PCBM solar cell with P(VDF-TrFE) ferroelectric additive, the power conversion efficiency was increased up to nearly 50%. Photoacoustic analysis on this phenomena was carried out for the first time. Through this study, we find that the ferroelectricity of the polymer additive plays the key role in the enhancement of the power conversion efficiency of the organic solar cell by suppressing the non-radiative recombination of charge transfer exciton more effectively.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
• /
• v.35 no.12
• /
• pp.2496-2503
• /
• 2018

The short-term stability of high efficiency polymer : nonfullerene solar cells was investigated by employing a quick (ten cycles) current density-voltage (J-V) cycling method. Polymer : nonfullerene solar cells with initial power conversion efficiency (PCE) of >10% were fabricated using bulk heterojunction (BHJ) films of poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5b']dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1',3'-di-2-thienyl-5,7'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1',2'-c:4',5'-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione))] (PBDB-T) and 3,9-bis(2-methylene-((3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-6/7-methyl)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2',3'-d']-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b']dithiophene (IT-M). One set of the BHJ (PBDB-T : IT-M) films was thermally annealed at $160^{\circ}C$ for 30min, while another set was used without any thermal treatment after spin-coating. The quick J-V scan (cycling) measurement disclosed that the PCE decay was relatively slower for the annealed BHJ layers than the unannealed (as-cast) BHJ layers. As a result, after ten cycles, the annealed BHJ layers delivered higher PCE than the unannealed BHJ layers due to higher and more stable trend in fill factor. The present quick J-V cycling method is simple but expected to be useful for the prediction of short-term stability in organic solar cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.394-394
• /
• 2009

Water solubility of conjugated polymers may offer many applications. Potential applications of water-soluble conjugated polymers include the polymer light-emitting diode and new materials for nano and micro hollow-capsules, and bio- or chemo-sensors. We synthesized neutral polyfluorenes containing bromo-alkyl groups by the palladium catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction. Bromo-alkyl side groups in neutral polyfluorenes were quaternized by tri-methyl amine solution. The electrochemical and optical properties of water-soluble conjugated polymers are discussed. This novel synthesized water-soluble conjugated polymers were used as a interfacial dipole layer between active layer and metal cathode in polymer solar cell for enhancement of open-circuit voltage (Voc), which is one of the most critical factors in determining device characteristics. We also investigated the device performance of polymer solar cell with different metal cathode such as Al, Ag, Au and Cu. In polymer solar cell, novel cationic water-soluble conjugated polymers were inserted between active layer and high-work function cathode (Al, Ag, Au and Cu).