• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.11.1-11.1
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• 2009

Bulk-heterojunction type organic photovoltaic cells have been remarkably improved due to the development of efficient donors and post treatment process. However, most of researchers have studied on the OPVs using spin-coating method during the past decade. To commercialize the OPVs, much cheaper printing process should be developed such as inkjet, screen, gravure, and so on. In this study, we have focused on the development of printing technology using Inkjet and Aerosol-Jet printing, which can offer reliable device performance. Finally, 4.5% power conversion efficiency can be achieved under AM 1.5 1sun light illumination, which is the highest value in printed OPVs. We reveal that substantial improvement can be realized by highly efficient bulk heterojunction after printing. Also, we can confirm these two printing methods are promising fabrication methods for large area OPVs. Also, flexible and large area (18 cm2) printed OPVs have been fabricated and device performance will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.421-426
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• 2024

Ru dye (Z-907) is a crucial photosensitizing material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To enhance the utilization of Ru dye's photosensitizing properties in bulk heterojunction solar cells, a method was developed to synthesize phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) nanoparticles that are chemically linked to Ru dye. PCBM contains a methoxy (-OCH₃) group, whereas Ru dye incorporates a carboxyl group (-COOH) within its molecular structure. By exploiting these complementary functional groups, a successful bond between Ru dye and PCBM was established through an anhydride functional group. The coupling of PCBM with Ru dye results in a modification of the energy levels, yielding lower LUMO (3.8 eV) and HOMO (6.1 eV) levels, compared with the LUMO (3.0 eV) and HOMO (5.2 eV) levels of Ru dye alone. This configuration potentially facilitates efficient electron transfer from Ru dye to PCBM, alongside promoting hole transfer from Ru dye to the conducting polymer. Consequently, the bulk heterojunction solar cells incorporating this Ru dye-PCBM configuration demonstrate superior performance, with an open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.62 V, short circuit current (J_sc) of 0.63 mA cm^-2, fill factor (FF) of 65.6%, and a photovoltaic conversion efficiency (η) of 0.25%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.48-53
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• 2016

We report the effect of physical load on the stability of organic solar cells under physical loads. The active layers in organic solar cells were fabricated with bulk heterojunction films (BHJ) films of poly (3-hexylthiophene) and phenyl-$C_{61}$-butyric methyl ester. The loading time was varied up to 60 s by keeping the physical load constant. Results showed that the open circuit voltage was not influenced by the physical load but other solar cell parameters were sensitive to the loading time. The fill factor was very slightly increased at 15 s, while short circuit current density was well kept for 30 s. The power conversion efficiency was reasonably maintained for 45 s but became significantly decreased by the continuous loading for 60 s.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.43.2-43.2
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• 2011

Minority Carrier recombination should be suppressed for high efficiency solar cells. However, impurities in the silicon bulk region deteriorate the minority carrier lifetimes, causes conversion efficiency drop. In this study, we introduced phosphorus external gettering for silicon heterojunction solar cell substrates. Gettering was undergone at 750, 800, 850 and $900^{\circ}C$ in furnace for 30 minutes. Bulk lifetimes and calculated diffusion length were improved. We applied phosphorus gettering to silicon heterojunction solar cells. Gettered group and ungettered group were used as substrate of silicon heterojunction solar cells. After fabrication, characteristics of solar cells were analyzed. The results were observed to see the enhancement of substrate quality which directly connects with solar cell properties.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2012

Polymer solar cells utilize bulk heterojunction (BHJ) type photo-active layer in which the electron donating polymer and electron accepting $C_{60}$ derivatives are blended. We found there is significant charge recombination at the interface between the BHJ active layer and electrode. The charge recombination at the interface was effectively reduced by inserting wide band gap inorganic interfacial layer, which resulted in efficiency and stability enhancement of BHJ polymer solar cell.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.559-565
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• 2011

The following noble series of statistical copolymers, poly[(2-(3-thienyl)ethanol n-butoxycarbonylmethylurethane)-co-3-hexylthiophene] (PURET-co-P3HT), were synthesized by the chemical dehydrogenation method using anhydrous $FeCl_3$. The structure and electro-optical properties of these copolymers were characterized using $^1H$-NMR, UV-visible spectroscopy, elemental analysis, GPC, DSC, TGA, photoluminescence (PL), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The statistical copolymers, PURET-co-P3HT (1:0, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3), were soluble in common organic solvents and easily spin coated onto indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates. Hybrid bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells with an ITO/G-PEDOT/PURET-co-P3HT:PCBM:Ag nanowires/$TiO_x$/Al configuration were fabricated, and the photovoltaic cells using PURET-co-P3HT (1:2) showed the best photovoltaic performance compared with those using PURET-co-P3HT (1:0, 2:1, 1:1, 1:3). The optimal hybrid bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cell exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.58% ($V_{oc}$ = 0.82 V, $J_{sc}$ = 5.58, FF = 0.35) with PURET-co-P3HT (1:2) measured by using an AM 1.5 G irradiation (100 mW/$cm^2$) on an Oriel Xenon solar simulator (Oriel 300 W).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.162-162
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• 2012

ZnPc and CuPc molecules stacked similar way in the film, but showed different growth modes in thermal evaporation. The distribution of CuPc crystals did not change by the film thickness, whereas the distribution of ZnPc became random as the increase of the film thickness. The disc type nanograins of CuPc were quite regularly distributed at the initial growth regime and the regular distribution of nanograins was kept during the film growth. On the other hand, ZnPc consisted in ellipsoid shaped nanograins and the distribution of nanograins was not regular in the initial growth regime. The irregular distribution of nanograins changed to the regular mode at the later growth regime by showing structure factor in GISAXS measurement. The different initial nanograin distribution in ZnPc and CuPc was related to the different nanostructure in the mixed layer with C60 to form the bulk heterojunction.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.152-156
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• 2014

We report hybrid solar cells fabricated with polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction layers that contain inorganic nanocrystals synthesized by in-situ reaction in the presence of polymer chains. The inorganic (cadmium sulfide) nanocrystal ($CdS_{NC}$) was generated by the reaction of cadmium acetate and sulfur by varying the reaction time up to 30 min. The synthesized $CdS_{NC}$ showed a rectangular flake shape, while the size of $CdS_{NC}$ reached ca. 150 nm when the reaction time was 10 min. The performance of hybrid solar cells with $CdS_{NC}$ synthesized for 10 min was better than that of a control device, whereas poor performances were measured for other hybrid solar cells with $CdS_{NC}$ synthesized for more than 10 min.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.88-93
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• 2008

The bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cell based on regioregular P3HT (poly(3-hexylthiophene)) and PCBM (methanofullerene [6,6]-phenyl $C_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester) was fabricated. Annealing effects on the crystal structure of polymer-fullerene blends as well as the UV-VIS electronic absorption spectroscopy were investigated. The correlation between the crystal organization of bulk-heterojunction film and the power conversion efficiency of solar cell was studied. Resultantly, the polymer solar cell annealed on $150^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, showed both the enhanced molecular interactions and the optimized crystal structure and displayed the power conversion efficiency of 3.2 %.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.98-101
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• 2012

I studied the stability of organic photovoltaic cells in terms of P3HT:PCBM-71 blend ratio as a function of storage time. I obtained the best cell performance by optimizing the blend ratio of electron donor and electron acceptor within the active layer. In this study, I found that the more the P3HT:PCBM ratio increases within the active layer, the more the cell efficiency decreases as the storage time increases. As a result, the best optimized blend ratio was the 1:0.6 ratio of P3HT:PCBM-71, and cell efficiency of the device with the 1:0.6 blend ratio was 4.49%. The device with the best cell efficiency showed good stability.