Effect of solvent additives and P3HT on PDTSTTz/PCBM-based bulk heterojunction solar cells

In this investigation, photovoltaic (PV) parameters improvements in poly[2,6-(4,4′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]silole)-alt-5,5′-(3,6-bis[4-(2-ethylhexyl)thienyl-2-yl]-s-tetrazine] and fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PDTSTTz:PCBM) blend were made through solvent additives and secondary donor addition. Short carbon chain solvent additives such as iodomethane (IMe), iodoethane (IEt), iodobutane (IBu), and diiodomethane (DIMe) were used. The results have shown that the short circuit current density (Jsc), as well as power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PDTSTTz:PCBM blend cell increased with the increase in length of carbon chains of the additives. IBu, with relatively the longest carbon chain, has better performance-improving impact than IMe (with the shortest carbon chain). The same trend was observed for fill factor. The other PV parameter, open circuit voltages (Voc), did not show significant change following these solvent additives. The effect of a secondary (additional) donor on the PDTSTTz/PCBM system was investigated by adding different proportions of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT). Because P3HT (secondary donor) and PDTSTTz (hosting donor) complement each other in light absorption, the PDTSTTz/PCBM system containing an optimum proportion of P3HT could provide a wider range of light absorption, and as a result it exhibited a higher short circuit current (11.08 mA/cm2) and then a PCE of 2.42%.