Role of the Metal-Oxide Work Function on Photocurrent Generation in Hybrid Solar Cells

Scientific Reports
Chawloon ThuLukas Schmidt-Mende

Abstract

ZnO is a widely used metal-oxide semiconductor for photovoltaic application. In solar cell heterostructures they not only serve as a charge selective contact, but also act as electron acceptor. Although ZnO offers a suitable interface for exciton dissociation, charge separation efficiencies have stayed rather poor and conceptual differences to organic acceptors are rarely investigated. In this work, we employ Sn doping to ZnO nanowires in order to understand the role of defect and surface states in the charge separation process. Upon doping we are able to modify the metal-oxide work function and we show its direct correlation with the charge separation efficiency. For this purpose, we use the polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) as donor and the squaraine dye SQ2 as interlayer. Interestingly, neither mobilities nor defects are prime performance limiting factor, but rather the density of available states around the conduction band is of crucial importance for hybrid interfaces. This work highlights crucial aspects to improve the charge generation process of metal-oxide based solar cells and reveals new strategies to improve the power conversion efficiency of hybrid solar cells.

References

May 17, 2005·Nature Materials·Matt LawPeidong Yang
May 14, 2014·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Michael EckMichael Krüger
Dec 19, 2014·Advanced Functional Materials·Kevin P MusselmanRichard H Friend
Aug 19, 2015·The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters·Guangfen WuGang Lu
Mar 5, 2016·Advanced Materials·Robert M Hewlett, Martyn A McLachlan

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Citations

Mar 5, 2020·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Alessandro D'EliaMarcello Coreno
Oct 17, 2019·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Dorota LachowiczAndrzej Bernasik
Sep 22, 2021·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Nahid TorabiRyan C Chiechi

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
scanning electron microscopy
X-Ray
electron microscopy

Software Mentioned

LabVIEW

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