TY - JOUR
T1 - Charge Photogeneration and Recombination in Mesostructured CuSCN-Nanowire/PC70
BM Solar Cells
AU - Firdaus, Yuliar
AU - Seitkhan, Akmaral
AU - Eisner, Flurin
AU - Sit, Wai-Yu
AU - Kan, Zhipeng
AU - Wehbe, Nimer
AU - Albalawi, Ahmed
AU - Yengel, Emre
AU - Karuthedath, Safakath
AU - Laquai, Frédéric
AU - Anthopoulos, Thomas D.
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: Y.F. and A.S. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for the financial support.
PY - 2018/5/2
Y1 - 2018/5/2
N2 - Fullerene-based materials are widely used as electron acceptors in organic bulk-heterojunction solar cells; yet, they have rarely been used as the only photoactive component due to their low absorbance and limited charge generation efficiency. However, blending the wide-bandgap p-type material copper (I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) leads to the formation of a unique mesostructured p-n like heterointerface between CuSCN and PC70BM and solar cells with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 5.4%. Here, we examine in detail the reasons for the surprisingly good device performance and elucidate the charge photogeneration and recombination mechanisms in CuSCN-based devices with PC70BM as the exclusive light-absorbing material. Our studies clearly demonstrate that a substantial fraction of the photocurrent in the CuSCN-based devices results from improved dissociation of fullerene excitons and efficient charge transfer at the CuSCN:PC70BM interface combined with reduced geminate and nongeminate charge recombination losses. Our results have implications beyond the fullerene-based devices studied here, as they demonstrate that careful selection of a mesostructured p-type transparent semiconductor paves the path to a new type of efficient single photoactive material solar cells.
AB - Fullerene-based materials are widely used as electron acceptors in organic bulk-heterojunction solar cells; yet, they have rarely been used as the only photoactive component due to their low absorbance and limited charge generation efficiency. However, blending the wide-bandgap p-type material copper (I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) leads to the formation of a unique mesostructured p-n like heterointerface between CuSCN and PC70BM and solar cells with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 5.4%. Here, we examine in detail the reasons for the surprisingly good device performance and elucidate the charge photogeneration and recombination mechanisms in CuSCN-based devices with PC70BM as the exclusive light-absorbing material. Our studies clearly demonstrate that a substantial fraction of the photocurrent in the CuSCN-based devices results from improved dissociation of fullerene excitons and efficient charge transfer at the CuSCN:PC70BM interface combined with reduced geminate and nongeminate charge recombination losses. Our results have implications beyond the fullerene-based devices studied here, as they demonstrate that careful selection of a mesostructured p-type transparent semiconductor paves the path to a new type of efficient single photoactive material solar cells.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/627754
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/solr.201800095
U2 - 10.1002/solr.201800095
DO - 10.1002/solr.201800095
M3 - Article
SN - 2367-198X
VL - 2
SP - 1800095
JO - Solar RRL
JF - Solar RRL
IS - 8
ER -