Improving the Charge Carrier Transport and Suppressing Recombination of Soluble Squaraine-Based Solar Cells via Parallel-Like Structure

Youqin Zhu; Jingli Liu; Jiao Zhao; Yang Li; Bo Qiao; Dandan Song; Yan Huang; Zheng Xu; Suling Zhao; Xurong Xu

doi:10.3390/ma11050759

Improving the Charge Carrier Transport and Suppressing Recombination of Soluble Squaraine-Based Solar Cells via Parallel-Like Structure

Materials (Basel). 2018 May 9;11(5):759. doi: 10.3390/ma11050759.

Authors

Youqin Zhu^{1

2}, Jingli Liu^{3

4}, Jiao Zhao^{5

6}, Yang Li^{7

8}, Bo Qiao^{9

10}, Dandan Song^{11

12}, Yan Huang¹³, Zheng Xu^{14

15}, Suling Zhao^{16

17}, Xurong Xu^{18

19}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 14121634@bjtu.edu.cn.
² Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 14121634@bjtu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 15121568@bjtu.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 15121568@bjtu.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 14118436@bjtu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. 14118436@bjtu.edu.cn.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. bjliyang2013@163.com.
⁸ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. bjliyang2013@163.com.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. boqiao@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. boqiao@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. ddsong@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹² Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. ddsong@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹³ Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China. huangyan@scu.edu.cn.
¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. zhengxu@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁵ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. zhengxu@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. slzhao@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁷ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. slzhao@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁸ Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information of Ministry of Education, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. xrxu@bjtu.edu.cn.
¹⁹ Institute of Optoelectronics Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China. xrxu@bjtu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Small molecule organic solar cells (SMOSCs) have attracted extensive attention in recent years. Squaraine (SQ) is a kind of small molecule material for potential use in high-efficiency devices, because of its high extinction coefficient and low-cost synthesis. However, the charge carrier mobility of SQ-based film is much lower than other effective materials, which leads to the pretty low fill factor (FF). In this study, we improve the performance of SQ derivative-based solar cells by incorporating PCDTBT into LQ-51/PC₇₁BM host binary blend film. The incorporation of PCDTBT can not only increase the photon harvesting, but also provide an additional hole transport pathway. Through the charge carrier mobility and transient photovoltage measurement, we find that the hole mobility and charge carrier lifetime increase in the ternary system. Also, we carefully demonstrate that the charge carrier transport follows a parallel-like behavior.

Keywords: TPV; charge carrier mobility; parallel-like; small molecule organic solar cell; squaraine; ternary.