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Recent Advances in the Determination of Optimal Active Layer Thickness for Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells

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Abstract

Organic solar cells have gathered much research interest in recent years because of their advantages like low-cost, flexibility and light-weight. This paper presents a first of its kind, critical review of the theoretical and experimental studies performed to determine the outcome of changing active layer thickness on the working of a bulk heterojunction organic solar cell. The functional principles of an organic solar cell along with its typical parameters are briefly outlined. This paper discusses the features of the active layer and response of these features to changing active layer thickness which determines the device performance. Subsequently we describe the changes occurring in the parameters of the solar cell, followed by a detailed account of the optimal thickness ranges for different bulk heterojunction solar cells. A concise description of the donor and acceptor material properties is also presented. In the last section, simulations performed by changing active layer thickness for two different active layer material combinations have been presented, wherein we used poly(3-hexylthiophene): P3HT as the electron donor and phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester: PCBM as the electron acceptor for one cell and the other cell has poly(9,9-dioctylindenofluorene-co-benzothiadiazole): PIF8BT and N′-bis(1-ethylpropyl)-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxy diimide: PDI as donor and acceptor respectively. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the applicability of annealing process to improve the optimal active layer thickness ranges of organic solar cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, National Institute of Technology Srinagar, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, 190006, India

    Sakshi Koul & Najeeb-ud-din Hakim

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  1. Sakshi Koul
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Correspondence to Sakshi Koul.

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Koul, S., Hakim, Nud. Recent Advances in the Determination of Optimal Active Layer Thickness for Bulk Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells. Trans. Electr. Electron. Mater. 19, 319–329 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42341-018-0053-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42341-018-0053-5

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