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Effect of trifluoroacetic acid treatment of PEDOT:PSS layers on the performance and stability of organic solar cells

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Abstract

The photoelectric characteristics of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythio phene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) treated with the different concentrations of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is in-depth investigated. The results show treatment of PEDOT:PSS layers by TFA manipulates the molecular structure of PEDOT:PSS chains, enhances the conductivity and work function of PEDOT:PSS. More interestingly, polymer solar cells with PEDOT:PSS treated by TFA as anode interfacial layers (AILs) exhibit the longer stability of the devices and the higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the devices. The best PCE of the devices based on poly(3-hexyltthiophene) and [6,6]-phenyl-C60-butyric acid methyl ester gets to 4.10 ± 0.21%, increasing by as large as 35.8% compared to that of the devices with pristine PEDOT:PSS as AIL. The enhanced PEDOT:PSS conductivity improves the short circuit current density (J SC ) and fill factor of the devices. The devices with PEDOT:PSS treated by TFA as AILs remain ~ 25% of their initial efficiency after 63 days storage. On the other hand, the pristine PEDOT:PSS devices remain only ~ 1%.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61474046), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2017A030313).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Zuping Wu, Huangzhong Yu, Xinxin Huang & Mingdong Chen

  2. School of Materials Science & Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Zuping Wu & Xinxin Huang

  3. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, University of Science and Technology, Anshan, 114051, Liaoning, China

    Ziqi Yu

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  1. Zuping Wu
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Correspondence to Huangzhong Yu.

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Wu, Z., Yu, Z., Yu, H. et al. Effect of trifluoroacetic acid treatment of PEDOT:PSS layers on the performance and stability of organic solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 6607–6618 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-8645-8

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