ORGANIC SOLAR CELL

Solar cell where the photoactive layer is composed of

donor and acceptor semiconducting organic materials
that absorb sunlight to generate photocurrent through
forming an exciton

Bilayer organic
photovoltaic cell

Bulk-Heterojunction
photovoltaic cell

Focusing on formation
and deposition of the
active layer

Nanoparticle
morphology

ACTIVE LAYER
DONOR
DONOR

ACCEPTOR
ACCEPTOR

Conjugated polymer
possessing
delocalized

Fullerene
based
materials: the LUMO
orbital
of
these
materials is able to
accept the transferred
from the exciton formed
in the polymer

PCBM
Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5diyl)
The most used and studied
(the molecular weight of
P3HT affect on efficiency
of charge mobility)

[6,6]-Phenyl C61 or C71 butyric

acid methyl ester

Better mobility
through P3HT NPs

ICBA
Indene C60

NP-OPV

Roll-to-Roll
deposition
method

The synthesis of active material should follow these crucial point:

synthesis
of active solvents
material should follow these crucial point:
The
Using
eco-compatible
Using aeco-compatible
solvents
Obtain
large area of contact
between Donor and Acceptor

Obtain
large area
of contact
between
Donor
and Acceptor
Avoid
thea defects
of thin
films (i.e.
dewetting
phenomena)
Avoidgross
the defects
of thin films
(i.e.annealing
dewettingleading
phenomena)
Avoid
phase separation
upon
to formation
Avoid gross phase separation upon annealing leading to formation
of near pure Donor and Acceptor domains
of near
pure Donor
and Acceptor domains
Obtain
a solution
with pysico-chemical
properties suitable for Roll Obtain a solution with pysico-chemical properties suitable for Rollto-Roll deposition method
to-Roll deposition method

SYNTHESIS METHOD OF POLYMERIC

NANOPARTICLE
Miniemulsion
Miniemulsion
method
method

Advantages:
Using water as solvents
Low concentration of surfactant
Core-shell structure
Stability on time of the NPs
solution (months)
Scalable process

Drawbacks:
Difficulty in the complete
removal of surfactant
Gross phase separation
Domains of near-pure PCBM and
P3HT

Surfactant-free
Surfactant-freeprecipitation
precipitation
method
method

P3HT:ICBA
CHC
Me(OH) or
Et(OH)

Ultrasoni
c bath

Magnetic
stirring

Precipitation
of NPs and
evaporation
of CHC

Advantages:
Surfactant-free process
Fully blended NPs
Gross phase separation does not
occur
Scalable process

Drawbacks:
Low control on size
Using of organic solvent
Low concentration of the
solution
Low stability of NPs solution
during the time (aggregation

Nanoprecipitation
Nanoprecipitationmethod
method
(solvent
(solventdisplacement
displacement
procedure)
procedure)

Advantages:
Surfactant-free process
Scalable process

Drawbacks:
Low control on size
Formation of PCBM-based NPs
leading to aggregation

Donor
Donormaterials
materialsimprovement
improvement
Studying on effect of difference molecular weight of the P3HT polymer:
Morphological
changes
resulting
from
thermal
annealing
are
highly
dependent upon the Mw of
P3HT:
High Mw of polymer leads
to a better diffusion of
molecular PCBM

Mw of the polymer
affect the elctronic and
compositional structure
of the NP films:
PCBM mobility drive the
composition
of
the
domain
that
is
correlated
with
the
device performance

Acceptor
Acceptormaterials
materialsimprovement
improvement
NPOPV fabricated from P3HT:ICBA blends exhibit the highest PCE (4%)
reported for NPOPV cells
ICBA is miscible in P3HT at all weight fraction:
This enhanced miscibility of ICBA in P3HT results in a more efficient
intermixed structure leading to an improved performance of the annealed
P3HT:ICBA NPOPV devices

As
spun

Dried
Core and shell ICBA fractional
compositon

Anneal
ed

IMPROVING LIGHT ABSORPTION

The
The main
main drawback
drawback of
of OPV
OPV isis the
the limitation
limitation of
of exciton
exciton diffusion
diffusion lenght
lenght
and
and the
the poor
poor charge
charge transport
transport property.
property. Moreover,
Moreover, the
the difficulty
difficulty of
of
increasing
increasing the
the active
active layer
layer thickness
thickness leads
leads to
to insufficent
insufficent absorption
absorption of
of
incident
incidentlight.
light.
Incorporation in the active layer or deposition onto ITO electrode of
metal nanoparticles to use the surface plasmon `properties

Plasmonic enhancement
can be used for the
enhancement of the light
absorption and
photocurrent of OSCs

MNPs
MNPsintroduced
introducedinto
intoPEDOT:PSS
PEDOT:PSS

In situ means of preparing

stabilized Au or Ag NPs by
reduction
in
aqueous
PEDOT:PSS media

CONCLUSIONS
NPOPV represent a promising new solar devices:
Devices efficiency having incresed from 0.004% to 4% in less than 5
years
Low cost of the starting materials and the production process
Elimination of the need for volatile flammable solvents in device
production through water-based NPOPV coatings
Water-based solar paint offers the prospect of printing large area OPV
devices using existing printing facility

NPs behave completely differently from polymer blends spun from organic
solvents, NPs are a completely new material system, so that the old rules
for OPV devices fabrication are no longer applicable.
Next stage devolpment involve:
Understanding the mechanism NP structure and NP film morphology
How to controll and optimise these aspect