Constructing bulk heterojunction with componential gradient for
enhancing the efficiency of polymer solar cells
Shudi Lu
a
, Kong Liu
a
, Dan Chi
a
, Shizhong Yue
a
, Yanpei Li
a
, Yanlei Kou
a
, Xuechun Lin
b
,
Zhijie Wang
a
,
*
, Shengchun Qu
a
,
**
, Zhanguo Wang
a
a
Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials Science, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, PR China
b
Laboratory of All-Solid-State Light Sources, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100083, PR China
highlights graphical abstract
PC
71
BM concentration gradient has
been realized by alcohol treatment.
Exciton separation and charge trans-
fer were promoted for conventional
devices.
For inverted devices, the gradient
deteriorated the performance.
The function of the alcohol treatment
was firstly clarified.
article info
Article history:
Received 30 June 2015
Received in revised form
25 August 2015
Accepted 20 September 2015
Available online xxx
Keywords:
Alcohol treatment
Exciton separation
Concentration gradient
Polymer solar cells
abstract
Herein, high-efficient PTB7:PC
71
BM solar cells with bulk heterojunction being optimized by compo-
nential distribution have been realized by solvent treating the active layer with a series of alcohols.
Subsequent characterizations including X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Kelvin probe force
microscopy (KPFM) reveal that such treatment adjusts the distribution of PC
71
BM in the bulk hetero-
junction by making the concentration of PC
71
BM higher at the solvent treated surface in comparison with
that close to the bottom electrode. Such morphological transformation enables the conventional struc-
tured devices with great advantages in exciton separation and charge transfer. Therefore, the power
conversion efficiency could be remarkably improved from 6.57% to 7.74%. However, for the inverted
structured polymer solar cells, the morphology evolution deteriorates the relevant performance,
particularly in exciton separation and charge transfer. We attribute these contrary observations to the
matching degree of charge transfer direction in the active layer with the charge collection direction in the
entire device. Not only providing a designing principle for optimizing the structure of polymer solar cells
according to the morphology of active layer, this paper also offers a comprehensive understanding about
the influence of solvent treatment on the performance of polymer solar cells.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Attributing to the great advantages in cost-effective manufac-
turability, mechanical flexibility and easy scalability [1e8], polymer
solar cells (PSCs) based on bulk heterojunction have been
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wangzj@semi.ac.cn (Z. Wang), qsc@semi.ac.cn (S. Qu).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Power Sources
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpowsour
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.09.079
0378-7753/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Journal of Power Sources 300 (2015) 238e244