Investigation of Polyethylenimine-ethoxylated full-aqueous dispersible as electron transporting layers for inverted bulk heterojunction solar cells

Francesca Brunetti^a, Andrea Reale^a, Thomas M. Brown^a, Gianpaolo Susanna^a, Luigi Salamandra^a, Martina Dianetti^a, Simone Casaluci^a, Giuseppina Polino^a, Aldo Di Carlo^a, Giorgio Cardone^b

^aCHOSE- Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Via Giacomo Peroni, Roma, Italy

^bP.P.G Italy Business Support Srl, via Comasina, 121, 20161 Milano, Italy

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV14)

Ecublens, Switzerland, 2014 May 11th - 14th

Organizers: Michael Graetzel and Mohammad Nazeeruddin

Poster, Giuseppina Polino, 144
Publication date: 1st March 2014

In Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells (BHJ-SCs), a non ionic surfactant ethoxylated polyethylenimine (PEIE) dissolved in 2-methoxy-ethanol is used to facilitate the injection or transport of electrons [1,2,3]. Thanks to the presence of aliphatic amine groups oxides this surface modifier allows reducing the work function of different metals, conductive polymers, transparent oxides or graphene[4]. Typically the deposition of PEIE solution in 2-methoxy-ethanol is performed by spin coating and requires a chemical hood because of the toxicity of solvent used. In this work we present the realization and characterization of Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells in which we use as electron transporting layer a spin coated PEIE deposited from a fully water solution. We investigated different concentrations of the fully water solution and characterized the morphological, chemical and electrical behavior of PEIE coated FTO substrates. We realized BHJ solar cells using P3HT:PCBM as active layer and we achieved a maximum efficiency of 4% that outperform the device realized with 2-methoxy-ethanol based PEIE solution that was reaching a maximum efficiency of 3%. We also tested the shelf life of the devices realized with the two different solutions and we found out that the water based PEIE devices showed a higher stability, the performances in fact remained constant for a period of more than 6 months with a decrease of 30% of efficiency.

Work partially founded by PPG Business Support Srl, Milan, Italy

J-V characteristic at 0 hour and after 6 months
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