Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV14)
Publication date: 1st March 2014
Due to their exceptional charge transport properties, single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are expected to enhance the performance of organic based photovoltaic (PV) solar cells through an ultrafast charge transfer process when placed in contact with a semiconducting organic interface such as poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT)1. However, in order to produce efficient charge transport through the active layer, a percolated network of interconnected tubes must be formed. Typical methods (e.g. spin-coating, drop-casting) do not form an efficient pathway for charges, and they often result in randomly organized networks and nanotube aggregates which have been shown to lower conductivity2,3.
Here, we present a new concept where nano-engineered SWNT networks are formed in a composite film.4 These nanoscale networks result in several orders of magnitude increase in charge transport through the composite layer made of either polystyrene or P3HT, and compared to an identical composite film simply spun or drop-cast. These nano-networks also result in an effective decrease of the percolation threshold by up to 3 orders of magnitude, thereby offering the possibility to strongly decrease the amount of tubes used for devices. We discuss these results and the mechanisms of charge transport enhancement.
1. Stranks, S. D. ; Weisspfennig, C.; Parkinson, P.; Johnston, M. B. ; Herz, L. M. ; Nicholas, R. J. Nano Lett. 2011, 11(1), 66–72. 2. Nirmalraj, P. N. ; Lyons, P. E. ; Coleman, J. N. ; Boland, J. J. Nano Lett. 2009, 9(11), 3890–3895. 3. Kymakis, E.; Amaratunga, G. A. J. J. Appl. Phys. 2006, 99 (8), 084302. 4. Barbero, D. R. ; Boulanger, N.; Yu, J. ; Ramstedt, M. submitted to Advanced Materials 2013.