Hybrid solar cells from water-soluble polymers

McLeskey, James T.; Qiao, Qiquan

doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/IJP/2006/20951

International Journal of Photoenergy

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Volume 2006 | Article ID 020951 | https://doi.org/10.1155/IJP/2006/20951

Hybrid solar cells from water-soluble polymers

James T. McLeskey¹and Qiquan Qiao¹

Received16 Feb 2006

Accepted23 Mar 2006

Published29 Jun 2006

Abstract

We report on the use of a water-soluble, light-absorbing polythiophene polymer to fabricate novel photovoltaic devices. The polymer is a water-soluble thiophene known as sodium poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethoxy-4-butylsulfonate] or PTEBS. The intention is to take advantage of the properties of conjugated polymers (flexible, tunable, and easy to process) and incorporate the additional benefits of water solubility (easily controlled evaporation rates and environmentally friendly). The PTEBS polythiophene has shown significant photovoltaic response and has been found to be effective for making solar cells. To date, solar cells in three different configurations have been produced: titanium dioxide (TiO2) bilayer cells, TiO2 bulk heterojunction solar cells, and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in bulk heterojunctions. The best performance thus far has been achieved with TiO2 bilayer devices. These devices have an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.84V, a short circuit current (Jsc) of 0.15 mA/cm2, a fill factor (ff) of 0.91, and an efficiency (η) of 0.15 %.

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Copyright

Copyright © 2006 James T. McLeskey Jr. and Qiquan Qiao. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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