Amorphous-conjugated polymer-additive approach to prepare quality Spiro-OMeTAD-based hole transporting material for efficient Sb2S3 solar cells

• Published in: Materials letters 2022-06, Vol.316, p.132028, Article 132028
• Main Authors: Zhu, Liangxin, Chen, Junwei, Liu, Rong, Dong, Chao, Huang, Jia, Wan, Zhiyang, Cao, Wenbo, Zhang, Xueqiang, Ge, Chengfeng, Wang, Mingtai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Additive; Amorphous materials; Antimony sulfide; Charge efficiency; Energy conversion efficiency; Lithium; Materials science; MEH-PPV; Photovoltaic cells; Pinholes; Polymers; Solar cells; Solar energy materials; Thin films; Trifluoromethane
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2022.132028

•Addition of MEH-PPV into Spiro-OMeTAD film provides a novel composite HTM.•Spiro-OMeTAD:MEH-PPV composite HTM imposes Sb2S3 solar cell a better performance.•MEH-PPV reduces the defects in HTM for a higher charge collection efficiency.•MEH-PPV makes HTM more hydrophobic for a better long-term stability of solar cells. 2,2′,7,7′-Tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD) is a common hole transport material (HTM) for efficient solar cells. However, the conventional Spiro-OMeTAD-based HTM contains the bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide lithium salt (Li-TFSI) additive that often introduces pinholes into the HTM layer to deteriorate device performance. Here, we use amorphous polymer poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) as an additive into the Spiro-OMeTAD-based HTM for efficient Sb2S3 solar cells. It is showed that MEH-PPV remarkably improves the quality of the HTM layer, suppresses the charge recombination and enhances the charge collection efficiency in the Sb2S3 solar cells. With the MEH-PPV additive, the power conversion efficiency of the solar cells is boosted up to 6.02% from the original 5.51% without the additive.