Effect of boric acid doped PEDOT:PSS layer on the performance of P3HT:PCBM based organic solar cells

• Boric acid was used as PEDOT:PSS dopant for the first time in organic solar cells.
• ITO/PEDOT:PSS surface work function increased with boric acid doping.
• The parameters of the solar cells improved with boric acid doped PEDOT:PSS film.

In this study, we fabricated PEDOT:PSS film with different concentrations 0–5 mg/ml of boric acid (H3BO3) doped PEDOT:PSS film as hole collector layer. Undoped and boric acid doped PEDOT:PSS films are prepared with spin coating technique and characterized by XRD, UV, AFM, FTIR and electrical conductivity measurements. We fabricated polymer solar cells in the form of ITO/PEDOT:PSS:H3BO3/P3HT:PCBM/Al. Results show that the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and the fill factor (FF) increased by introducing H3BO3 as dopant into the PEDOT:PSS layer due to an increase in the work function of PEDOT:PSS layer and improvement of surface roughness, respectively. The solar cells without H3BO3 showed a power conversion efficiency PCE of 1.79% whereas the cells with H3BO3 concentration of 1.25 mg/ml in PEDOT:PSS, showed a higher performance resulting in a PCE of 2.14% under AM 1.5G illumination.

In this work, boric acid (H3BO3) used as dopant for PEDOT:PSS in organic solar cells for the first time in order to increase photovoltaic parameter. The power conversion efficiency of the cells increased about 20%.It is concluded that the doping H3BO3 has an influence on all the device parameters.Boric acid doped and undoped PEDOT:PSS layer used as hole collector layer in ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/Al conventional geometry.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide