Diamond-based electrodes for organic photovoltaic devices

• Boron-doped diamond (BDD) is suggested as the transparent electrode.
• Optical and electrical properties of BDD were studied.
• Fabricated BDD electrodes were applied in polymer–fullerene solar cells.
• Properties of the BDD based solar cells were studied.
• Possibility of the application of BDD in organic solar cells was shown.

The present paper demonstrates the possibility of replacing indium–tin oxide (ITO) with heavily boron-doped diamond (BDD). Plasma Enhanced Chemically Vapor Deposited BDDs layers of various thicknesses were prepared containing various boron concentrations in a gas phase. The dependence of the above-mentioned parameters on the optical and electrical properties of each BDD was studied in order to achieve optimal conditions for the effective application of diamond electrodes in organic electronics as a replacement for ITO. Bulk-heterojunction polymer–fullerene organic solar cells were fabricated to test the potency of BDD application in photovoltaic devices. The obtained results demonstrated the possibility of the aforementioned application. Even though the efficiency of BDD-based devices is lower compared to those using regular ITO-based architecture, the relevant issues were explained.