Reduction of Charge-Carrier Recombination at ZnO–Polymer Blend Interfaces in PTB7-Based Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Using Regular Device Structure: Impact of ZnO Nanoparticle Size and Surfactant

Cathode interfacial layers, also called electron extraction layers (EELs), based on zinc oxide (ZnO) have been studied in polymer-blend solar cells toward optimization of the opto-electric properties. Bulk heterojunction solar cells based on poly({4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl}{3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl}) (PTB7) and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC 70 BM) were realized in regular structure with all-solution-processed interlayers. A pair of commercially available surfactants, ethanolamine (EA) and ethylene glycol (EG), were used to modify the surface of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in alcohol-based dispersion. The influence of ZnO particle size was also studied by preparing dispersions of two NP diameters (6 versus 11 nm). Here, we show that performance improvement can be obtained in polymer solar cells via the use of solution-processed ZnO EELs based on surface-modified nanoparticles. By the optimizing of the ZnO dispersion, surfactant ratio, and the resulting morphology of EELs, PTB7/PC 70 BM solar cells with a power-conversion efficiency of 8.2% could be obtained using small sized EG-modified ZnO NPs that allow the clear enhancement of the performance of solution-processed photovoltaic devices compared to state-of-the-art ZnO-based cathode layers.