Reduced Coulomb interaction in organic solar cells by the introduction of inorganic high-k nanostructured materials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to enhance organic solar cell efficiency by embedding high-k nanostructured materials, which reduces Coulomb interactions and improves power conversion efficiency by approximately 20%.

Contribution

The study presents a novel approach of incorporating inorganic high-k nanostructures into organic solar cells to reduce Coulomb interactions and boost efficiency.

Findings

Coulomb interaction reduced by over 15% at 20 nm distance from interface.

Power conversion efficiency increased by approximately 20%.

Effective implementation with strontium titanate nanoparticles.

Abstract

In this article a concept is introduced, which allows for reduced Coulomb interaction in organic solar cells and as such for enhanced power conversion efficiencies. The concept is based on the introduction of electrically insulating, nanostructured high-k materials into the organic matrix, which do not contribute to the charge transport, however, effectively enhance the permittivity of the organic active layer and thereby reduce the Coulomb interaction. Using an analytical model it is demonstrated that even at a distance of 20 nm to the organic / inorganic interface of the nanostructure, the Coulomb interaction can be reduced by more than 15 %. The concept is implemented using P3HT:PCBM solar cells with integrated high-k nanoparticles (strontium titanate). It could be demonstrated that in comparison to a reference cell without integrated nanoparticles, the power conversion efficiencies could be improved by ~20 %.