Effect of electrode geometry on photovoltaic performance of polymer solar cells

TL;DR

This study examines how different electrode shapes affect the efficiency of polymer solar cells, finding that round electrodes significantly improve performance compared to triangular ones due to boundary curvature effects.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how electrode geometry influences photovoltaic performance, highlighting the importance of electrode boundary curvature in PSC design.

Findings

Round electrodes yield the highest power conversion efficiency.

Triangular electrodes show the lowest performance.

Maximum PCE increase of nearly twofold with round electrodes.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of electrode geometry on the performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs). Four types of negative electrodes with equal area (0.09 cm2) but different shape (round, oval, square, and triangular) are evaluated with respect to short-circuit current density, open-circuit voltage, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of PSCs. The results show that the device with round electrodes gives the best photovoltaic performance; in contrast, the device with triangular electrodes reveals the worst properties. Maximum almost twice increase in PCE with round electrode is obtained in the devices compared with that of the triangular electrode. As a conclusion, the electrode boundary curvature has a strong influence on the performance of PSCs. The larger curvature, i.e. the sharper electrodes edge, maybe is a negative effector on exciton separation and carrier transport in PSC system.