Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. (2013) 63: 30201
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2013120371

Impact of thermal stability of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(4-styrenesulfonate) used as buffer layer in organic solar cells

¹ Universite Bordeaux 1, IMS, UMR 5218, 33400 Talence, France
² CNRS, IMS, UMR 5218, 33400 Talence, France

^b e-mail: lionel.hirsch@ims-bordeaux.fr

Received: 13 September 2012
Revised: 17 June 2013
Accepted: 20 June 2013
Published online: 3 September 2013

Abstract

We compared the performances of polymer-based photovoltaic devices prepared from different formulations of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). The PEDOT:PSS buffer layer is incorporated between the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode and the active layer, which is composed of a blend of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). A highest efficiency of 3.86% (under AM1.5 solar illumination) was achieved for device prepared from a PEDOT:PSS trade-named high conductivity grade. However, annealing devices at a temperature over 120 °C results in decreased photovoltaic performance. This study shows that attention has to be paid to chemicals used to formulate high conductive PEDOT:PSS to become compatible with the production of solar cells involving thermal processing.