28 June 2015 to 3 July 2015
Africa/Johannesburg timezone
SAIP2015 Proceeding published on 17 July 2016

Enhancing light absorption and life-time stability of organic solar cells using pentacene encapsulation.

2 Jul 2015, 10:00
20m
Oral Presentation Track F - Applied Physics Applied

Speaker

Mr Francis Otieno (University of Witwatersrand)

Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution

Daniel Wamwangi, Daniel.Wamwangi@wits.ac.za
School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand

Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> &nbsp; award (Yes / No)?

Yes

Abstract content <br> &nbsp; (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>

Polymer solar cells continue to be investigated as a potentially cheap and viable photovoltaic alternative to the increased global demand for inexhaustible, clean and affordable energy. The most promising designs are based on a bulk heterojunction concept based on combination of electron-donating and electron-accepting molecular materials. However their low power conversion efficiency and stability over lifetime preclude their commercialization. In this work, the effect of surface Plasmon resonance on photo-conversion efficiency and life stability are investigated. Ag surface plasmons synthesized by RF magnetron have been characterized for optical absorption changes upon annealing. The annealed plasmons were grown on ITO before spin coating hole transport layer (PEDO:PSS) followed by P3HT:PCBM blend before thermally evaporating Al electrode. Incorporation of surface plasmons into a polymer based photovoltaic device as a proof of concept enhanced the photo-conversion efficiency by 24%. In addition, Ag plasmons encapsulated by pentacene has been investigated for multiple light absorption and charge transport using I-V characteristics and optical spectroscopy. This was done by thermally evaporating thin film of pentacene in an attempt stabilize the Ag plasmons. Besides production of multiple absorption peaks, the encapsulation has enhanced the device lifetime. We thus establish the potential degradation mechanism in detail using I-V characteristics under light illumination 70W/cm2.

Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)

Yes

Level for award<br>&nbsp;(Hons, MSc, <br> &nbsp; PhD, N/A)?

MSc

Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?

Yes

Primary author

Mr Francis Otieno (University of Witwatersrand)

Presentation Materials

There are no materials yet.