P3HT as a hole transport layer for colloidal quantum dot solar cells

Journal article

Lead sulfide colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells demonstrate extremely high short-circuit currents (Jsc ) and are making decent progress in power conversion efficiencies. However, the low fill factors (FF) and open-circuit voltages have to be addressed with urgency to prevent the stalling of efficiency improvements. This paper highlights the importance of improving hole extraction, which received much less attention as compared to the electron accepting component of the device architecture (eg. TiO2 or ZnO). Here, we show the use of semiconducting polymer Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) to create efficient CQD devices by improving hole transport, removing interfacial barriers and minimizing shunt pathways, thus resulting in an overall improvement in device performance stemming from better Jsc and FF.

Authors: Neo, D; Zhang, N; Tazawa, Y; Jiang, H; Hughes, G

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Journal: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 19
• Pages: 12101–12108
• Publication date: 2016-04-01
• Acceptance date: 2016-04-19
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b10228
• ISSN: 1944-8244
• Keywords: P3HT; Hole transport layer; Colloidal quantum dots; Lead sulfide; Solar cell