Enhanced open-circuit voltage in organic photovoltaic cells with partially chlorinated zinc phthalocyanine

Tyler B. Fleetham, Nathan Bakkan, John P. Mudrick, Jason D. Myers, Vincent D. Cassidy, Jingbiao Cui, Jiangeng Xue, Jian Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The open-circuit voltage (V OC) in organic photovoltaic cells has been shown to depend on a number of parameters including the energy levels of the active materials, active layer structure, illumination intensity, and operating temperature. Here we report, a significant increase in V OC from 0.43 to 0.63 V in zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc)/C60 planar heterojunction photovoltaic cells operated at room temperature under 1 sun AM1.5G solar illumination, when a home-synthesized and purified ZnPc source materials was used instead of a commercially obtained (and home purified) ZnPc source. While the two ZnPc source materials have nearly identical UV-Vis and IR absorption properties, the home-synthesized ZnPc contains chlorinated derivatives and has half of the electrical defect density (on the order of 1016 cm-3) as compared to the commercial ZnPc. The improved V OC in devices with the home-synthesized ZnPc is contributed from both a lower dark current and a higher magnitude of photocurrent. Additional experiments revealed that the different device characteristics are mostly associated with processes occurring at the ZnPc/C60 interface, which we attribute to nongeminate recombination of charges built-up on either side of the interface.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7104-7114
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Materials Science
Volume48
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Ceramics and Composites
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • General Materials Science
  • Materials Science (miscellaneous)

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