Highly ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays fabricated by electrochemical anodization were sensitized with ruthenium dye N-719 to yield dye-sensitized TiO2 nanotube solar cells. Rational surface treatments on photoanode TiO2 nanotubes markedly improved the device performance. With TiCl4 treatment, in conjunction with oxygen plasma exposure under optimized conditions, dye-sensitized TiO2 nanotube...

Organic solar cells (OSCs) with a bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) are promising energy conversion devices, because they are flexible and environmental-friendly, and can be fabricated by low-cost roll-to-roll process. Here, we systematically investigated the interrelations between photovoltaic properties and the domain morphology of the active layer in OSCs based on films of poly-(9,9-dioctylfluorene-...

The processes that generate current in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are highly dependent on the micro-and nano-structure of the devices, especially at the donor-acceptor (D-A) interface. Light trapping strategies have been proposed to tailor absorption of incident sunlight and generate more photocurrent at the D-A interface. Recent studies have reported the use of a range of plasmonic nanostruc...

A new small molecule acceptor, m-ITIC-OR, based on indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene core with meta-alkoxyphenyl side chains, is designed and synthesized. The m-ITIC-OR film shows broader and redshift absorption compared to its solution and matched energy levels with a hexafluoroquinoxaline-based polymer donor-HFQx-T. Here, polymer solar cells (PSCs) by blending an HFQx-T donor and an m-ITIC-OR ...

A series of electron-deficient conjugated polymers (P(DTCDI-T), P(DTCDI-2T) and P(DTCDI-3T)) are reported as effective ETLs for inverted PSCs, resulting in a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) 17.88% ETL based devices.

It is an important step in deign under uncertainty to select an appropriate uncertainty propagation (UP) method considering the characteristics of the engineering systems at hand, the required level of UP associated with the probabilistic design scenario, and the required accuracy and efficiency levels. Many uncertainty propagation methods have been developed in various fields, however, there i...

Because of their outstanding molecular optoelectronic properties, perylene diimides (PDIs) are promising alternatives to the commonly used PCBM. However, the overly strong aggregation ability, poor solution-processability and compatibility of PDIs severely limit their photovoltaic applications. We turned to borrowing the amphiphile concept to improve these supramolecular properties. Practically...

Abstract Using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to directly grow graphene nanowalls (GNWs) on silicon preparate the solar cells is compatible with current industrial production. However, many defects in GNWs hinder improvement of power conversion efficiency (PCE) cells. In this work, we found that can be reduced under condition keeping appropriate sheet resistance by simultaneo...

Two new diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) based sensitizers (DPP-Br, DPPCN2) and a novel dyad DPP-NDI (NDI = naphthalene diimide) were synthesized and investigated for use in NiO p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSCs). The simple push-pull DPP-CN2 gives a promising photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.07% with the iodide/triiodide electrolyte while the PCE of the dyad reaches 0.18% with a cobalt ...

Currently, copper sulfide (CuS) is the most commonly used counter electrode (CE) in high-efficiency quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) because of its superior electrocatalytic activity in the presence of polysulfide electrolyte. For the first time, CuS thin films were prepared by a facile chemical bath deposition method with different concentrations of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and di...