Enhancement of Short-Circuit Current Density in Solar Cells via Reducing Recombination

Bulk hetero junction (BHJ) polymer solar cells (PSCs) are one of the most promising fields as alternative energy source. Especially, the development of new p-type conjugated polymer is one of the main issues to get core technology. In this study, a series of varied ratio of 3,6-carbazole in poly[9-(heptadecan-9-yl)-9H-carbazole-2,7-diyl-alt-(5,6-bis-(octyloxy)-4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo-[1,2,5]-thia-diazole)-5,5-diyl] were designed and synthesized. These polymers have good solubility and film formability than PCDTBT which is well known promising material. Investigation of the photovoltaic properties of these new polymers indicated that polymer with 2% of 3,6-carbazole provided higher PCE (3.8% to 4.9%) with enhanced JSC, FF, VOC. We found origin of this improvement using several methods, one of which is reduced bimolecular recombination in polymer.