Efficient charge collection in hybrid polymer/$TiO2$ solar cells using poly(ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulphonate as hole collector

We report a study of the optimization of power conversion efficiency in hybrid solar cells based on nanostructured titanium dioxide and a poly[2-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-5-methoxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) based conjugated polymer. Charge collection efficiency is enhanced by introducing a poly(ethylenedioxythiophene)/polystyrene sulphonate (PEDOT) layer (under the gold electrode) as the hole collector. Device performance is maximized for a device with a net active layer thickness of 100 nm. The optimized device has peak external quantum efficiencies $≈40%$ at the polymer’s maximum absorption wavelength and yield short circuit current density $⩾2mAcm−2$ for air mass (AM) 1.5 conditions (⁠$100mWcm−2$⁠, 1 sun). The AM 1.5 open circuit voltage for this device is 0.64 V and the fill factor is 0.43, resulting in an overall power conversion efficiency of 0.58%.