Optical Response and Photovoltaic Performance of Organic Solar Cells Based on DH6T:Alq3 Active Layer
Pages 3-10
Fahmi Fariq Muhammad, Abdulkader Jaleel Muhammad and Khaulah Sulaiman

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-6002.2016.05.01.1

Published: 02 March 2016

Abstract: This research work reports on the optical and photovoltaic performance of dihexyl-sexithiophene (DH6T) doped with various molar percentages of tris-8-hydroxyquinolinate aluminium (Alq3) dissolved in chloroform/hexane co-solvent. Films of DH6T_(1-x)Alq3_(x) composite have been produced by casting technique aiming at investigating their absorption edge energies (E_abs) and hence identifying the optimum content of Alq3. It was found that by introducing a controlled amount of Alq3, the value of E_abs can be tuned from 2.69 eV to 1.76 eV. An empirical equation was derived to fit the obtained experimental data, by which an optimum E_abs at molar concentration of (x ≈ 25%) was predicted. Finally, organic solar cells based on the optimum active layer content were fabricated and tested. Comparably, it was observed that the photovoltaic performance of the DH6T:Alq3 based devices is much better than that achieved for the DH6T:PCBM based ones. Efficiency and fill factor for the devices based on DH6T_(0.75)Alq3_(0.25) active layer were found to be 0.22% and 26.5%, respectively, while those for DH6T:PCBM based devices were about 0.01% and 24%, respectively.