P3HT/TiO2 bulk-heterojunction solar cell sensitized by a perylene derivative

In this work, a new type of dye-sensitized bulk-heterojunction hybrid solar cells has been developed. The heterojunction films were prepared to contain poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), N,N′-diphenyl glyoxaline-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic acid diacidamide (PDI) and TiO₂. In the architecture, TiO₂ and P3HT were designed to act as the electron acceptor and donor. PDI was used as sensitizer to enhance the photon absorption. Results showed that by incorporation of PDI in the P3HT/TiO₂ composite, the light absorption, exciton separation and photocurrent under white light were dramatically enhanced. Solar decay analyses showed that devices contained TiO₂ required 12 h to obtain maximum current density and the addition of PDI did not affect the solar decay behavior and stability of device composed of P3HT/TiO₂. The devices of P3HT, P3HT/TiO₂, P3HT/TiO₂/PDI could work for 5, 42, 45 h under continuous white light illumination (100 mW/m²) under the ambient condition.