Improvement of conversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells using photo-curable crosslinker

We have studied the performance improvement of organic photovoltaic cell through the molecular ordering of the P3HT and PCBM-71 using photo-curable crosslinker and photoinitiator. The photo-curable crosslinker ranging from 1% to 5% was added in the active layer to change the surface morphology of the bulk heterojunction organic solar cell. The cell with 1% crosslinker exhibited the J(SC) of 8.65 mA/cm(2), V-OC of 0.607 V, fill factor of 65.30%, and conversion efficiency of 3.43%, which is 11% improvement compared to the control device. The improvement of efficiency is mainly due to increase in short-circuit current by forming more effective interface area between donor and acceptor regions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.