Amine-Functionalized Carbon Dots as PEDOT:PSS Dopants for Organic Solar Cells

The hole transport layer (HTL) is an important component in organic solar cells (OSCs). As a commonly used HTL, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene-sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in OSCs generally exhibits relatively low conductivity, hindering device performance improvement. Herein, amine-functionalized carbon dots (CDs-N) are introduced as dopants of PEDOT:PSS, which can effectively enhance the HTL conductivity while maintaining a similar work function. The PEDOT:PSS+CDs-N devices exhibit higher power conversion efficiencies due to the improved charge extraction ability. It is found that the larger conjugated backbones of CDs-N and the amine functional groups interacting with PSS are keys for such optimization. This work illustrates the potential of CDs for the applications on interface layers in OSCs.

Automated summary

The hole transport layer (HTL) is essential in organic solar cells (OSCs). This study introduces amine-functionalized carbon dots (CDs-N) as dopants of PEDOT:PSS to enhance HTL conductivity while maintaining a similar work function. The PEDOT:PSS+CDs-N devices exhibit higher power conversion efficiencies due to improved charge extraction ability.