Stability enhancement in organic solar cells by incorporating V2O5 nanoparticles in the hole transport layer

The synthesis of vanadium pentaoxide (V2O5) nanoparticles by a hydrothermal method and their utilization in a PEDOT: PSS buffer layer in a PCDTBT: PC71BM device structure is demonstrated. V2O5 nanoparticles were dispersed in the PEDOT: PSS hole transport layer (HTL) in normal architecture bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The device performance for both pure PEDOT: PSS and hybrid HTLs were studied and demonstrated to effectively work in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (BHJ OSCs). From the stability test initially for one week and subsequently for another three weeks, it was confirmed that the OSC device with the incorporation of V2O5 nanoparticles in the standard HTL leads to a decrease in device degradation and significantly improves the lifetime as compared to the standard HTL based device. Moreover, the hybrid HTL exhibits better optical properties and a relatively stable band gap as compared to its pristine PEDOT: PSS counterpart. Our results indicate that V2O5 could be a simple addition into the PEDOT: PSS layer to overcome its stability and degradation issues leading to an effective HTL in BHJ OSCs.