Highly durable inverted-type organic solar cell using amorphous titanium oxide as electron collection electrode inserted between ITO and organic layer

An indium tin oxide/titanium oxide/[6,6]-phenyl C-61 butyric acid methyl ester: regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxylenethiophene):poly(4-styrene sulfonic acid)/Au type organic solar cell (ITO/TiOx/PCBM:P3HT/PEDOT:PSS/Au) with 1 cm(2) active area, which is called inverted-type solar cell, was developed using an ITO/amorphous titanium oxide (TiOx) electrode prepared by a sol-gel technique instead of a low functional electrode such as Al. The power conversion efficiency (eta) of 2.47% was obtained by irradiating AM 1.5G-100mWcm(-2) simulated sunlight. We found that a photoconduction of TiOx by irradiating UV light containing slightly in the simulated sunlight was required to drive this solar cell. The device durability in an ambient atmosphere was maintained for more than 20 h under continuous light irradiation. Further, when the air-stable device was covered by a glass plate with a water getter sheet which was coated by an epoxy-UV resin as sealing material, the durability was still higher and over 96% of relative efficiency was observed even after continuous light irradiation for 120 h. Crown Copyright (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.