Water soluble copper phthalocyanine based composite hole transport layer for enhanced hole collection in organic solar cells

Abstract

In pursuit of technologies that can efficiently utilize renewable energy sources newlinephotovoltaic technology has improved considerably in recent years, owing to its potential newlineof harvesting energy from the sun in an environmental-friendly manner. Flexible solar newlinecells bear the unlimited potential to develop into large scale processed, lightweight, newlineflexible, cost-effective and efficient energy conversion technology that can replace newlineconventional silicon solar cells. Different from silicon technology, there are no newlineboundaries for the synthesis of novel organic materials or combinations of materials in newlineorganic electronics. So, identifying suitable organic materials for efficient as well as newlineeasily processed and environment-safe devices is an important task. Organic electronic newlinetechnology mainly relies on printing techniques for commercial level production. It is newlineequally advantageous and hazardous. While it reduces the complicated fabrication newlineprocesses, the volatile organic solvents used are unsafe for the environment and bring newlineadditional costs for their safe disposal. In this context, aqueous solution-processed newlinematerials for flexible electronics gain significance. newlineThe objective of this thesis is to explore the application potential of Copper newlinePhthalocyanine (CuPc), a stable and low-cost small molecule, as a hole transporting layer newline(HTL) in organic solar cells (OSC). CuPc is a successful HTL in high efficient organic newlineand perovskite solar cells. Even though CuPc is deposited using vacuum techniques, an newlineaqueous solution-processable derivative of CuPc, Copper phthalocyanine-3,4and#697;,4and#698;,4and#8244;- newlinetetra-sulfonated acid tetrasodium salt (TS-CuPc) is gaining popularity due to its newlineconvenience for low-cost large-area eco-friendly processing and suitability for a variety newlineof applications. Considering the potential of CuPc, more studies on charge transport in newlineCuPc films and its novel applications in OSCs are emphasized in this thesis. newline