Novel solar architecture design using carbon nanotubes, polymers, and inorganics.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes, forest, nanoparticles, organic

Introduction: Organic-Inorganic hybrid solar cells are of interest to the research community
with numerous papers touting efficiencies of over 10%1. These promising cells are fraught with
multiple fundamental issues including thermal stability of the hole transport material 2, short
lifetimes, and processing constraints. The project proposes to create a new architecture for a
robust hybrid solar cell integrating nanoparticles (NP) matched to a particular wavelength with
carbon nanotubes (CNT) to maximize light absorption and
improve electron mobility. CNTs are efficient charge
transporters that reduce recombination rate of electronhole pairs. Charge transfer between the CNT and NP is
driven by workfunction difference, allowing bandgap
tuning of CNTs for electron transfer. The hybrid cell will
be forested (Figure 1) with carbon nanotubes decorated Figure 1: Proposed architecture for CNTwith nanoparticles and filled to form an aligned NP hybrid cell. Yellow columns are CNT;
composite material with a thermally stable and printable different dot colors are different NPs.
polymer3,4.
The central issue with organic configurations is low power efficiency owing to low electron
mobility (below 10-4 cm2V-1s-1). Higher mobilities move electrons to electrodes faster, reducing
recombination rates and increasing current. To increase electron mobility of organic materials,
CdSe, TiO2 nanorods, NPs, and CNTs have been explored for hybrid organic photovoltaics to
improve mobility. In addition, low efficiencies of organic solar cells are improved either by
synthesizing new polymers or stacking organic materials in a tandem configuration. While such
methods improve efficiencies, introducing new architectures may accelerate performance and
current understanding of charge transport of organic materials.
This study proposes to not only investigate fundamental mechanisms but also leverage
existing manufacturing techniques of inkjet printing to produce robust working cells with high
efficiencies. Project Goals: (1) improve charge separation and charge transport of new
architecture (and individual parts); (2) fabricate using inkjet printing, a low cost manufacturing
method to demonstrate charge mechanisms.
Research Questions: By growing nanotubes vertically, photogenerated electrons should
travel faster through the CNT to electrode (cathode). This architecture involves several
nanoparticle materials to absorb light from specific wavelengths, similar to how tandem cells use
three junctions to harvest specific wavelengths. When light strikes the device, NPs lose an
electron that should travel via nanotubes to cathode and then to anode, generating current.
Carbon nanotube and nanoparticle band gaps have to be designed so electrons can travel
effectively through conduction bands. To separate electron-hole pairs, a pn-junction needs to be
added to induce an electric field. This could be achieved by filling CNT-NP bulk with a p-type
polymer while the cell is encapsulated by an n-type polymer.
Consumer inkjet printers are investigated for its relatively high resolution (600 dpi) and
design possibilities. It is possible to leverage multiple ink compartments in printers to combine
CNTs with different NPs of a specified wavelength. Employing such a feature could eliminate
the need to process individual CNT/nanoparticle solutions. One other characteristic that makes
inkjet printers so versatile is its ability to change parameters (hue, saturation, and luminosity)
using software. Luminosity, or brightness, can vary the amount of material printed. This is
especially useful in specifying the volume of each printed nanoparticles within the device.
Printing the entire device may be possible from the 4 ink compartments and software
capabilities.

Research Plan: CNTs decorated with NP materials are tuned to NP bandgap energies.
Specifically, the carbon nanotube conduction band will be lower than the conduction band of its
paired NP to allow electrons to travel from nanotube to electrode. This is achieved by altering
physical properties of carbon nanotubes and its indices or through addition of nanoparticles 5,6.
Poly-triarylamine (PTAA) and P(NDI2OD-T2) are thermally stable polymers that act as p-type
or n-type, respectively. P(NDI2OD-T2) encapsulates the cell by printing a thin layer on top
which acts as the top electrode while the bottom electrode (Aluminum) acts as the substrate.
Within the cell another polymer, PTAA 4, acts as a matrix to hold the carbon nanotube forest.
To maximize photogenerated electron-hole pairs, nanoparticles are selected to absorb specific
wavelengths. Near infrared range is around 1910 nanometers (0.65eV); visible light range is
from 400 nm (3.1 eV) to 700 nm (1.8 eV); and ultraviolet range is 250 nm (5eV) to 390 nm (3.1
eV). Three materials of interest for use as NPs are Titanium Dioxide, Silicon Carbide, and Cupric
Oxide for their coverage of the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared, respectively. Each
nanoparticle will be decorated on CNTs through synthesis techniques5 and printed using the four
ink cartridges. If successful, junctions could be eliminated and retain tandem cell functionality,
reducing material usage. Visualization software can vary the amount of CNT-NP material to print
by specifying hue, saturation, and luminosity parameters. This work will expand my current
research in organic inkjet printing, where I successfully printed a polymer, PEDOT:PSS, for a
different design.
Intellectual Merit & Broader Impacts: Current Organic, and Organic-Inorganic solar cells
are constrained by low mobility and incremental performance increases, indicating a need for a
new approach. The proposal of new architectures based on robust components selected for
thermal stability, bandgap overlap, and electron transport may accelerate progress in developing
efficient devices and lead to improved timelines for meeting world challenges for scalable solar
devices. Printable Hybrid composite solar devices may be a novel way to approach the
development of solar cells (and indeed has broad applications to catalysis, sensing,
transistors), combining the best features of CNTs, NPs and Polymers to solve critical issues in
stability, manufacturing and scalability. Dissemination plans include conference talks at the EU
PV Solar Energy Conference and the IEEE Photovoltaics Conference, and publications in the
Organic Electronics Journal and the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.
Providing low cost and robust solar devices through inkjet printing will enable
underdeveloped countries to sever their dependence on oil. A 20% efficient cell covering an area
the size of a few Texas counties can meet Americas electricity demands in 2011. If this endeavor
can be achieved in the US, printed solar cells have the potential to foster growth in
underdeveloped countries by severing their dependence on fossil fuels. Enabling access to simple
energy services such as lighting, water pumps, and basic communication will energize economic
growth without investments in large facilities for power generation.
References
[1] Nrel.gov, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/images/efficiency_chart.jpg.
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Composites as a Highly Stable Hole Collection Layer in Perovskite Solar Cells', Nano Letters, vol. 14, no. 10, pp.
5561-5568, 2014.
[3] H. Yan, Z. Chen, Y. Zheng, C. Newman, J. Quinn, F. Dtz, M. Kastler and A. Facchetti, 'A high-mobility
electron-transporting polymer for printed transistors', Nature, vol. 457, no. 7230, pp. 679-686, 2009.
[4] J. Heo, S. Im, J. Noh, T. Mandal, C. Lim, J. Chang, Y. Lee, H. Kim, A. Sarkar, M. Nazeeruddin, M. Grtzel and
S. Seok, 'Efficient inorganicorganic hybrid heterojunction solar cells containing perovskite compound and
polymeric hole conductors', Nature Photonics, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 486-491, 2013.

Novel solar architecture design using carbon nanotubes, polymers, and inorganics.
Keywords: carbon nanotubes, forest, nanoparticles, organic
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Chemically Modified/Doped Carbon Nanotubes & Graphene for Optimized Nanostructures & Nanodevices (Adv.
Mater. 1/2014)', Adv. Mater., vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 2-2, 2014.
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metal or semiconductor nanoparticles', Journal of Materials Chemistry, vol. 17, no. 26, p. 2679, 2007.