POLYMER SOLAR CELLS

Department of Plastic Technology

H. B. T. U., Kanpur

Presented by
 Aman Kushwaha
 B. Tech III year
 Roll no. -1604587007
 Sr no. -449/16
 Content:
• Various source of generating electricity and it's
drawbacks .
• Alternative source~ sun
• Electricity generation device ~Solar cells
• History of polymer solar cells
• Polymer used
• Working and structure of polymer solar cells
• Processing techniques
• Advantages and disadvantages
• Future applications, challenges, conclusion
 Various source of generating electricity and
their drawbacks
Wind ~ Does not produce power when wind
is blowing ,Huge turbines are required
Coal ~ Produce carbon dioxide per watt of energy ,
Large quantity of smoke and ash produced
Nuclear ~ Huge capital cost, maintenance cost,
Harmful radiation release.
Hydro ~ Building dam is environmentally
destructive, require huge capital cost
Alternative source of generating electricity

• SOLAR ENERGY
It is a renewable source of energy
It produces no pollutants and is
cleanest source of energy.
Solar energy, radiation from the sun capable of
producing heat is used to generate electricity
Earth receives about 1366 watts of direct Solar radiation
per square meter
If suitably harnessed it has potential to satisfy all needs.
 Electricity Generation Device

Solar Cell :- It is an electrical device that converts the

energy of light directly into electricity by the
photovoltaic effect .It is fabricated with silicon.

Polymer solar cells:- These are those solar cells that

deals with conductive organic polymers for light
absorption and charge
transport to produce
electricity from sunlight by
photovoltaic effect.
 History of Solar Cell
• The photovoltaic effect was first demonstrated by
edmond Becquerel in 1839.
• In 1957 pochettino observed a
Photoconductivity in poly(N-
vinyl carbazole).
• In 1977 ,heeger, macdiarmid
Discovered polyacetylene
Behaving as conductive polymers.
• In 1986,Tang reported first polymer solar cells
 Polymer used in Solar cells
• Conductive polymers are used
• Have conjugation system
• Materials have delocalized electron system
that can absorb sunlight, create photo
generated charge carriers and transport these
charge carriers.
 Polymer as a donar
Phthalocyanine poly(3hexylthiophene)
 Polymer as a acceptor
Perylene Phenol c61 -butyricacid
methyl Ester (PCBM)
 Process in an Polymer Solar Cell

1) Absorption of light 2) Charge transfer

and separation of the opposite charges
3) Charge transmission 4) Charge collection
 Structure of polymer solar cells
• Polymer solar cells are multi layer device.
• It contain cathode, anode, photoactive layer
and flexible transparent substrate
• Now, these photo active layers can be of three
types. They are:-
a) Single layer
b) Bilayer
c) Bulk heterogeneous
 Types of photoactive layer
1) Single layer :-
Organic layer is
Sandwiched between two
electrodes. Difference in
the work function of the
electrode creates an
electric field in the organic
layer. On absorption of light
excitons are formed which break up due to electric
field and their movement creates a direct current
 Single layer
Example :- Al/polyacetylene/graphite ,
Al/PPV/ITO etc

Issues :-
a) Do not work well
b) I Low power conversion efficiency of 0.1% .
c) Electron recombine with the holes without
reaching the electrode
2) Bilayer :-Two layer one of electron donar
and acceptor is coated between two
electrode. Layers have different electron
affinity and ionization energy therefore
generating electrostatic
forces at the interface
 Bilayer
Example :- C60 /MEH-PPV

Issues :-
• Polymer layer thickness 100 nm but diffusion
length 10 nm. Large thickness ~ small fraction
of exciton reach the interface
3) Bulk heterogeneous :-
• Instead of having
distinct electron donor
and electron acceptor
layers, donor and
acceptor are mixed
together forming blend
and is coated between the
electrodes
 Bulk heterogeneous
Example :- Fullerene and it's derivative is blend
with MEH - PPV as the heterojunction with
power conversion efficiency of 10.61%.

Issues :-
• Fullerene electron acceptor weakly absorb
visible light decreasing the volume fraction
• Fullerene have poor electronic tunability
 Processing techniques
• There are various
processing techniques
for fabricating polymer
layer. Most popular are :-
1)Vacuum thermal
Evaporation
2)Organic phase vapor
deposition
Advantages of polymer solar cells

• Mechanical Flexibility
• Ease of processing
• Economically viable
• Less expensive thaninorganic materials.
• Compatability (Thin cells)
• Unlimited availability
Disadvantages of polymer solar cells
 Future applications
• Rechargeable surfaces
• Supply power to phones or MP3 players
• Night vision scopes
• GPS receptors
 Future challenges
• The present efficiency of polymer solar cells lies
below 10% which is far from silicon cells.
• Polymer solar cells also suffer from environmental
degradation, lacking effective coatings .
• Control over morphology of organic layer is a
major challenge because once charge are
separated they need to travel through electrodes
and random orientation reduces efficiency
 Conclusion
• This field is just beginning of research .
• In last 5 years, enormous increase in the performance
of polymer fullerene bulk heterojunction Solar cells
• Efficiency with 3% are routinely used and laboratories
have 4-5% efficient cells
• Light weight, flexible polymers can be produced by
roll to roll production of with high efficiency.
• Efforts need to be done in obtaining bulk ordered
structures of done and acceptor
THANK YOU