Development of a silver/polymer nanocomposite interconnection layer for organic tandem solar cells

Abstract. Interconnecting layers (ICL) play an important role in regulating the performance of tandem devices. We report the design of a solution-processed ICL that consists of a silver/polymer nanocomposite deposited on the top of a TiO2 layer. This nanocomposite contains modified poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonic acid (PEDOT:PSS), and silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) synthesized by the chemical reduction of silver nitrate in the presence of PEDOT:PSS. Formation of Ag NPs was confirmed by monitoring the plasmon absorption peak characteristics in the UV–visible spectrum of the synthesized nanocomposite. Transmission electron microscopy analysis indicated the presence of spherical silver NPs in a polymer matrix with a mean size of around 20 nm. The sheet resistance of PEDOT:PSS was found to be 2474±35  Ω/sq. It was changed to 445±28  Ω/sq after solvent modification and decreased to 53.31±3.59  Ω/sq after synthesizing silver NPs in the polymer medium. Meanwhile, the transparency of the nanocomposite film deposited on TiO2 was 89.6%, which is considered appropriate for an interconnecting electrode. We demonstrated that by incorporating a silver/polymer nanocomposite as a hole-transporting layer in contact with TiO2 as an electron-transporting layer, the ohmic behavior of ICL is enhanced with respect to pristine PEDOT:PSS. P3HT:PCBM-based tandem solar cells based on this solution-processed intermediate electrode represent significantly increased open-circuit voltage (Voc), reaching close to the sum of the single cells. By incorporating the nanocomposite in the tandem structure, a Voc of 1.1 V was obtained. This value was almost the sum of the Voc of two single cells, which was 1.18 V.

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