We fabricated bulk heterojunction organic solar cells based on 1,2-dichlorobenzene solutions of poly[[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl) oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b'] dithiophene-2,6-diyl] [3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl) carbonyl]thieno [3,4-b]-thiophenediyl]] (PTB7): [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric-acid-methyl-ester (PTB7:PC71BM) with additional dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and surfactants diiodooctane (DIO). The optimal weight ratios of DMSO and DIO relative to the total weight of PTB7:PC71BM were 13% and 3%, respectively, and the resulting solar cells exhibited an open circuit voltage of 0.72 V, short circuit current density of 15.63 mA/cm2, fill factor of 0.49, and power conversion efficiency of 5.47%. The surfaces of the active layers deposited with added DMSO and DIO were smoother than those of the layers without the added surfactants and consisted of smaller nanograins, which may have resulted in the improved solar cell performance.

Organic solar cells are expected to have superior performance in terms of flexibility and low-cost fabrication. However, conventional organic solar cells usually have issues while using rare earth ITO materials and have poor long-term reliability. To seek possible solutions for these issues, we fabricated an inverted solar cell structure of PEN/PEDOT:PSS/PFN/PTB7:PC71BM/MoO3/Au, and found that the fabricated devices had considerably improved long-term reliability when stored in air without any surface passivation layer. The resultant conversion efficiency of the solar cell was 1.88%, and it decreased to 90% of its initial value after 100 h of storage in air.

Highly conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT,:,PSS) attracts a strong attention as a transparent electrode material since it may replace indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes used in many organic semiconductor devices. However, PEDOT,:,PSS films have been usually deposited using acidic precursors, which caused long term device degradation as well as safety issues during device fabrication processes. This paper firstly reports application of highly conductive PEDOT,:,PSS films deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using a neutralized precursor to organic bulkhetrojunction solar cells. The sheet resistance ($R_{s}$) of PEDOT,:,PSS was reduced by more than two orders of magnitudes by spin coating the neutralized solution containing 5% of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and dipping the films in DMSO for 30,min. Subsequently, an approximately 55 nm-thick PEDOT,:,PSS layer was obtained with $R_{s}$ =159 $Omega$/$square$, a conductivity of 1143 S/m, and an optical transmittance of 84%. A solar cell based on poly[4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b$'$]dithiophene-2,~6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,~4-b]thiophenediyl]: [6,6]-phenyl-C$_{71}$-butyric acid methyl ester fabricated on the PEDOT: PSS/PET substrate exhibited a higher open circuit voltage and power conversion efficiency than did a control solar cell fabricated on an ITO-coated PET substrate. These results suggest that the highly conductive PEDOT,:,PSS films may contribute to realize ITO-free flexible organic solar cells.

We characterized bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells using a new phenylene-thiophene oligomer, 3,7-bis[5-(4-n-hexylphenyl)-2-thienyl]dibenzothiophene-5,5-dioxide (37HPTDBTSO), and phenyl-C61-butyric-acid methyl ester (PCBM). Their photovoltaic properties including current-voltage characteristics and spectrum response were investigated. It was found that 37HPTDBTSO is appraised to be valuable electron donor. The characteristics of BHJ solar cells using mixed two donors of 37HPTDBTSO and a polymer of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were further investigated. OSC using the blend film of mixed donars and PCBM achieved a power conversion efficiency of 0.89%.