Dibenzo[f,h]thieno[3,4-b] quinoxaline-fullerene heterojunction bilayer solar cells with complementary spectrum coverage

Abstract

In the present article, potential of a bilayer organic solar cell has been investigated. We utilize newly synthesized small molecules, namely dibenzo[f,h]thieno[3,4-b]quinoxaline as electron donors for solar cells in heterojunction bilayer configuration. These small molecules with a narrow absorption band in the range 400-450 nm provide a complementary spectrum for the fullerene C(70), thereby leading to an overall power conversion efficiency of 2.6 +/- 0.2% under 100 mW/cm(2) incident radiation. Thermal annealing seems to impact the charge separation at the donor-acceptor interface, which eventually affects device performance. This work demonstrates that carefully optimized bilayer devices are comparable to the bulk heterojunction counterparts. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.