Visible to Near-Infrared Light Harvesting in TiO2 Nanotube Array−P3HT Based Heterojunction Solar Cells

Abstract

The development of high-efficiency solid-state excitonic photovoltaic solar cells compatible with solution processing techniques is a research area of intense interest, with the poor optical harvesting in the red and near-IR (NIR) portion of the solar spectrum a significant limitation to device performance. Herein we present a solid-state solar cell design, consisting of TiO₂ nanotube arrays vertically oriented from the FTO-coated glass substrate, sensitized with unsymmetrical squaraine dye (SQ-1) that absorbs in the red and NIR portion of solar spectrum, and which are uniformly infiltrated with p-type regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) that absorbs higher energy photons. Our solid-state solar cells exhibit broad, near-UV to NIR, spectral response with external quantum yields of up to 65%. Under UV filtered AM 1.5G of 90 mW/cm² intensity we achieve typical device photoconversion efficiencies of 3.2%, with champion device efficiencies of 3.8%.