Cephas Small wins MSE Spring Banquet 2012 Poster Session

Inverted polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells have received a great deal of attention because of their compatibility with large-scale roll-to-roll processing. Here, we demonstrate enhanced charge collection in inverted polymer solar cells using a surface-modified ZnO–polymer nanocomposite electron-transporting layer. Using this approach, we demonstrate inverted polymer solar cells based on a low-bandgap polymer with an alternating dithienogermole–thienopyrrolodione repeat unit (PDTG–TPD) with efficiencies greater than 8%. To our knowledge, this is the one of the highest efficiencies reported to date for a single-cell device with an architecture compatible with the roll-to-roll process.