Nanostructure effect of V2O5 buffer layer on performance of polymer-fullerene devices

Nanostructure of solar cell materials is often essential for the device performance. V₂O₅ nanobelt structure is synthesized with a solution process and further used as an anode buffer layer in polymer solar cells, resulting insignificantly improved power conversion efficiency (PCE of 2.71%) much higher than that of devices without the buffer layer (PCE of 0.14%) or with V₂O₅ powder as the buffer layer (1.08%). X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that the V₂O₅ nanobelt structure has better phase separation while providing higher surface area for the P3HT:PCBM active layer to enhance photocurrent. The measured impedance spectrums show that the V₂O₅ nanobelt structure has faster charge transport than the powder material. This work clearly demonstrates that V₂O₅ nanobelt has great potential as a substitute of the conventionally used PEDOT-PSS buffer layer for high performance devices.