The Influence of Helium Dielectric Barrier Discharge Jet (DBDjet) Plasma Treatment on Bathocuproine (BCP) in p-i-n-Structure Perovskite Solar Cells

Chung-Yueh Shih; Jian-Zhi Huang; Mei-Hsin Chen; Cheng-Che Hsu; Chih-I Wu; I-Chun Cheng; Jian-Zhang Chen

doi:10.3390/polym13224020

The Influence of Helium Dielectric Barrier Discharge Jet (DBDjet) Plasma Treatment on Bathocuproine (BCP) in p-i-n-Structure Perovskite Solar Cells

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Nov 20;13(22):4020. doi: 10.3390/polym13224020.

Authors

Chung-Yueh Shih^{1

2}, Jian-Zhi Huang³, Mei-Hsin Chen⁴, Cheng-Che Hsu⁵, Chih-I Wu³, I-Chun Cheng^{3

6

7}, Jian-Zhang Chen^{1

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Applied Mechanics, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
² Advanced Research Center for Green Materials Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
³ Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City 10608, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.
⁷ Innovative Photonics Advanced Research Center (i-PARC), National Taiwan University, Taipei City 10617, Taiwan.

Abstract

A bathocuproine (BCP) layer is typically used as the hole-blocking layer in p-i-n-structure perovskite solar cells (PSCs) between PC₆₁BM and Ag electrodes. Before evaporating the Ag, we used a low-temperature (<40 °C) atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge jet (DBDjet) to treat the BCP with different scan rates. The main purpose of this was to change the contact resistance between the BCP layer and the Ag electrodes through surface modification using a DBDjet. The best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.11% was achieved at a DBDjet scan rate of 2 cm/s. The He DBDjet treatment introduced nitrogen to form C-N bonds and create pits on the BCP layer. This deteriorated the interface between the BCP and the follow-up deposited-Ag top electrode. Compared to the device without the plasma treatment on the BCP layer, the He DBDjet treatment on the BCP layer reduced photocurrent hysteresis but deteriorated the fill factor and the efficiency of the PSCs.

Keywords: atmospheric-pressure plasma; conductive polymer; dielectric barrier discharge; non-thermal plasma; perovskite solar cell.

Abstract

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