Study of PEDOT and analogous polymer film as back-electron injection barrier and electrical charge storing materials

Abstract

This work reports on back-electron injection barrier property and electrical charge storing behavior of PEDOT film with and without substituted propylene as terminal group. As a barrier layer, thin polymer film is deposited on TiO2 particles of DSSC using photo-induced polymerization route. The same piece of DSSC device is used before and after deposition of polymer thin-film for studying the influence of interfacial treatment. The propylene substituted PEDOT treatment of the device demonstrates an enhanced power conversion efficiency from 4.31 to 5.96% whereas the unsubstituted PEDOT treated device shows only the power conversion enhancement from 4.54 to 5.31%. This finding suggests the higher barrier performance of the propylene substituted PEDOT for back-electron injections. Unlike the barrier performance, the propylene substituted PEDOT shows poorer electrical charge storing behavior with specific capacitance of 63.47 F g(-1) whereas the unsubstituted PEDOT film achieved 96.84 F g(-1). (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.