Influence of morphological tuned nanostructure hybrid layers on efficient bulk heterojunction organic solar cell and X-ray detector performances

Highlights: • Constructed the bulk heterojunction device using glass/ITO/HTL/active-layer/LiF/Al. • MoO₃, MoS₂, and MoO₃-MoS₂ nanostructures used for blending with active layers. • Microscopy studies validated the formation of palm-bark-cell structured MoO₃-MoS₂. • MoO₃-MoS₂ suspended in the PCDTBT:PCBM active layer produced a PCE of ~6.18%. This work involves the investigation of effects of nanostructures composed PCDTBT and PCBM active layers in glass/ITO/HTL/active-layer/LiF/Al structured bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells and photodetectors. Solution-treated MoO₃, MoS₂, and MoO₃-MoS₂ hybrids were used to fabricate the BHJ solar cells and photodetectors. The results show that the MoO₃-MoS₂ incorporated active layers possessed high charge carrier capacities and exciton dissociation properties compared with the pure MoS₂ and MoO₃ blended matrices. Microscopic studies revealed the formation of palm-bark-cell structured MoO₃-MoS₂ hybrid which efficiently influenced for better charge carrier transport behavior. Further, different weight ratios of MoO₃-MoS₂ dispersed polymer junctions were fabricated to evaluate the impact of conjunction formation on developing charge transport characteristics. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of ~6.18% for MoO₃-MoS₂ dispersed polymer junction device realized the 38% improvement with respect to pure PCDTBT:PCBM active layer (PCE = 4.47%). Moreover, a maximum sensitivity of 1.89 mA/Gy·cm² was realized under X-ray airing for the photodetector with the MoO₃-MoS₂ blended PCDTBT and PCBM active layer. Owing to the ease of fabrication and morphologically tuned 2D atomic layer infusion into fullerene derivative/polymer junctions, it would be feasible for improving the interfacial behaviors to achieve better organic electronic devices.