Side chain engineering of poly-thiophene and its impact on crystalline silicon based hybrid solar cells

The influence of ether groups in the side chain of spin coated regioregular polythiophene derivatives on the polymer layer formation and the hybrid solar cell properties was investigated using electrical, optical, and X-ray diffraction experiments. The polymer layers are of high crystallinity but the polymer with 3 ether groups in the side chain (P3TOT) did not show any vibrational fine structure in the UV-Vis spectrum. The presence of ether groups in the side chains leads to better adhesion resulting in thinner and more homogeneous polymer layers. This, in turn, enhances the electronic properties of the planar c-Si/poly-thiophene hybrid solar cell. We find that the power conversion efficiency increases with the number of ether groups in the side chains, and a maximum power conversion efficiency of η = 9.6% is achieved even in simple planar structures