Efficiency Enhancement of MEH-PPV:PCBM Solar Cells by Addition of Ditertutyl Peroxide as an Additive

Improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability of organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells based on poly (2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV) and methanofullerene 6,6-phenyl C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blends are obtained by using ditert butyl peroxide (DTBP) as an additive. The effect of the DTBP contents on the performance of photovoltaic cells is investigated. The results reveal that efficiency enhancement of MEH-PPV:PCBM solar cells can be realized by carefully tuning the contents of DTBP. Compared to the control device, the optimized device with 0.5wt% DTBP additive exhibits enhanced performance with J_sc of (3.51±0.21) mA/cm², FF of (44.45±0.71)%, and PCE of (1.31±0.08)%, increased by 9.3%, 8.0% and 22.4%, respectively. The stability of the device is found to be improved by adding 0.5wt% of DTBP.