Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is an excellent hole-conducting polymer widely used in organic solar cells and shows promise for use in inverted geometry flexible dye sensitized solar cells. Common PEDOT:PSS blends form large co-polymer strands with the conductive PEDOT surrounded by an insulating poly(styrenesulfonate) polymer which leads to poor conductivity and penetration when used in DSSC. Vapor phase EDOT monomers can penetrate further into titanium dioxide (TiO2) substrate leading to greater surface coverage of the electron donating layer. The vapor phase polymerization of PEDOT has shown to yield higher conductivity thin films compared to PEDOT:PSS blends. Highly conductive PEDOT using Iron(III) tosylate oxidants produce conductivity of 1350 S/cm2 and transparency >80 Fatigue measurements show greater stability of the conducting oxide layer, indium tin oxide, when the cell layers are applied compared to ITO alone. We present results on vapor phase polymerized PEDOT growth and their application to flexible dye sensitized solar cells.

Organic vapor phase polymerization of thin film electrodes in flexible solid state dye sensitized solar cells

245th National Meeting (2013)

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