Graphene oxide/PEDOT:PSS and reduced graphene oxide/PEDOT:PSS hole extraction layers in organic photovoltaic cells

Abstract A comparison was made between the use of graphene oxide (GO)/poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/PEDOT:PSS as a hole extraction layer (HEL) in organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. Hydrazine hydrate (HYD) and the thermal method were adopted to change the GO to rGO. The OPV cell with the GO (∼2 nm)/PEDOT:PSS HEL exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 3.53% under 100 mW/cm 2 illumination and air mass conditions, which is higher than that of the OPV cell without the HEL, viz. 1.78%. The device with the PEDOT:PSS/GO HEL shows a similar PCE of 3.48%. However, the PCE of the OPV cell with the rGO/PEDOT:PSS HEL is not high as those of the cells with the HYD‐rGO/PEDOT:PSS and T‐rGO/PEDOT:PSS, viz. 3.3 and 3.37%, respectively. The work function of GO was 4.7 eV, but those of HYD‐rGO and T‐rGO were 4.2 and 4.5 eV, respectively, suggesting that the decrease of the barrier height between GO and active materials is higher than that in rGO case.