After being annealed on a hot plate at 150°C for 10 Adavosertib cost min in order to remove moisture, the samples were spin-coated by a mixed solution of P3HT:PCBM with concentrations of 15 and 12 mg⋅ml-1 in dichlorobenzene at 2,000 r/m for 40 s. Then, the samples were annealed on a hot plate at 150°C for 20 min to remove dichlorobenzene. The whole process was completed in a nitrogen glove box. Finally, Al thin films with a thickness of 150 nm as the cathodes were deposited onto the above layers by magnetron sputtering method through a shadow mask, resulting in active device areas of 7 mm2. The completed photovoltaic structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PCBM/Al was annealed

at 150°C for 30 min in the nitrogen glove box. The preparation process of the

CIGS-based polymer solar cells with the structure of ITO/CIGS/P3HT:PCBM/Al (shown in Figure 1a) was similar with that of the conventional polymer solar cell except that the ITO-glass substrates were covered by the layers of the CIGS nanoparticles deposited by PLD replacing the conventional PEDOT:PSS layers. The experimental setup of PLD consists of a Nd:YAG laser with a wavelength of 532 nm, a pulse duration of 5 ns, a deposition chamber with a rotating multi-target, and a base pressure of 1 × 10-6 Torr. The laser GDC-0068 research buy beam was arranged to be incident at 45° on a target this website surface through a quartz window. The laser energy and repetition rate were 50 mJ and 10 Hz, respectively. The CIGS nanoparticles were deposited using a hot-pressed CuIn0.8Ga0.2Se2 target at a substrate temperature of 400°C for 3 min. Figure 1 Layout of a CIGS-based hybrid solar cell and its schematic energy level diagram. (a) Layout of the CIGS-based hybrid solar cell with the structure of ITO/CIGS/P3HT:PCBM/Al. (b) Schematic energy level diagram for the above structure (with energy levels in electron voltage relative to vacuum). The surface and cross-sectional morphology of the CIGS layers and CIGS/P3HT:PCBM bilayer was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (XL30FEG, Philips, Amsterdam, Netherlands). The composition

of the CIGS nanoparticles was analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) fitted on the SEM. The crystallinity of the CIGS layers was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) (D/MAX-IIA, Rigaku, Tokyo, Japan) using the Cu Kα radiation. The UV-vis absorption spectroscopy Staurosporine manufacturer of the P3HT:PCBM blend monolayer and CIGS/P3HT:PCBM bilayer was detected by an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (U-3000, Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan). The current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics of the unencapsulated samples were tested in air by using a Keithley 2400 SourceMeter (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) under air mass (AM) 1.5 global solar condition at 100 mW/cm2. The photoluminescence (PL) of the P3HT:PCBM blend monolayer and CIGS/P3HT:PCBM bilayer was measured at room temperature using a 325-nm He-Cd laser as the exciting light source.