Enhanced organic photovoltaic properties via structural modifications in PEDOT:PSS due to graphene oxide doping

Poly(3,4-thylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate), PEDOT:PSS is a well-known conductive polymer for hole transport in organic devices, the properties of which can be enhanced by doping. Common dopants are metal oxides and nanoparticles. In this study, addition of graphene oxide (GO) to PEDOT:PSS as a dopant is addressed in organic photovoltaics (OPVs). With GO doping, electrical conductivity and transport properties of PEDOT:PSS increases due to structural alterations in the presence of -COOH and -OH functional groups in GO. These structural alterations have been revealed under detailed study of Raman spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, Topographical and conductive Atom force microscopy (AFM/C-AFM) mapping. OPVs fabricated using PEDOT:PSS: GO (5:1) as a hole transport layer (HTL) exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.68%, which was higher than the 7.01% that was obtained for the OPVs using pristine PEDOT:PSS.