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Available at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/carbon

Conformal coating of titanium suboxide on carbon nanotube

networks by atomic layer deposition for inverted organic
photovoltaic cells
Sung H. Jin, Gwang H. Jun, Soon H. Hong, Seokwoo Jeon

Department of Material Science & Engineering, KAIST Institute for the Nanocentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:

We propose a new strategy for improving the charge selectivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)

Received 23 February 2012

for organic photovoltaic cells (OPVCs). The strategy involves the coating of an ultrathin

Accepted 13 May 2012

layer of titanium suboxide (TiOx) on CNTs by atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD can facil-

Available online 19 May 2012

itate that conformal and uniform coating of TiOx on CNT networks while preserving their
nanoporous structure. We used the TiOx-coated CNT networks as an electron transport
layer in inverted OPVCs. TiOx-coated CNTs can provide electrons with an extremely fast
conductive path through CNTs and selectively block the holes by means of the hole-barrier
property of the TiOx in OPVCs. The nanoporous structure of TiOx-coated CNT networks can
improve the device performance of OPVCs due to synergetic effects of the electron selective
transport property of TiOx and the high conductivity of CNTs. In addition, further improvement of device performance can be achieved by adding a hole transport layer (MoO3)
between the active layer and the Au electrode.
 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Organic photovoltaic cells (OPVCs) have received considerable

attention as a clean renewable energy source due to their
advantages of being lightweight, cost-effective, highly flexible
and mass producible via simple solution processing [13]. In
spite of these advantages, the commercialization of OPVCs
is still limited due to their low power conversion efficiency
(PCE) and short life span [4]. Most of the highly efficient
OPVCs have polymer bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structures that
consist of electron donating (p-type) conjugated polymers
and electron accepting (n-type) fullerene derivatives. Highly
interpenetrating networks in the nanoscale range between
p-type and n-type materials of the BHJ structures can maximize interfacial areas for exciton dissociation and generate
more efficient charge pathways to electrodes [57]. However,
the low charge mobility of organic materials and unoptimized

BHJ structures increases the chance of carriers recombining

or dissipating during the charge transport and collection
states; as a result, the PCE is low.
One way of overcoming these problems is to introduce a
one-dimensional nanomaterial with high charge mobility,
such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). CNTs have a large aspect
ratio and high charge mobility [8,9]. Thus; they can provide
a fast charge pathway in OPVCs. Two distinctive uses of CNTs
in OPVCs have been suggested as a means of increasing the
PCE. One suggestion is to incorporate CNTs into photo-active
polymers to produce charge transport pathways [10,11]. The
other suggestion is to utilize CNTs for the hole transport or
collecting layers in OPVCs [1214]. However, the use of CNTs
in OPVCs sometimes produces a lower PCE than conventional
OPVCs without CNTs [57]. One possible reason for the low
PCE is the low charge selectivity of CNTs. The metallic portions of CNTs [15], which have no band gap for effective

* Corresponding author: Fax: +82 42 350 3310.

E-mail address: jeon39@kaist.ac.kr (S. Jeon).
0008-6223/$ - see front matter  2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2012.05.027

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charge selection in OPVCs, can generate an undesired charge

recombination between the holes and electrons during the
charge transportation along the CNTs [16].
Here we propose a new strategy for improving the charge
selectivity of CNTs. The strategy involves the coating of an
ultrathin layer of titanium suboxide (TiOx) on CNTs. TiOx is
an n type material with a large band gap (Eg  3.7 eV) [17],
and it can act as a hole injection barrier in OPVCs [18,19].
TiOx-coated CNTs can therefore provide electrons with an extremely fast conductive path through CNTs and selectively
block the holes by means of the hole-barrier property of the
TiOx coating. For effective charge separation of TiOx-coated
CNTs, the CNTs should first be uniformly coated with TiOx
to a precise thickness. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a perfect tool for controlling the thickness of TiOx at the atomic
scale because the self-limiting nature of ALD [20] helps to preserve the nanostructure of the CNTs. To investigate the effect
of charge separation through the TiOx-coated CNTs, we used
TiOx-coated CNT networks which were fabricated by ALD as
an electron transport layer in inverted OPVCs. Inverted OPVCs
employ the transparent electrode as a cathode and metal electrode as an anode which show the reverse charge collection
compared to conventional OPVCs. In general, inverted OPVCs
have higher stability than conventional OPVCs in ambient
conditions due to the oxygen barrier property of electron
transporting metal oxides and metal anode with high work
function [2123]. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
and atomic force microscopy (AFM) confirm that the coating
of TiOx on the CNT networks is uniform and retains their
nanoporous structures. The PCE value of the inverted OPVC
made with TiOx-coated CNT networks by means of ALD is
30% greater than the PCE value of OPVCs without CNT networks; the improvement is due to the effective charge transport of nanoporous CNTs networks. The homogeneous
coating of TiOx on CNT networks is the key factor to improve
the PCE of OPVCs. It is confirmed when the results of CNT networks coated homogeneously with TiOx by means of ALD are
compared with the results of CNT networks coated inhomogeneously with TiOx by means of solgel solution; the latter
manifests large leakage currents and poor device performance. We also investigated the optimal coating thickness
of TiOx on CNT networks to prevent large leakage currents
from the CNT networks in OPVCs. This study is the first to systematically investigate the atomic layer-deposited, highly conductive, nanoporous CNT networks with TiOx in OPVCs.

2.

Experimental section

2.1.

Fabrication of CNT networks on ITO

Thin multi-walled CNTs were supplied by the Hanhwa Nanotech Co. The 50 mg of CNTs, which had a diameter of 5 nm to
10 nm, were functionalized by 12 h sonication in a solution of
HNO3 and H2SO4 mixed at a ratio of 1:3 (100 ml) at room temperature. Then, functionalized CNTs were obtained after
being washed with water on the Nylon filter (pore size:
0.2 lm) until the rinsed water becomes fully neutral (pH 7).
This process was designed to form carboxylate functional
groups on the CNTs. A 1 mg sample of functionalized CNTs

was dispersed in 250 ml of water by sonication for 3 h. The

dispersed solution was then centrifuged at 10,000 rpm to remove any agglomerates or bundled CNTs. Homogeneously
dispersed CNT solutions were filtered with an alumina membrane (0.2 lm pores, Whatman) to fabricate the CNT networks. The CNT networks on the membrane were then
transferred to an ITO substrate by means of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) stamping.

2.2.

Fabrication of TiOx-coated CNT networks

A traveling wave-type thermal ALD system (CN1 Co., Ltd.) was

used for the ALD coating of TiOx on the CNT networks. We
used tetrakis dimethylamino titanium (TDMAT, 99.9999%,
supplied by DNF Co., Ltd.) for the Ti precursor and H2O vapors
for the reactant. One cycle of ALD consisted of a 0.5 s injection
of TDMAT, a 30 s Ar purge, a 0.5 s injection of H2O vapors, and
another 30 s Ar purge (chamber temperature: 200 C). The sol
gel TiOx was fabricated from the spin coating of tetra isopropoxide (SigmaAldrich 99.999%) precursor solution in an air
atmosphere as referred method [18].

2.3.

Fabrication of inverted OPVCs

A 20 mg of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT, supplied by Rieke

Metals) and a 16 mg of [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl
ester (PCBM, supplied by SigmaAldrich) were dissolved and
stirred in 1 ml chlorobenzene for 12 h, respectively. The
P3HT and PCBM solutions were mixed together and stirred
for an additional 12 h. The blend of P3HT and PCBM was spin
coated on the TiOx-coated CNT networks at 300 rpm for
1 min. The Au electrode was thermally evaporated on top of
the active layer in a vacuum with a pressure of 107 torr. For
the inverted OPVCs with MoO3 layer, 1 nm thick MoO3 and
Au electrode was sequentially evaporated on top of the active
layer. Finally, the device was placed directly on a digital hot
plate in a glove box filled with N2 gas. It was left on the hot
plate for 5 min at a temperature of 110.

2.4.
Characterizations
of
functionalized
TiOx-coated CNTs, and inverted OPVCs

CNTs,

The microstructures of the functionalized CNTs and TiOxcoated CNTs were observed with a TEM (Tecnai G2 F30 S-Twin)
and AFM (Seiko). The photovoltaic properties of the OPVCs
were characterized under 1 sun illumination from a xenon
lamp with an AM 1.5 global filter. A silicon reference solar cell
certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was
used to calibrate the light and to confirm the measurement
conditions. JV measurements were taken with an electrochemical analyzer (Ivium Compactstat).

3.

Results and discussion

Fig. 1a shows a schematic of inverted OPVCs with TiOx-coated

CNT networks. The CNT networks were fabricated from a
simple vacuum filtering process of CNT aqueous solutions on
alumina membranes [24]. They were then transferred onto indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by stamping with PDMS [25].

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Fig. 1 (a) Schematics of TiOx conformally coated CNT networks as electron transport layer in inverted OPVC and (b) their
energy level diagrams in this works.

Next, we used ALD to deposit TiOx on the CNT networks at

various thicknesses (1, 5, 10, and 15 nm). Then, we used spin
coating to insure the active materials of P3HT/PCBM composites infiltrated into the CNT networks. Finally, we then
thermally evaporated the Au electrode on top of the active
layer. Due to their energy level in these inverted OPVCs, TiOx
can only transfer electrons and block holes. (Properties of
TiOx by ALD like the X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultravioletvisible
(UVvis) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS)
analysis results are shown in Fig. S1.) Furthermore, because
the work function of CNTs is located below the LUMO level of
TiOx and near the work function of the ITO electrode [26,27],
the transfer of electrons is conducted selectively from the TiOx
to the ITO electrode via CNTs as shown in Fig. 1b. Therefore,
uniform and conformal TiOx-coated CNT networks with nanoporous structures can serve as electrons transport pathways
from an active layer to the ITO electrode in inverted OPVCs.
The coating property of TiOx on CNT networks is investigated by microscopy analysis. Fig. 2. shows the TEM images
of functionalized CNTs (Fig. 2a), CNT networks with an ALD
coating of TiOx (Fig. 2b), and CNT networks with a solgel
coating of TiOx (Fig. 2c). All the CNTs are multi-walled and
have a thickness of 510 nm (Fig. 2a). The CNT networks with
an ALD coating of TiOx are fabricated by a thermal ALD system based on TDMAT and H2O gas and CNT networks with
a solgel coating of TiOx are fabricated by spin coating of a tetra isopropoxide precursor solution in an air atmosphere,
respectively [18]. After the ALD coating of TiOx, the outer

walls of the CNTs are coated uniformly and conformally with

a 10 nm thick layer of TiOx (Fig. 2b). The thickness of the ALD
coating of TiOx was also confirmed by a control experiment
per cycle, Fig. S2). In the case
on Si wafer (200 cycles: 0.5 A
of the solgel coating of TiOx on the CNT networks, the coating does not cover individual CNTs conformally; furthermore,
the overall thickness varies even though the layer of TiOx
spin-coated from the solgel solution is also 10 nm on a flat
Si surface. Most of the solgel TiOx fills in the pores between
the CNT networks; as a result, surface area of CNT networks
is decreased (Fig. 2c). This outcome, as shown in Fig. 2d, is in
good agreement with the root mean square (RMS) roughness
as measured by AFM (noncontact mode). The nanoporous
structure of the CNT network (RMS roughness: 13.15 nm) remains almost the same after the ALD of a 10 nm thick coating
of TiOx but forms smooth surfaces (RMS roughness: 7.09 nm)
after the solgel deposition of a 10 nm thick coating of TiOx.
Furthermore, the overall coating of TiOx from the solgel solution is inhomogeneous. The actual thickness of TiOx on protruded CNTs at the edge of the TiOx layer is much thinner
than the average coating thickness of the film (inset image
of Fig. 2c). ALD is superior to solgel in terms of the overall
uniformity and conformability of the TiOx coating on CNT
networks. It can also make the nanoporous structure of
TiOx-coated CNT networks suitable for effective charge collection in inverted OPVCs.
For infiltrating the active materials into TiOx-coated CNTs,
we modified surface of TiOx-coated CNTs by amphiphilic

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Fig. 2 TEM images of (a) functionalized CNTs, (b) TiOxcoated CNTs by ALD, (c) TiOx-coated CNTs by spin coating of
solgel solution (inset image is protruded CNTs at the edge
of TiOx layer) on Lacey TEM grids and (d) surface height
images (AFM, non-contact mode) of ITO (RMS roughness:
4.89 nm), CNT networks on ITO (RMS roughness: 13.15 nm),
TiOx on CNT networks by ALD (RMS roughness: 13.17 nm)
and TiOx on CNT networks by spin coating of solgel
solution (RMS roughness: 7.09 nm) (all coating thickness of
TiOx is about 10 nm).

RuLL 0 (NCS)2 (L = 2,2 0 -bipyridyl-4,4 0 -dicarboxylic acid; L 0 = 4,4 0 dinonyl-2,2 0 -bipyridine) (Z907) dye to enhance the wetting between TiOx-coated CNTs and active materials of P3HT/PCBM
composites [28]. The P3HT/PCBM composites obviously infiltrate into the TiOx-coated CNT networks after surface modification. (Detailed information of infiltration of active materials
into TiOx-coated CNT networks is shown in Figs. S3 and S4.)
Fig. 3a shows the currentvoltage (JV) characteristics of
the inverted OPVCs under 1 sun illumination (AM 1.5G condition) and Table S1 provides detailed information on the photovoltaic parameters. The PCE of an inverted OPVC with
TiOx-coated CNT networks on ITO is 1.13%. That value represents an increase of about 30% over the PCE value of 0.85% obtained in an inverted OPVC with TiOx-coated ITO. This
improvement is mainly due to the nanoporous TiOx-coated
CNT networks and the fact that highly conductive CNTs cause
a decrease in the series resistance (Rs) of inverted OPVCs
(85.4 ! 18.9 O cm2). Further PCE improvement can be achieved
by adding a hole transport layer (namely a 1 nm thick MoO3

Fig. 3 JV characteristics of inverted OPVC (a) under 1 sun

illumination, (b) by adding a 1 nm thick MoO3 between
photo-active layer and Au electrode under 1 sun
illumination, (c) without illumination (black line: TiOx, red
line: TiOx-coated CNT networks by ALD, blue line:
TiOx-coated CNT networks by solgel, cyan line: CNT
network without TiOx coating). (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)

layer) between the active layer and the Au electrode by thermal evaporation of powder typed MoO3 source. MoO3 serves
as a hole transport material and results in enhancing the
PCE of inverted OPVCs. The maximum PCE of an inverted
OPVC with a 10 nm thick coating of TiOx on CNT networks is
about 2.54% (Fig. 3b and Table S2). However, the inverted
OPVCs that use CNT networks without a TiOx coating or a
solgel coating manifest ohmic behaviors and have a very

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ing of TiOx on CNT networks and Table 1 gives a summary of

their photovoltaic parameters. A thick TiOx layer can improve
the transport of electrons (through a decrease of Rs) and selectively block the transport of holes (through an increase of
shunt resistance, Rsh) from a photo-active layer to the ITO
electrode. This behavior, as shown in Fig. 4a, produces a higher PCE. The PCE increases as the thickness of the TiOx increases because a thicker coating of TiOx tends to block the
holes better. When the thickness of TiOx exceeds 10 nm, the
PCE is saturated or slightly decreased on account of the increase in Rs. TiOx-coated CNT networks behave in a similar
manner, depending on the thickness of the TiOx (Fig. 4b). As
expected from the high electrical conductivity of CNT networks, the Rs of OPVCs with CNT networks is much lower
than that of OPVCs without CNT networks (Table 1). The TiOx
thickness of about 10 nm is optimal for achieving the highest
PCE value from TiOx-coated CNT networks in inverted OPVCs.

4.

Fig. 4 JV characteristics of inverted OPVCs (a) without, (b)

with CNT networks under 1 sun illumination depend on
thickness of TiOx by ALD.

low PCE. The OPVC without TiOx coating exhibits large leakage
currents (Fig. 3c) due to the low charge selectivity of CNTs.
CNT networks coated with TiOx from a solgel solution also
behave in a similar manner due to the inhomogeneous coverage of TiOx. Thus, the conformal ALD coating of TiOx on CNT
networks appears to be an effective method of preventing
large leakage currents from the CNT networks in OPVCs.
Inverted OPVCs with ALD coatings of TiOx of varying thicknesses (1, 5, 10, and 15 nm) are tested to clarify how TiOx affects the photovoltaic property of inverted OPVCs. Fig. 4
shows the JV characteristics of an inverted OPVC under 1
sun illumination in relation to the thickness of the ALD coat-

Summary

We studied the effect of an ALD coating of TiOx on CNT networks for inverted OPVCs. A comparison with solgel deposition confirms that ALD is a superior method to fabricate the
TiOx uniformly coated CNT networks while preserving the
nanoporous structure of the CNT networks. The PCE of inverted OPVCs that use CNT networks with an ALD coating
of TiOx is enhanced by 30% on account of the increase in surface area and high conductive of CNT networks. The maximum PCE of an inverted OPVC is about 2.54% at the
addition of 1 nm thick MoO3 as an hole transport layer. However, an inhomogeneous or thin coating of TiOx on CNT networks causes leakage currents, which tend to lower the PCE
of inverted OPVCs. The PCE of inverted OPVCs gradually increases as the thickness of TiOx increases up to 10 nm. The
higher PCE value is due to better electron transport and hole
blocking. In the case of inverted OPVCs with TiOx-coated
CNT networks, a TiOx coating of more than 10 nm in thickness is required to prevent any large leakage currents. This
study is the first to fabricate and investigate CNT networks
with an ALD coating of TiOx for OPVCs. Our promising results
suggest that CNT networks with an ALD coating of TiOx can
be used as electron transport and hole blocking layer and
thereby improve the performance of OPVCs.

Table 1 Summary of photovoltaic parameters depend on thickness of TiOx by ALD.

TiOx
1 nm

PCE (%)
JSC (mA/cm2)
VOC (V)
FF
*R (O cm2)
s
2
*R
sh (O cm )
*R
s

0.42
4.67
0.25
0.36
547.4
6.56 103

TiOx
5 nm

0.73
4.70
0.37
0.42
118.3
4.00 105

TiOx
10 nm

0.85
5.22
0.38
0.43
85.4
1.95 105

TiOx
15 nm

TiOx
1 nm on
CNT
networks

0.75
5.06
0.36
0.41
113.0
5.50 106

0.24
4.40
0.19
0.29
28.8
88.2

TiOx
5 nm on
CNT
networks
0.69
4.45
0.37
0.42
85.2
2.1 103

TiOx
10 nm on
CNT
networks
1.13
6.20
0.38
0.48
18.9
1.0 104

TiOx
15 nm on
CNT networks
0.92
5.56
0.36
0.46
29.6
2.7 105

and *Rsh are derived from the slope of the JV characteristic curve under dark conditions close to voltage and current axis, respectively
[29,30].

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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Nano R&D program
through the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation funded
by the Ministry of Science & Technology (2010-0019132). It was
also partially supported by the Converging Research Center
Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea
(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (2010 -1079000).

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found,
in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.
2012.05.027.

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