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Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices

Zhe Li Orcid Logo, Kar Ho Chiu, Raja Shahid Ashraf, Sarah Fearn, Rajeev Dattani, Him Cheng Wong, Ching-Hong Tan, Jiaying Wu, João T. Cabral, James R. Durrant

Scientific Reports, Volume: 5, Start page: 15149

Swansea University Author: Zhe Li Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/srep15149

Abstract

Morphological stability is a key requirement for outdoor operation of organic solar cells. We demonstrate that morphological stability and lifetime of polymer/fullerene based solar cells under thermal stress depend strongly on the substrate interface on which the active layer is deposited. In partic...

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Published in: Scientific Reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Published: 2015
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa32083
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spelling 2017-07-11T09:15:26.7775630 v2 32083 2017-02-23 Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices 56be57cc8dd661dfdbb921608cf93ded 0000-0002-7404-7448 Zhe Li Zhe Li true false 2017-02-23 EEN Morphological stability is a key requirement for outdoor operation of organic solar cells. We demonstrate that morphological stability and lifetime of polymer/fullerene based solar cells under thermal stress depend strongly on the substrate interface on which the active layer is deposited. In particular, we find that the stability of benchmark PCDTBT/PCBM solar cells under modest thermal stress is substantially increased in inverted solar cells employing a ZnO substrate compared to conventional devices employing a PEDOT:PSS substrate. This improved stability is observed to correlate with PCBM nucleation at the 50 nm scale, which is shown to be strongly influenced by different substrate interfaces. Employing this approach, we demonstrate remarkable thermal stability for inverted PCDTBT:PC70BM devices on ZnO substrates, with negligible (<2%) loss of power conversion efficiency over 160 h under 85 °C thermal stress and minimal thermally induced “burn-in” effect. We thus conclude that inverted organic solar cells, in addition to showing improved environmental stability against ambient humidity exposure as widely reported previously, can also demonstrate enhanced morphological stability. As such we show that the choice of suitable substrate interfaces may be a key factor in achieving prolonged lifetimes for organic solar cells under thermal stress conditions. Journal Article Scientific Reports 5 15149 2045-2322 15 10 2015 2015-10-15 10.1038/srep15149 COLLEGE NANME Engineering COLLEGE CODE EEN Swansea University 2017-07-11T09:15:26.7775630 2017-02-23T16:13:12.9619470 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised Zhe Li 0000-0002-7404-7448 1 Kar Ho Chiu 2 Raja Shahid Ashraf 3 Sarah Fearn 4 Rajeev Dattani 5 Him Cheng Wong 6 Ching-Hong Tan 7 Jiaying Wu 8 João T. Cabral 9 James R. Durrant 10 0032083-28022017143534.pdf li2015.pdf 2017-02-28T14:35:34.0100000 Output 868682 application/pdf Version of Record true 2017-02-28T00:00:00.0000000 false eng
title Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
spellingShingle Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
Zhe Li
title_short Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
title_full Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
title_fullStr Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
title_full_unstemmed Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
title_sort Toward Improved Lifetimes of Organic Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: Substrate-Dependent Morphological Stability of PCDTBT:PCBM Films and Devices
author_id_str_mv 56be57cc8dd661dfdbb921608cf93ded
author_id_fullname_str_mv 56be57cc8dd661dfdbb921608cf93ded_***_Zhe Li
author Zhe Li
author2 Zhe Li
Kar Ho Chiu
Raja Shahid Ashraf
Sarah Fearn
Rajeev Dattani
Him Cheng Wong
Ching-Hong Tan
Jiaying Wu
João T. Cabral
James R. Durrant
format Journal article
container_title Scientific Reports
container_volume 5
container_start_page 15149
publishDate 2015
institution Swansea University
issn 2045-2322
doi_str_mv 10.1038/srep15149
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Morphological stability is a key requirement for outdoor operation of organic solar cells. We demonstrate that morphological stability and lifetime of polymer/fullerene based solar cells under thermal stress depend strongly on the substrate interface on which the active layer is deposited. In particular, we find that the stability of benchmark PCDTBT/PCBM solar cells under modest thermal stress is substantially increased in inverted solar cells employing a ZnO substrate compared to conventional devices employing a PEDOT:PSS substrate. This improved stability is observed to correlate with PCBM nucleation at the 50 nm scale, which is shown to be strongly influenced by different substrate interfaces. Employing this approach, we demonstrate remarkable thermal stability for inverted PCDTBT:PC70BM devices on ZnO substrates, with negligible (<2%) loss of power conversion efficiency over 160 h under 85 °C thermal stress and minimal thermally induced “burn-in” effect. We thus conclude that inverted organic solar cells, in addition to showing improved environmental stability against ambient humidity exposure as widely reported previously, can also demonstrate enhanced morphological stability. As such we show that the choice of suitable substrate interfaces may be a key factor in achieving prolonged lifetimes for organic solar cells under thermal stress conditions.
published_date 2015-10-15T03:39:16Z
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score 11.035743

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