Journal article 621 views
Morphological Stability and Performance of Polymer–Fullerene Solar Cells under Thermal Stress: The Impact of Photoinduced PC60BM Oligomerization
Him Cheng Wong,
Zhe Li 
,
Ching Hong Tan,
Hongliang Zhong,
Zhenggang Huang,
Hugo Bronstein,
Iain McCulloch,
João T. Cabral,
James R. Durrant
,
Ching Hong Tan,
Hongliang Zhong,
Zhenggang Huang,
Hugo Bronstein,
Iain McCulloch,
João T. Cabral,
James R. Durrant
ACS Nano, Volume: 8, Issue: 2, Pages: 1297 - 1308
Swansea University Author:
Zhe Li
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DOI (Published version): 10.1021/nn404687s
Abstract
We report a general light processing strategy for organic solar cells (OSC) that exploits the propensity of the fullerene derivative PC60BM to photo-oligomerize, which is capable of both stabilizing the polymer:PC60BM active layer morphology and enhancing the device stability under thermal annealing...
| Published in: | ACS Nano |
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| ISSN: | 1936-0851 1936-086X |
| Published: |
2014
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa32085 |
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| Abstract: |
We report a general light processing strategy for organic solar cells (OSC) that exploits the propensity of the fullerene derivative PC60BM to photo-oligomerize, which is capable of both stabilizing the polymer:PC60BM active layer morphology and enhancing the device stability under thermal annealing. The observations hold for blends of PC60BM with an array of benchmark donor polymer systems, including P3HT, DPP-TT-T, PTB7, and PCDTBT. The morphology and kinetics of the thermally induced PC60BM crystallization within the blend films are investigated as a function of substrate and temperature. PC60BM nucleation rates on SiOx substrates exhibit a pronounced peak profile with temperature, whose maximum is polymer and blend-composition dependent. Modest illumination (<10 mW/cm2) significantly suppresses nucleation, which is quantified as function of dose, but does not affect crystalline shape or growth, in the micrometer range. On PEDOT:PSS substrates, thermally induced PC60BM aggregation is observed on smaller (≈100 nm) length scales, depending upon donor polymer, and also suppressed by light exposure. The concurrent thermal dissociation process of PC60BM oligomers in blend films is also investigated and the activation energy of the fullerene–fullerene bond is estimated to be 0.96 ± 0.04 eV. Following light processing, the thermal stability, and thus lifetime, of PCDTBT:PC60BM devices increases for annealing times up to 150 h. In contrast, PCDTBT:PC70BM OSCs are found to be largely light insensitive. The results are rationalized in terms of the suppression of PC60BM micro- and nanoscopic crystallization processes upon thermal annealing caused by photoinduced PC60BM oligomerization. |
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| Keywords: |
organic solar cells; PC60BM crystallization; PCBM photo-oligomerization; solar cell thermal stability and lifetime |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Issue: |
2 |
| Start Page: |
1297 |
| End Page: |
1308 |