ESR spectroscopy for monitoring the photochemical and thermal degradation of conjugated polymers used as electron donor materials in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells.

It was shown that ESR spectroscopy is a very useful technique for monitoring the photochemical and thermal degradation of conjugated polymers commonly used in organic solar cells. The relative stability of materials can be quantified by comparing the rates of trap accumulation (dC(R)/dt) estimated from their ESR profiles.

ESR spectroscopy as a powerful tool for probing the quality of conjugated polymers designed for photovoltaic applications.

Here we report the application of the Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy as a highly sensitive analytical technique for assessment of the electronic quality of organic semiconductor materials, particularly conjugated polymers. It has been shown that different batches of the same conjugated polymer might contain substantially different amounts of radical species which were attributed to structural defects and/or impurities behaving as traps for mobile charge carriers. Good correlations between the concentrations of radicals in various batches of conjugated polymers and their performances in organic solar cells have been revealed.