Stability of polymer solar cells.

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) evolve in an exponential manner in the two key areas of efficiency and stability. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) has in the last decade been increased by almost a factor of ten approaching 10%. A main concern has been the stability that was previously measured in minutes, but can now, in favorable circumstances, exceed many thousands of hours. This astonishing achievement is the subject of this article, which reviews the developments in stability/degradation of OPVs in the last five years. This progress has been gained by several developments, such as inverted device structures of the bulk heterojunction geometry device, which allows for more stable metal electrodes, the choice of more photostable active materials, the introduction of interfacial layers, and roll-to-roll fabrication, which promises fast and cheap production methods while creating its own challenges in terms of stability.

Generation of native polythiophene/PCBM composite nanoparticles via the combination of ultrasonic micronization of droplets and thermocleaving from aqueous dispersion.

We report the preparation of native polythiophene (n-PT)/[6, 6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) composite nanoparticles from a poly[3-(2-methylhex-2-yl)oxy-carbonyldithiophene] (P3MHOCT)/PCBM aqueous dispersion prepared from an ultrasonically generated emulsion. The subsequent steps involve both ultrasonic generation of microdroplets in argon as a carrier gas and drying followed by thermocleaving of the P3MHOCT component in the gas phase. The chemical transition from P3MHOCT to n-PT was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The morphology and size of n-PT/PCBM nanoparticles were determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM), small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) and grazing incidence SAXS (GISAXS), giving an average size of ∼ 140 nm. The GISAXS results reveal that n-PT/PCBM nanoparticles pack in an ordered structure as opposed to the P3MHOCT/PCBM nanoparticles. The successful vapour-phase preparation of phase-separated n-PT/PCBM nanoparticles provides a new route to all-aqueous processing of conjugated materials relevant to efficient polymer solar cells with long operational stability. The use of ultrasound was involved in both liquid and gas phases demonstrating it as a low-cost processing method.

Reversible degradation of inverted organic solar cells by concentrated sunlight.

Concentrated sunlight was used to study the performance response of inverted P3HT:PCBM organic solar cells after exposure to high intensity sunlight. Correlations of efficiency as a function of solar intensity were established in the range of 0.5-15 suns at three different stages: for a pristine cell, after 30 min exposure at 5 suns and after 30 min of rest in the dark. High intensity exposure introduced a major performance decrease for all solar intensities, followed by a partial recovery of the lost performance over time: at 1 sun only 6% of the initial performance was conserved after the high intensity exposure, while after rest the performance had recovered to 60% of the initial value. The timescale of the recovery effect was studied by monitoring the cell performance at 1 sun after high intensity exposure. This showed that cell performance was almost completely restored after 180 min. The transient state is believed to be a result of the breakdown of the diode behaviour of the ZnO electron transport layer by O(2) desorption, increasing the hole conductivity. These results imply that accelerated degradation of organic solar cells by concentrated sunlight is not a straightforward process, and care has to be taken to allow for a sound accelerated lifetime assessment based on concentrated sunlight.

Upscaling of polymer solar cell fabrication using full roll-to-roll processing.

Upscaling of the manufacture of polymer solar cells is detailed with emphasis on cost analysis and practical approach. The device modules were prepared using both slot-die coating and screen printing the active layers in the form of stripes that were serially connected. The stripe width was varied and the resultant performance analysed. Wider stripes give access to higher geometric fill factors and lower aperture loss while they also present larger sheet resistive losses. An optimum was found through preparation of serially connected stripes having widths of 9, 13 and 18 mm with nominal geometric fill factors (excluding bus bars) of 50, 67 and 75% respectively. In addition modules with lengths of 6, 10, 20, 22.5 and 25 cm were explored. The devices were prepared by full roll-to-roll solution processing in a web width of 305 mm and roll lengths of up to 200 m. The devices were encapsulated with a barrier material in a full roll-to-roll process using standard adhesives giving the devices excellent stability during storage and operation. The total area of processed polymer solar cell was around 60 m2 per run. The solar cells were characterised using a roll-to-roll system comprising a solar simulator and an IV-curve tracer. After characterisation the solar cell modules were cut into sheets using a sheeting machine and contacted using button contacts applied by crimping. Based on this a detailed cost analysis was made showing that it is possible to prepare complete and contacted polymer solar cell modules on this scale at an area cost of 89 euro m(-2) and an electricity cost of 8.1 euro Wp(-1). The cost analysis was separated into the manufacturing cost, materials cost and also the capital investment required for setting up a complete production plant on this scale. Even though the cost in euro Wp(-1) is comparable to the cost for electricity using existing technologies the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is expected to be significantly higher than the existing technologies due to the inferior operational lifetime. The presented devices are thus competitive for consumer electronics but ill-suited for on-grid electricity production in their current form.

Thermocleavable materials for polymer solar cells with high open circuit voltage-a comparative study.

The search for polymer solar cells giving a high open circuit voltage was conducted through a comparative study of four types of bulk-heterojunction solar cells employing different photoactive layers. As electron donors the thermo-cleavable polymer poly-(3-(2-methylhexyloxycarbonyl)dithiophene) (P3MHOCT) and unsubstituted polythiophene (PT) were used, the latter of which results from thermo cleaving the former at 310 degrees C. As reference, P3HT solar cells were built in parallel. As electron acceptors, either PCBM or bis-[60]PCBM were used. In excess of 300 solar cells were produced under as identical conditions as possible, varying only the material combination of the photo active layer. It was observed that on replacing PCBM with bis[60]PCBM, the open circuit voltage on average increased by 100 mV for P3MHOCT and 200 mV for PT solar cells. Open circuit voltages approaching 1 V were observed for the PT:bis[60]PCBM solar cells and a maximum conversion efficiency of 1.3% was obtained for solar cells with P3MHOCT:PCBM as the photoactive material. For the reference solar cells maximum efficiencies of 2.1 and 2.4% were achieved for P3HT:PCBM and P3HT:bis[60]PCBM, respectively. Despite special measures taken in terms of substrate design and device processing, a substantial spread in the photovoltaic properties was generally observed. This spread could not be correlated with the optical properties of the solar cells, the thickness of the photo active layer or the electrode deposition conditions of the aluminum top electrode.