Circumventing UV Light Induced Nanomorphology Disorder to Achieve Long Lifetime PTB7‐Th:PCBM Based Solar Cells

Liu, Quan; Toudert, Johann; Liu, Feng; Mantilla‐Perez, Paola; Bajo, Miguel Montes; Russell, Thomas P.; Martorell, Jordi

doi:10.1002/aenm.201701201

Title: Circumventing UV Light Induced Nanomorphology Disorder to Achieve Long Lifetime PTB7‐Th:PCBM Based Solar Cells

Journal Article · Mon Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701201· OSTI ID:1401310

Liu, Quan ^[1]; Toudert, Johann ^[1]; Liu, Feng ^[2]; Mantilla‐Perez, Paola ^[1]; Bajo, Miguel Montes ^[1]; Russell, Thomas P. ^[3]; Martorell, Jordi ^[4]

ICFO‐Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona) Spain
Materials Sciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley CA 94720 USA, Department of Physics and Astronomy Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240 P. R. China
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering University of Massachusetts Amherst MA 01003 USA
ICFO‐Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology 08860 Castelldefels (Barcelona) Spain, Departament de Física Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya 08222 Terrassa Spain

Abstract Large area flexible electronics rely on organic or hybrid materials prone to degradation limiting the device lifetime. For many years, photo‐oxidation has been thought to be one of the major degradation pathways. However, intense illumination may lead to a burn‐in or a rapid decrease in performance for devices completely isolated from corrosive elements as oxygen or moisture. The experimental studies which are presented in here indicate that a plausible triggering for the burn‐in is a spin flip after a UV photon absorption leading to the accumulation of electrostatic potential energy that initiates a rapid destruction of the nanomorpholgy in the fullerene phase of a polymer cell. To circumvent this and achieve highly stable and efficient devices, a robust nanocrystalline ordering is induced in the PCBM phase prior to UV illumination. In that event, PTB7‐Th:PC ₇₁ BM cells are shown to exhibit T ₈₀ lifetimes larger than 1.6 years under a continuous UV‐filtered 1‐sun illumination, equivalent to 7 years for sunlight harvesting at optimal orientation and 10 years for vertical applications.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

OSTI ID:: 1401310

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Energy Materials Vol. 7 Journal Issue: 21; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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Cited by: 64 works

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