Poly(3,:polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is up to date the most popular and commercially most successful conductive polymer. It is being used not only for antistatic, anticorrosion, and even antifouling coatings on one hand, but also, owing to its plasma frequency residing within the far-infrared region, for semi-transparent electrodes or charge extraction layers in solar cells on the other hand. The work function of an electrode plays an important role in the performance of any electronic device. Therefore, proper tuning of electrode work functions in semiconductor devices is crucial. It is worth mentioning that the work function of electrodes can be impacted by uncontrolled conditions during film processing because even monomolecular adsorbates may cause noticeable changes. Due to its ionic properties governed by the sulfonate group and its counterion, PEDOT:PSS is strongly hygroscopic, which may influence its functionality. Furthermore, the acidity of the same may lead to the release of additional ions from the neighboring layer. In this contribution, the work function of PEDOT:PSS films, cast from various commercial formulations, was monitored in dependence of the impact of (a) post-production thermal annealing and (b) storage under wellcontrolled relative humidity conditions for (c) certain durations. Indeed, work functions could be correlated with the surface concentration of metal ions, which clearly depended on the mentioned processing conditions. Finally, the impact of processing conditions on the performance of organic solar cells was demonstrated.
As the device performance and stability of polymer solar cells strongly depend on the interfacial charge extraction layers, the hole transport layer (HTL) properties are crucial. Furthermore, unfavorable interactions with the electrode or the photoactive layer should be screened and prevented. Organic solar cells of conventional architecture by varying the HTL material and layer stack systematically between PEDOT:PSS and a sol–gel‐derived tungsten oxide (WO3) are investigated. The impact of various HTLs in the solar cells is investigated by optical and electrical characterization. Interestingly, a triple‐layer WO3/PEDOT:PSS/WO3 configuration results in the best device performance specifically compared with the use of pristine WO3 and pristine PEDOT:PSS hole extraction layers. The triple layer also shows an increased reproducibility in the lifetime, which, combined with the improvement in the efficiency, can be the keys for expectable revenue.
Current–voltage ( IV) characterization is the most fundamental measurement performed on solar cells. This measurement is commonly used to extract basic solar cell parameters, such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency. We were able to obtain a fast tool to find defective behavior using Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis simulations and generate an understanding of which device property can create such defective behaviors by analyzing the second derivative of IV curves.
mask was applied to define the solar cell's active area of 0.42 cm 2 during evaporation. Finally, all samples were encapsulated by epoxy-based UV-curing glue under glass before testing.
manufacturing techniques such as roll-toroll (R2R) production are based on slot-die coating, which is suited for fast, cheap, and high-throughput industrial production. [7] Besides coating and printing, additional processing steps such as UV-curing, drying, or annealing may be required. In particular, drying and annealing processes, often done by either hot air or infrared lamps, are limited to processing temperatures of up to 120°C in the case of plastic substrates such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). [8,9] Since typical annealing times are in the range of several minutes, an oven must have a length corresponding to the feed rate of the substrate. For example, for a feed rate of only 10 m min -1 and a 5 min annealing time, it would be necessary to use an oven of 50 m in length. Of course, this puts high demands on the scale of the production line, which adds considerably to its costs. Flash lamp annealing (FLA), on the other hand, is ultra-short in time (just a few milliseconds) and can induce temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius within the targeted layer while keeping the substrate at moderate temperatures due to limited heat transport within the layer stack. In this regard, FLA is a very interesting method for annealing materials during R2R organic photovoltaic processing.The light is generated by the xenon arc lamps using high voltage to decompose the inert gas within the lamp envelope. Then, the generated pulse energy, delivered in a short time and high-intensity pulse, is sufficient to cause sintering. In addition to the fact that the short processing time (of the order of a few milliseconds) guarantees high efficiency and productivity, the substrate does not Thermal annealing (TA) is one of the most used processing techniques for the fabrication of polymer solar cells. The method is not only used to dry solutionprocessed films but also for improving the electrical conductivity and the optical absorption of the materials after coating as films. Its use is questionable in combination with high throughput manufacturing techniques such as roll-toroll large-scale production since annealing times of several minutes already put up high demands on oven lengths. Furthermore, the commonly used flexible substrates are not compatible with high processing temperatures. Therefore, there is a need for more rapid treatment techniques, which do not negatively affect the plastic substrate. Herein, it is successfully demonstrated that flash lamp annealing (FLA) can be a valid alternative to TA. The FLA technique is applied at various pulse durations and thus energy doses to PEDOT:PSS and SnO 2 films used as charge extraction layers in conventional and inverted solar cells architectures. In combination with PM6:Y6 photoactive layer, the obtained device's performances are comparable or even better than the devices treated with the classical TA on a hotplate. In terms of energy efficiency, the FLA is clearly more efficient than the TA, even at the size of prototypes.
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