Low-work-function active metals are commonly used as cathode in polymer solar cells (PSCs), but sensitivity of the active metals towards moisture and oxygen results in poor stability of the devices. Therefore, solution-proceessable and stable cathode buffer layer is of great importance for the application of PSCs. Here we demonstrate high performance PSCs by employing as-prepared zirconium acetylacetonate (a-ZrAcac) film spin-cast from its ethanol solution as cathode buffer layer. The PSCs based on a low bandgap polymer PBDTBDD as donor and PC60BM as acceptor with a-ZrAcac/Al cathode demonstrated an average power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.75% which is significantly improved than that of the devices with traditional Ca/Al cathode. The improved photovoltaic performance is benefitted from the decreased series resistance and enhanced light harvest of the PSCs with the a-ZrAcac/Al cathode. The results indicate that a-ZrAcac is a promising high performance cathode buffer layer for fabricating large area flexible PSCs.
Uniaxially prestretched recast Nafion membranes exhibited an unusual combination of properties (a proton conductivity equal to that of commercial Nafion but with a lower methanol permeability) which make them ideal candidates for use in a direct liquid methanol fuel cell. To better understand the function and underlying morphology of the prestretched membranes, water uptake and mobility data were collected and analyzed for draw ratios ranging from 1 to 7. Macroscopic (gravimetric) water uptake and the water self-diffusion coefficient (measured by NMR) were found to be invariant with membrane elongation and essentially identical to those measured in a commercial Nafion 117 film (a similar behavior was observed for proton conductivity). The ratio of freezable/nonfreezable water in prestretched recast Nafion, the water electro-osmotic drag coefficient, and the spin-lattice relaxation time constant of deuterated water, however, decreased with increasing film elongation, up to a draw ratio of 4. The functional dependence of these properties on draw ratio was similar to that observed for methanol permeability. The combined water results indicated that there were a greater number of smaller ionic/ hydrophilic domains in prestretched recast Nafion as compared to commercial Nafion. Transmission electron microscopy of membrane cross sections confirmed this conclusion.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.