Formation of Nanostructured Fullerene Interlayer through Accelerated Self-Assembly and Cross-Linking of Trichlorosilane Moieties Leading to Enhanced Efficiency of Photovoltaic Cells

Wei, Liang; Chang, Ching‐Ping; Lai, Yinchieh; Cheng, Sheng Wen; Chang, Helen; Lai, Yin Yu; Cheng, Yen Ju; Wang, Chien‐Lung; Hsu, Chain Shu

doi:10.1021/ma400290x

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This result is not really surprising as oligomerization of PCBM promoted by light is probably a reversible reaction following Diels–Alder chemistry. Alternatively, specially designed fullerenes with crosslinking units can be introduced to lock the morphology conformation of the bulk of the active layer [ 61 ] or the interface with the electron selective layer [ 62 ]. In addition, the crosslinking unit may be added in the donor material [ 48 ].…”

Section: Morphological Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances to Understand Morphology Stability of Organic Photovoltaics

Guerrero

García-Belmonte

2016

Nano-Micro Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Organic photovoltaic devices are on the verge of commercialization with power conversion efficiencies exceeding 10 % in laboratory cells and above 8.5 % in modules. However, one of the main limitations hindering their mass scale production is the debatable inferior stability of organic photovoltaic devices in comparison to other technologies. Adequate donor/acceptor morphology of the active layer is required to provide carrier separation and transport to the electrodes. Unfortunately, the beneficial morphology for device performance is usually a kinetically frozen state which has not reached thermodynamic equilibrium. During the last 5 years, special efforts have been dedicated to isolate the effects related to morphology changes taking place within the active layer and compare to those affecting the interfaces with the external electrodes. The current review discusses some of the factors affecting the donor/acceptor morphology evolution as one of the major intrinsic degradation pathways. Special attention is paid to factors in the nano- and microscale domain. For example, phase segregation of the polymer and fullerene domains due to Ostwald ripening is a major factor in the microscale domain and is affected by the presence of additives, glass transition temperature of the polymers or use of crosslinkers in the active layer. Alternatively, the role of vertical segregation profile toward the external electrodes is key for device operation, being a clear case of nanoscale morphology evolution. For example, donor and acceptor molecules actually present at the external interfaces will determine the leakage current of the device, energy-level alignment, and interfacial recombination processes. Different techniques have been developed over the last few years to understand its relationship with the device efficiency. Of special interest are those techniques which enable in situ analysis being non-destructive as they can be used to study accelerated degradation experiments and some will be discussed here.

show abstract

Section: Morphological Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances to Understand Morphology Stability of Organic Photovoltaics

Guerrero

García-Belmonte

2016

Nano-Micro Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This mechanism has been exploited to explain also the same findings upon UV irradiation of ZnO layers [59]. Another elegant way to improve the charge transport and collection and to reduce the charge recombination is by enhancing the vertical phase separation by realizing self-assembled fullerene monolayers (SAM) on top of the TiO x film [67,74]. Although this seems to be a very good strategy, it is necessary to be careful in the choice of the SAMs: in fact, the deposited layer must resist the subsequent active layer deposition process from solution, which means that the layer should not present at the end of the process localized defects due to the desorption of molecules [75].…”

Section: Tio Xmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Inverted devices that utilize amorphous or crystalline TiO x (usually deposited by the sol-gel method [29]) are characterized by the same range of efficiencies seen in the case of the ZnO [29,66,67].…”

Section: Tio Xmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this seems to be a very good strategy, it is necessary to be careful in the choice of the SAMs: in fact, the deposited layer must resist the subsequent active layer deposition process from solution, which means that the layer should not present at the end of the process localized defects due to the desorption of molecules [75]. Hsu and coworkers [67] joined together the concepts of self-assembling structures and cross-linking, which were separately exploited previously [76][77][78][79], in order to overcome the cited drawback of SAMs, synthesizing a new fullerene-derivative, namely the bis(2-(trichlorosilyl)propyl)malonate C60 (TSMC). This new compound was able to both cross-link and self-assemble on top of the TiO x layer, without the need for annealing or UV irradiation.…”

Section: Tio Xmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Electron and Hole Transport Layers: Their Use in Inverted Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (BHJ PSCs) are very promising organic-based devices for low-cost solar energy conversion, compatible with roll-to-roll or general printing methods for mass production. Nevertheless, to date, many issues should still be addressed, one of these being the poor stability in ambient conditions. One elegant way to overcome such an issue is the so-called "inverted" BHJ PSC, a device geometry in which the charge collection is reverted in comparison with the standard geometry device, i.e., the electrons are collected by the bottom electrode and the holes by the top electrode (in contact with air). This reverted geometry allows one to use a high work function top metal electrode, like silver or gold (thus avoiding its fast oxidation and degradation), and eliminates the need of a polymeric hole transport layer, typically of an acidic nature, on top of the transparent metal oxide bottom electrode. Moreover, this geometry is fully compatible with standard roll-to-roll manufacturing in air and is less demanding for a good post-production encapsulation process. To date, the external power conversion efficiencies of the inverted devices are generally comparable to their standard analogues, once both the electron transport layer and the hole transport layer are fully optimized for the particular device. Here, the most recent results on this particular optimization process will be reviewed, and a general outlook regarding the inverted BHJ PSC will be depicted.

show abstract

“…In the papers mentioned above, the absorbing polymer layers of the OSCs have been crosslinked. In addition, crosslinked anode and cathode interlayers which facilitate hole or electron extraction have been described in the literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic solar cells with crosslinked polymeric exciton blocking layer

Hahn

Saller

Weigl

et al. 2015

Physica Status Solidi (a)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We show that the performance of an organic solar cell can be increased by the introduction of an additional polymeric exciton blocking layer. In order to realize this, the novel polymer PFTPDAc with pendant acrylate groups is developed. Thin films are coated from a PFTPDAc solution and subsequently crosslinked by irradiation. Thereby, the film becomes completely insoluble and allows spincoating of a second polymer layer on top. We realize a three layer solar cell which contains a crosslinked PFTPDAc interlayer on top of the molybdenum oxide anode and layers of the low-bandgap polymer PCDTBT and C 60 . In comparison with a reference cell without the interlayer, the EQE is significantly increased in the spectral region between 400 and 650 nm. From current-voltage measurements a power conversion efficiency of 1.8% is determined. PL measurements show that the increase of solar cell performance is attributed to exciton blocking by the PFTPDAc interlayer.

show abstract

Formation of Nanostructured Fullerene Interlayer through Accelerated Self-Assembly and Cross-Linking of Trichlorosilane Moieties Leading to Enhanced Efficiency of Photovoltaic Cells

Cited by 21 publications

References 63 publications

Recent Advances to Understand Morphology Stability of Organic Photovoltaics

Recent Advances to Understand Morphology Stability of Organic Photovoltaics

Electron and Hole Transport Layers: Their Use in Inverted Bulk Heterojunction Polymer Solar Cells

Organic solar cells with crosslinked polymeric exciton blocking layer

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About