Stabilizing Silver Window Electrodes for Organic Photovoltaics Using a Mercaptosilane Monolayer

Abstract

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Enhanced Stability of Tin Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics Using a Bathocuproine—Copper Top Electrode

“…Previous work by our group and has shown that the morphology, resistivity and stability of optically thin Ag and Cu films toward oxidation in air is strongly dependent on the strength of interaction with the underlying substrate. [22,45] This is because metal films that bind strongly to the underlying substrate form compact slab-like morphologies at low film thickness that are inherently more resistant to oxidation and morphological change. [22,45,46] In the current case the resistance of the Cu electrode actually decreases upon constant illumination for 20 h in ambient air, which evidences the fact that Cu films oxidize extremely slowly in air; ii) and/or the much lower cohesion energy of Ag atoms as compared to Cu; −249 kJ mol −1 versus −422 kJ mol −1 , respectively, in the bulk.…”

“…[22,45] This is because metal films that bind strongly to the underlying substrate form compact slab-like morphologies at low film thickness that are inherently more resistant to oxidation and morphological change. [22,45,46] In the current case the resistance of the Cu electrode actually decreases upon constant illumination for 20 h in ambient air, which evidences the fact that Cu films oxidize extremely slowly in air; ii) and/or the much lower cohesion energy of Ag atoms as compared to Cu; −249 kJ mol −1 versus −422 kJ mol −1 , respectively, in the bulk. [47] A lower cohesion energy means that metal atoms at the surface of the metal crystallites can move more easily, enabling more facile morphological change at low temperature; iii) and/or a difference in the rate of surface oxide formation, which is important because morphological change requires diffusion of metal atoms over the crystallite surfaces-a process that is impeded by the formation of an oxide layer.…”

“…Given that the strength of the interaction between the incoming Cu atoms and the receiving substrate is an important determinant of the compactness of Cu films, [45] X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) (Figure 6e and Figure S17, Supporting Information) was used to probe the nature of interaction between Cu and BCP. For this study a 100 nm thick Cu film was evaporated onto a 6 nm thick BCP film supported on a glass substrate.…”

Metal‐Based Flexible Transparent Electrodes: Challenges and Recent Advances

“…These seeds provide dense nucleation centers for metal deposition, and suppress the growth of large metal islands during the PVD process. Such functional seeding materials include metals (Al, [40][41][42] Au, [43] Ag, [44] and Cu [45] ), dielectrics (Ta 2 O 5 , [46] ZnO, [47][48][49] NiO, [50] TeO 2 , [51] Nb 2 O 5 , [52] MoO 3 , [53] and Cs 2 CO 3 [54] ), polymers (polyethyleneimine [PEI], [19,[55][56][57][58] Ormoclear, [59] and photoresist SU-8 [60] ), and organic monolayers (11-mercaptoundecanoic acid [MUA], [48] [3-aminopropyl]-trimethoxysilane: [3mercaptopropyl]-trimethoxysilane [APTMS:MPTMS], [42,61,62] methyl-terminated alucone, [63] and 1,4-bis[2-phenyl-1,10-phenanthrolin-4-yl]benzene [p-bPPhenB] [64] ). For example, Schubert et al enhanced the wetting of deposited Ag films by using high surface energy metal seed materials such as Ca, Al, and Au (Figure 2a).…”

Transparent Fused Nanowire Electrodes by Condensation Coefficient Modulation

“…NFs of PVP doped with the bifunctional small molecules, MPTMS and APTMS (APTMS:MPTMS = 1:1, 1.67 wt%), were then electrospun directly onto the organofluorine layer ( Figure 1b). The rationale for the inclusion of these trimethoxysilane additives is twofold: i) they are able to cross-link when hydrolyzed, a reaction that is catalyzed by the primary amine on APTMS, [12] forming a network of strong siloxane linkages which helps to improve the mechanical strength of the PVP matrix; ii) the thiol moiety on MPTMS binds strongly with Ag, [13] improving the strength of adhesion between the metal film and the NFs and so improving the thermal and mechanical durability.…”