Performance enhancement of fullerene-based solar cells by light processing

A key challenge to the commercialization of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells is the achievement of morphological stability, particularly under thermal stress conditions. Here we show that a low-level light exposure processing step during fabrication of blend polymer:PC 60 BM solar cells can r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2013-07, Vol.4 (1), p.2227-2227, Article 2227
Main Authors: Li, Zhe, Wong, Him Cheng, Huang, Zhenggang, Zhong, Hongliang, Tan, Ching Hong, Tsoi, Wing Chung, Kim, Ji Seon, Durrant, James R., Cabral, João T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/299/946
639/624/399/73
Crystallization
Fullerenes - chemistry
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Light
multidisciplinary
Polymerization
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Solar Energy - utilization
Thiadiazoles - chemistry
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Summary:A key challenge to the commercialization of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells is the achievement of morphological stability, particularly under thermal stress conditions. Here we show that a low-level light exposure processing step during fabrication of blend polymer:PC 60 BM solar cells can result in a 10-fold increase in device thermal stability and, under certain conditions, enhanced device performance. The enhanced stability is linked to the light-induced oligomerization of PC 60 BM that effectively hinders their diffusion and crystallization in the blend. We thus suggest that light processing may be a promising, general and cost-effective strategy to optimize fullerene-based solar cell performance. The low level of light exposure required suggests not only that this may be an easily implementable strategy to enhance performance, but also that light-induced PC 60 BM oligomerization may have inadvertently influenced previous studies of organic solar cell device behaviour. Bulk heterojunctions based on semiconducting polymers blended with fullerenes are promising for organic solar cells. Li et al. show that an additional light exposure step during fabrication increases their thermal stability and can lead to enhanced device performance.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms3227