Stability/degradation of polymer solar cells

Transparent conductors as solar energy materials: A panoramic review

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) evolve in an exponential manner in the two key areas of efficiency and stability. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) has in the last decade been increased by almost a factor of ten approaching 10%. A main concern has been the stability that was previously measured in minutes, but can now, in favorable circumstances, exceed many thousands of hours. This astonishing achievement is the subject of this article, which reviews the developments in stability/degradation of OPVs in the last five years. This progress has been gained by several developments, such as inverted device structures of the bulk heterojunction geometry device, which allows for more stable metal electrodes, the choice of more photostable active materials, the introduction of interfacial layers, and roll-to-roll fabrication, which promises fast and cheap production methods while creating its own challenges in terms of stability.

Stability of polymer solar cells.

The present invention, in one aspect, relates to a solar cell In one embodiment, the solar cell includes an anode, a p-type semiconductor layer formed on the anode, and an active organic layer formed on the p-type semiconductor layer, where the active organic layer has an electron-donating organic material and an electron-accepting organic material

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/105/8/2783.full.pdf

P-type semiconducting nickel oxide as an efficiency-enhancing anodal interfacial layer in bulk heterojunction solar cells

https://www.fkit.unizg.hr/_download/repository/Smart_Windows-_Review.pdf

Properties, requirements and possibilities of smart windows for dynamic daylight and solar energy control in buildings: A state-of-the-art review

https://shell.cas.usf.edu/~xjiang/SEMSC07.pdf

Transparent carbon nanotube sheets as 3-D charge collectors in organic solar cells

Temperature and time dependence of heat treatment of RR-P3HT/PCBM solar cell

Multilayer encapsulation of plastic photovoltaic devices

In this study, an oriented, strong and transparent multiwall carbon nanotube sheet is used as the hole collecting electrode in polymer solar cells with RR-P3HT as the donor material and PCBM as the acceptor material. An open circuit voltage of 0.49 V, a short circuit current of 5.47 mA/cm 2 , a fill factor of 0.49, and an efficiency of 1.32% have been obtained. Performance dependence on incident light intensity along with other various investigations are presented.

https://shell.cas.usf.edu/~xjiang/PSSB06.pdf

Polymeric solar cells with oriented and strong transparent carbon nanotube anode

We report a nearly twofold increase of short circuit current: from Isc ∼ 10 mA/cm2 to Isc = 16–20 mA/cm2 in P3HT/PCBM solar cells (SC) employing freshly prepared regio-regular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (RR-P3HT) without special purification The power conversion efficiency is enhanced to η≥ 4% as compared to our best η=38% in SC with commercial polymer despite the decreased filling factor (FF= 042, as compared to best FF = 059) We used our earlier found [1] procedures with optimal post heat treatment temperatures and time for our polymer SC We also discovered a strong correlation between the device preparation procedures and performance The optimal phase separation of PCBM and RR-P3HT into a bi-continuous network structure occurs after quite long solution stirring times (enhanced homogenization) and surprisingly very short annealing time at optimal temperature We also found that the optimal concentration of PCBM in a RR-P3HT matrix is rather low, only c∼35 wt%, contrary to high c∼80 wt% in PPV based SC

Ross Ulbricht

Papers

Transparent carbon nanotube sheets as 3-D charge collectors in organic solar cells

Temperature and time dependence of heat treatment of RR-P3HT/PCBM solar cell

Multilayer encapsulation of plastic photovoltaic devices

Polymeric solar cells with oriented and strong transparent carbon nanotube anode

High efficiency P3HT/PCBM solar cell