Bérenger Roth

Flexible ITO-free organic solar cells applying aqueous solution-processed V2O5 hole transport layer: An outdoor stability study

Solution processable semiconductor oxides have opened a new paradigm for the enhancement of the lifetime of thin film solar cells. Their fabrication by low-cost and environmentally friendly solution-processable methods makes them ideal barrier (hole and electron) transport layers. In this work, we fabricate flexible ITO-free organic solar cells (OPV) by printing methods applying an aqueous solution-processed V2O5 as the hole transport layer (HTL) and compared them to devices applying PEDOT:PSS. The transparent conducting electrode was PET/Ag/PEDOT/ZnO, and the OPV configuration was PET/Ag/PEDOT/ZnO/P3HT:PC60BM/HTL/Ag. Outdoor stability analyses carried out for more than 900 h revealed higher stability for devices fabricated with the aqueous solution-processed V2O5.

Roll-to-roll printing and coating techniques for manufacturing large-area flexible organic electronics

Upscaling to fast roll-to-roll (R2R) solution processing on inexpensive flexible substrates has always been the cornerstone argument for development of organic electronics. This chapter gives a description of the principles behind a variety of R2R processing techniques that can be used in the preparation of organic electronics and review the progress achieved so far within each technique.

Photochemical stability of random poly(3-hexylthiophene-co-3-cyanothiophene) and its use in roll coated ITO-free organic photovoltaics

Abstract. The photochemical stability of the active layer blend for organic solar cells was explored by introducing electron withdrawing cyano groups into the backbone of poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT). Random copolymerization of 2-bromo-3-hexyl-5-trimethylstannylthiophene and 2-bromo-3-cyano-5-trimethylstannylthiophene enabled introduction of the cyanogroups along the polythiophene backbone. The percentage of the cyano groups was 10%. The photochemical stability of poly(3-hexylthiophene-co-3-cyanothiophene) (CN-P3HT) was shown to be significantly better than pristine P3HT and the addition of CN-P3HT to P3HT also increased the photochemical stability of the blend. The photochemical stability of bulk heterojunction mixtures of the polymers and their blends with the fullerene phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester ([60]PCBM) were then studied and it was found that [60]PCBM had a significantly more stabilizing effect on P3HT than CN-P3HT and that the stabilization of the bulk heterojunction mixture was dominated by the fullerene. The mixture comprising both fullerene and CN-P3HT, however, demonstrated the highest degree of photochemical stability supporting earlier observations that the stabilizing effects are additive. Finally, the blends were explored in fully printed flexible ITO-free roll coated inverted devices (with an active area of 0.8  cm2) using two different back PEDOT:PSS electrode compositions and the operational stability of the devices was studied under ISOS-L-2 conditions. The pure P3HT:PCBM devices were found to be the most stable in operation demonstrating that photochemical stability alone is not necessarily the dominant factor for overall device stability.