Eva Bundgaard

Photochemical stability of π-conjugated polymers for polymer solar cells: a rule of thumb

A comparative photochemical stability study of a wide range of π-conjugated polymers relevant to polymer solar cells is presented. The behavior of each material has been investigated under simulated sunlight (1 sun, 1000 W m−2, AM 1.5G) and ambient atmosphere. Degradation was monitored during ageing combining UV-visible and infrared spectroscopies. From the comparison of the collected data, the influence of the polymer chemical structure on its stability has been discussed. General rules relative to the polymer structure–stability relationship are proposed.

Upscaling from single cells to modules – fabrication of vacuum- and ITO-free polymer solar cells on flexible substrates with long lifetime

Fabrication of polymer solar cell (PSC) modules was done on a previously reported compact coating/printing machine and tested in a readily scalable roll process on flexible substrates without applying vacuum, ITO or spin coating. Our aim was to establish loss upon scaling from cells to small modules. We studied from single cells (1 cm2) to modules comprising four serially connected devices with a total active area of 8 cm2. Four different polymers (P3HT, PV-D4610, PDTSTTz-4 and PBDTTTz-4) were applied in the preparation of the modules and efficiencies of more than 3% were achieved which is comparable to single cell devices prepared using the same process. This proves that it is possible to scale up new materials in an ITO free device context to modules without having an efficiency drop, due to reliable and consistent processing. The main loss observed was due to the packaging using barrier materials. The photochemical stability of the materials was therefore studied using intense light along with the operational stability of the corresponding devices according to the ISOS-D-1 and ISOS-L-1 standards. For devices under constant illumination we found that barrier materials from Mitsubishi and 3M provide better operational stability over time, compared to the barrier foil obtained from Amcor, for all the polymers, which is ascribed to the cut-off at higher wavelengths thereby lowering the degree of UV light that reaches the device. When comparing the operational stability of the four polymers under constant illumination, P3HT generally retains its performance better with higher T80 values, while the polymer PV-D4610 shows the highest PCE (1.6%) after 300 hours of operation.

Incorporation of ester groups into low band-gap diketopyrrolopyrrole containing polymers for solar cell applications

To increase the open circuit voltage (VOC) of polymer solar cells based on diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) containing polymers, the weakly electron-withdrawing thiophene-3,4-dicarboxylate unit was introduced into the polymer backbone. Two ester group functionalized DPP containing polymers, PCTDPP with a random structure and PDCTDPP with a regular structure, were designed and synthesized by the Stille coupling reaction. The resulting copolymers exhibit broad and strong absorption bands from 350 to 1000 nm with low optical band gaps below 1.40 eV. Through cyclic voltammetry measurements, it is found that regular PDCTDPPs HOMO energy level is 0.18 V lower than that of the corresponding random PCTDPP (−5.14 eV for PCTDPP and −5.32 eV for PDCTDPP). Preliminary photovoltaic properties of the copolymers blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as an electron acceptor were investigated. The PSC based on a PCTDPP:PCBM blend shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 3.52%, with a VOC of 0.66 V, a short circuit current (ISC) of 8.53 mA cm−2, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.63. For the PDCTDPP:PCBM blend, the highest VOC reaches a value of 0.84 V, and a final PCE (0.92%) is limited by the poor hole mobility of the active layer.

Roll-coating fabrication of flexible organic solar cells: comparison of fullerene and fullerene-free systems

Flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) based on a blend of low-bandgap polymer donor PTB7-TH and non-fullerene small molecule acceptor IEIC were fabricated via a roll-coating process under ambient atmosphere. Both an indium tin oxide (ITO)-free substrate and a flexible ITO substrate were employed in these inverted OSCs. OSCs with flexible ITO and ITO-free substrates exhibited power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) up to 2.26% and 1.79%, respectively, which were comparable to those of the reference devices based on fullerene acceptors under the same conditions. This is the first example for all roll-coating fabrication procedures for flexible OSCs based on non-fullerene acceptors with the PCE exceeding 2%. The fullerene-free OSCs exhibited better dark storage stability than the fullerene-based control devices.

Roll-Coated Fabrication of Fullerene-Free Organic Solar Cells with Improved Stability

Large area, fullerene‐free organic solar cells with improved stability and efficiency of up to 1% are fabricated by the roll‐coating process on indium tin oxide free and flexible substrates, under ambient conditions.

Roll-coating fabrication of flexible large area small molecule solar cells with power conversion efficiency exceeding 1%

All solution-processed flexible large area small molecule bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricated via roll-coating technology. Our devices were produced from slot-die coating on a lab-scale mini roll-coater under ambient conditions without the use of spin-coating or vacuum evaporation methods. Four diketopyrrolopyrrole based small molecules (SMs 1–4) were utilized as electron donors with (6,6)-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester as an acceptor and their photovoltaic performances based on roll-coated devices were investigated. The best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.01%, combined with an open circuit voltage of 0.73 V, a short-circuit current density of 3.13 mA cm−2 and a fill factor of 44% were obtained for the device with SM1, which was the first example reported for efficient roll-coating fabrication of flexible large area small molecule solar cells with PCE exceeding 1%. In addition, roll-coated devices based on SMs 2–4 also showed good performances with PCEs of 0.41%, 0.54%, and 0.31%, respectively. Our results prove that small molecules have the potential for use in industries for large scale production of efficient organic solar cells.

Conjugated 12 nm long oligomers as molecular wires in nanoelectronics

We demonstrate a generic synthetic approach to oligophenylenevinylene (OPV) derivative molecules with a molecular length of up to 12 nm and a relatively free choice of end group that can attach to different electrodes such as metallic gold or potentially transition metal oxide semiconductors. OPVs containing 3–19 phenyl units were synthesised by step wise HWE-reactions of a bifunctional OPV-monomer which allowed for complete control of the sizes of the OPVs. Workup and analysis (1H- and 13C-NMR, mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography) of each step ensured a high purity of the final products. Final end group functionalities of the OPVs were introduced either as the first step (alcohol) or the last step (thioacetate). We further demonstrate a fabrication method for well defined nanogap electrode devices based on silicon-on-insulator technology, featuring a gap distance of down to 9 nm. Assembling the OPV derivatives onto these devices enabled preliminary investigations of their low-temperature transport properties, revealing a pronounced non-linear current–voltage characteristic at 4.2 K. We studied the electronic states of the molecule by Density Functional Theory (DFT) in order to show the effect of the ligands and of the gold contacts. By using the results of the DFT calculations in a non-equilibrium Greens function model, the current–voltage characteristics of OPVs have been analyzed, showing a good qualitative agreement with the experimental data.

Comparison of additive amount used in spin-coated and roll-coated organic solar cells

All-polymer and polymer/fullerene inverted solar cells were fabricated by spin-coating and roll-coating processes. The spin-coated small-area (0.04 cm2) devices were fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates in nitrogen. The roll-coated large-area (1.0 cm2) devices were prepared on ITO-free flexible substrates under ambient conditions. The use of a solvent additive, 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO), facilitated phase separation and enhanced power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). The PCE of polymer/fullerene solar cells increased from 4.58% to 8.12% with 2.5% (v/v) DIO when using the spin-coating process, and increased from 1.37% to 2.09% with 5% (v/v) DIO in the roll-coating process. The PCE of all-polymer solar cells increased from 1.44% to 3.51% with 4% (v/v) DIO when employing the spin-coating process. For the roll-coated large area devices the PCE increased from 0.15% to 0.73% with 9% (v/v) DIO. The optimal amounts of DIO, when using the roll-coating process for the two different active layers (5% and 9% respectively) are significantly higher than those for the spin-coating process (2.5% and 4%, respectively), which is ascribed to a fundamentally different drying mechanism.

An isoindigo containing donor-acceptor polymer: synthesis and photovoltaic properties of all-solution-processed ITO- and vacuum-free large area roll-coated single junction and tandem solar cells

In this work, the design, synthesis, and characterization of a donor–acceptor polymer from dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole and isoindigo (i-ID) are presented. The synthesized polymer has been applied in the fabrication of large area ITO-free organic photovoltaic devices, both by spin coating and roll coating; the latter was used to construct both single junction and multi-junction organic photovoltaic (OPV) architectures.

Roll-coating fabrication of ITO-free flexible solar cells based on a non-fullerene small molecule acceptor

We report organic solar cells (OSCs) with non-fullerene small molecule acceptors (SMAs) prepared in large area via a roll coating process. We employ all solution-processed indium tin oxide (ITO)-free flexible substrates for inverted solar cells with a new SMA of F(DPP)2B2. By utilizing poly(3-hexylthiophene) as donor blended with F(DPP)2B2 as acceptor, ITO-free large-area flexible SMA based OSCs were produced under ambient conditions with the use of slot-die coating and flexographic printing methods on a lab-scale compact roll-coater that is readily transferrable to roll-to-roll processing. The effect of different processing solvents on the device performance was investigated, and the best performance with a power conversion efficiency of 0.65%, an open circuit voltage of 0.85 V, a short-circuit current density of 2.19 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 35% was obtained.