Enhanced Ultraviolet Stability of Air-Processed Polymer Solar Cells by Al Doping of the ZnO Interlayer
Journal article, 2016

Photostability of organic photovoltaic devices represents a key requirement for the commercialization of this technology. In this field, ZnO is one of the most attractive materials employed as an electron transport layer, and the investigation of its photostability is of particular interest. Indeed, oxygen is known to chemisorb on ZnO and can be released upon UV illumination. Therefore, a deep analysis of the UV/oxygen effects on working devices is relevant for the industrial production where the coating processes take place in air and oxygen/ZnO contact cannot be avoided. Here we investigate the light-soaking stability of inverted organic solar cells in which four different solution-processed ZnO-based nanoparticles were used as electron transport layers: (i) pristine ZnO, (ii) 0.03 at %, (iii) 0.37 at %, and (iv) 0.8 at % aluminum-doped AZO nanoparticles. The degradation of solar cells under prolonged illumination (40 h under 1 sun), in which the ZnO/AZO layers were processed in air or inert atmosphere, is studied. We demonstrate that the presence of oxygen during the ZnO/AZO processing is crucial for the photostability of the resulting solar cell. While devices based on undoped ZnO were particularly affected by degradation, we found that using AZO nanoparticles the losses in performance, due to the presence of oxygen, were partially or totally prevented depending on the Al doping level.

polymer solar cells

oxygen

ZnO nanoparticles

photostability

aluminum-doped ZnO

degradation

Author

M. Prosa

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Marta Tessarolo

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Margherita Bolognesi

Laboratory MIST E-R

Olivier Margeat

Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille

Desta Antenehe Gedefaw

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

M. Gaceur

Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille

C. Videlot-Ackermann

Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille

Mats Andersson

Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Applied Chemistry

Michele Muccini

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Mirko Seri

Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche

Jörg Ackermann

Centre Interdisciplinaire de Nanoscience de Marseille

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

1944-8244 (ISSN) 1944-8252 (eISSN)

Vol. 8 3 1635-1643

SUstainable Novel FLexible Organic Watts Efficiently Reliable (SUNFLOWER)

European Commission (EC) (EC/FP7/287594), 2011-10-01 -- 2016-03-31.

Subject Categories

Polymer Chemistry

DOI

10.1021/acsami.5b08255

More information

Latest update

9/6/2018 1