Exploring the High-Temperature Window of Operation for Organic Photovoltaics: A Combined Experimental and Simulations Study

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2024

The global climate change negatively affects the photovoltaic performance of traditional solar cell technologies. This article investigates the potential of organic photovoltaics (OPV) for high-temperature environments, ranging from urban hot summers (30—40 °C) and desert regions (65 °C) up to (aero) space conditions (130 °C), the thermal window in which OPV can operate. The approach is based on a combination of experiments and simulations up to 180 °C, moving significantly beyond the conventional temperature ranges reported in the literature. New 2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole-5,6-dicarboxylic imide-based copolymers with decomposition onset temperatures above 340 °C are used for this study, in combination with non-fullerene acceptors. Contrary to their inorganic counterparts, OPV devices show a positive temperature coefficient up to ≈90 °C. At temperatures of 150 °C, they are still operational, retaining their room temperature efficiency. Complementary simulations are performed using an in-house developed software package that numerically solves the drift-diffusion equations to understand the general trends in the obtained current–voltage characteristics and the materials’ intrinsic behavior as a function of temperature. The presented methodology of combined high-temperature experiments and simulations can be further applied to investigate the thermal window of operation for other OPV material systems, opening novel high-temperature application routes.