TY - JOUR

T1 - Alternative selection of processing additives to enhance the lifetime of OPVs

AU - Kettle, J.P.

AU - Waters, H.

AU - Horrie, M.

AU - Smith, G.C.

N1 - Bangor University; Newton Research Collaboration Programme scheme

PY - 2016/1/27

Y1 - 2016/1/27

N2 - The use of processing additives is known to accelerate the degradation of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and therefore, this paper studies the impact of selecting alternative processing additives for PCPDTBT:PC71BM solar cells in order to improve the stability. The use of naphthalene-based processing additives has been undertaken, which is shown to reduce the initial power conversion efficiency by 23%?42%, primarily due to a decrease in the short-circuit current density, but also fill factor. However, the stability is greatly enhanced by using such additives, with the long term stability (T 50%) enhanced by a factor of four. The results show that there is a trade-off between initial performance and stability to consider when selecting the initial process additives. XPS studies have provided some insight into the decreased degradation and show that using 1-chloronaphthalene (ClN) leads to reduced morphology changes and reduced oxidation of the thiophene-ring within the PCPDTBT backbone.

AB - The use of processing additives is known to accelerate the degradation of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and therefore, this paper studies the impact of selecting alternative processing additives for PCPDTBT:PC71BM solar cells in order to improve the stability. The use of naphthalene-based processing additives has been undertaken, which is shown to reduce the initial power conversion efficiency by 23%?42%, primarily due to a decrease in the short-circuit current density, but also fill factor. However, the stability is greatly enhanced by using such additives, with the long term stability (T 50%) enhanced by a factor of four. The results show that there is a trade-off between initial performance and stability to consider when selecting the initial process additives. XPS studies have provided some insight into the decreased degradation and show that using 1-chloronaphthalene (ClN) leads to reduced morphology changes and reduced oxidation of the thiophene-ring within the PCPDTBT backbone.

U2 - 10.1088/0022-3727/49/8/085601

DO - 10.1088/0022-3727/49/8/085601

M3 - Article

VL - 49

JO - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

JF - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

SN - 0022-3727

IS - 8

ER -