Effect of heat, UV radiation, and moisture on the decohesion kinetics of inverted organic solar cells
Type
ArticleKAUST Grant Number
KUS-C1-015-21Date
2017-06-15Online Publication Date
2017-06-15Print Publication Date
2017-10Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/625117
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Show full item recordAbstract
Organic solar cells subjected to environmental stressors such as heat, moisture, and UV radiation can undergo significant mechanical degradation, leading to delamination of layers and device failure. This paper reports the effect these stressors have on the mechanical integrity of active layers and interfaces as measured by subcritical debonding tests, and the in situ evolution of defects and fracture processes is characterized. At elevated temperatures below 50 °C in inert conditions, significant device weakening was observed, an effect we attributed to a temperature-induced P3HT:PCBM delamination mechanism from the underlying ZnO. At 50 °C in ambient conditions with UV exposure—selected to better simulate real-world environments—devices were more resistant to fracture because of an interfacial strengthening effect from increased hydrogen bonding where UV-induced Zn(OH)2 formation reinforced the interface with P3HT:PCBM. This photoinduced hydroxylation mechanism was determined from a decrease in the Zn/O ratio with increased UVA or UVB exposure, and hydroxylation was shown to directly correlate with the resistance to fracture in devices.Citation
Rolston N, Printz AD, Dupont SR, Voroshazi E, Dauskardt RH (2017) Effect of heat, UV radiation, and moisture on the decohesion kinetics of inverted organic solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 170: 239–245. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.002.Sponsors
This research was supported by the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics (CAMP) supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under award no. KUS-C1-015-21. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, awarded to N. Rolston under award no. DGE-1656518. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152.Publisher
Elsevier BVae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.002