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Investigation of short-term stability in high efficiency polymer : nonfullerene solar cells via quick current-voltage cycling method

  • Polymer, Industrial Chemistry
  • Published:
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The short-term stability of high efficiency polymer : nonfullerene solar cells was investigated by employing a quick (ten cycles) current density-voltage (J-V) cycling method. Polymer : nonfullerene solar cells with initial power conversion efficiency (PCE) of >10% were fabricated using bulk heterojunction (BHJ) films of poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5b′]dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1′,3′-di-2-thienyl-5,7′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1′,2′-c:4′,5′-c′]dithiophene-4,8-dione))] (PBDB-T) and 3,9-bis(2-methylene-((3-(1,1-dicyanomethylene)-6/7-methyl)-indanone))-5,5,11,11-tetrakis(4-hexylphenyl)-dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d′]-s-indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]dithiophene (IT-M). One set of the BHJ (PBDB-T : IT-M) films was thermally annealed at 160 oC for 30min, while another set was used without any thermal treatment after spin-coating. The quick J-V scan (cycling) measurement disclosed that the PCE decay was relatively slower for the annealed BHJ layers than the unannealed (as-cast) BHJ layers. As a result, after ten cycles, the annealed BHJ layers delivered higher PCE than the unannealed BHJ layers due to higher and more stable trend in fill factor. The present quick J-V cycling method is simple but expected to be useful for the prediction of short-term stability in organic solar cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organic Nanoelectronics Laboratory and KNU Institute for Nanophotonics Applications (KINPA), Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Applied Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, Korea

    Sooyong Lee, Jooyeok Seo, Hwajeong Kim & Youngkyoo Kim

  2. Research Institute of Advanced Energy Technology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, Korea

    Hwajeong Kim

  3. Polymer Rheology Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Applied Chemical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, University Road 80, Daegu, 41566, Korea

    Dong-Ik Song

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  1. Sooyong Lee
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  2. Jooyeok Seo
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  4. Dong-Ik Song
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  5. Youngkyoo Kim
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Correspondence to Hwajeong Kim or Youngkyoo Kim.

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Lee, S., Seo, J., Kim, H. et al. Investigation of short-term stability in high efficiency polymer : nonfullerene solar cells via quick current-voltage cycling method. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 35, 2496–2503 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-018-0154-1

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