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New insights into polymer solar cells stability: The crucial role of PCBM oxidation

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Abstract

Fullerene derivatives have been ubiquitous as an electron-accepting material in organic photovoltaic solar cells (OSCs). We consider whether and why traces of PCBM oxidation products should be seen as electronic defects impairing the performance of OSCs. Thin PCBM deposits were first illuminated under ambient air for a few minutes, thus revealing the extraordinary easiness of oxidizing PCBM. The charge transfer in polymer:PCBMox bulk heterojunctions was then studied. As a result of a few minutes of PCBM photooxidation, the electron transfer from the polymer to two types of PCBMox species was shown to occur at the expense of the transfer to pristine PCBM. Such modifications to the molecular structure of PCBM and to the charge transfer at the nanoscale were finally correlated with a dramatic loss in the device’s photovoltaic performance at the macroscale. This study clearly indicates the need to integrate photooxidation-resistant electron-accepting materials into OSCs to extend their lifetime.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through the PROGELEC 2013 program “HELIOS” (ANR-13-PRGE-0006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS, SIGMA Clermont, Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63000, France

    Anthony Perthué & Agnès Rivaton

  2. IMS, CNRS, UMR 5218, Bordeaux INP, ENSCBP, Universite de Bordeaux, Talence, F-33405, France

    Thérèse Gorisse & Guillaume Wantz

  3. Institut des Sciences Analytiques et de Physico-Chimie pour l’Environnement et les Matériaux - IPREM, UMR 5254, CNRS/Universite de Pau & Pays Adour, Pau, 64000, France

    Hugo Santos Silva & Didier Bégué

  4. INAC-SPRAM, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, F-38000, France

    Christian Lombard & Brigitte Pépin-Donat

  5. CNRS, INAC-SPRAM, Grenoble, F-38000, France

    Christian Lombard & Brigitte Pépin-Donat

  6. CEA, INAC-SPRAM, Grenoble, F-38000, France

    Christian Lombard

  7. MOLTECH-Anjou, Université d’Angers, Angers, F-49045, France

    Piétrick Hudhomme

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  1. Anthony Perthué
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  2. Thérèse Gorisse
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  3. Hugo Santos Silva
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Correspondence to Agnès Rivaton or Guillaume Wantz.

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Perthué, A., Gorisse, T., Silva, H.S. et al. New insights into polymer solar cells stability: The crucial role of PCBM oxidation. Journal of Materials Research 33, 1868–1878 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2018.141

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