Stability of PTB7-based inverted solar cells made from chlorinated and non-chlorinated solvents

Laura Ciammaruchi^a, Eugene Katz^a, Iris Visoly-Fisher^a, Francesca Brunetti^b^,^c, Gianpaolo Susanna^b^,^c

^aDep. of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer campus

^bC.H.O.S.E. – Center for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, via Giacomo Peroni 400, Rome, 131, Italy

^cCHOSE- Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Via Giacomo Peroni, Roma, Italy

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Laura Ciammaruchi, 405
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Polymer-based organic photovoltaicssolar cells (OSCs) are a promising technology forlow-cost and large area scalable processes. Research studiesalready revealed solid results, showing over 9% efficiency in a single stack¹ and over 10%^2,3 in tandem structure using low band-gap polymers. However, operational stability for such devices is still an open issue which should be investigated and tackled for commercialisation ⁴. In this work we fabricated two sets of bulk-heterojuntion solar cells (BHJ-SCs) in inverted structure (ITO/PEIE/PTB7:[70]PCBM/MoO3/Ag), using both Chlorobenzene (CB) and o-Xylene (o-XY) as solvents for the PTB7:[70]PCBM blend. We compared the photovoltaic performance over time for both sets, monitoring the shelf-life formore than 200 hours for encapsulated and non-encapsulated devices. All measurements were performed under an AM1.5 Class A solar-simulator (100mWcm⁻²). Both sets showed similar initial efficiencies, confirming the possibility of replacing toxic solvents with more environmentally friendly materials⁵. The comparison also underlined that the Xylene-based structure is as reliable as the Chlorobenzene-based one: the main photovoltaic figures of merit for both Chlorobenzene and Xylene-based OSCs, showed comparable shelf-life trends over time. The PTB7:PCBM optical absorption was also monitored over time for layers prepared in both solvents and kept in ambient environment: no change in the main absorption peaks was registered over more than 200 hours. We note that encapsulating the cells - although in a rather simple manner - didn’t seem to offer an improved protection for the devices. All this can be seen as a preliminary evidence of a more than satisfactory stability to environmental conditions for such OSCs. Acknowledges This work was funded by the COST Action MP1307 “StableNextSol” and by the Lazio Region through CHOSE (Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy).
PV parameters over time for Chlorobenzene (CB) and Xylene (XY) based solar cells.
1 He, Z., Zhong, C., Su, S., Xu, M., Wu, H., & Cao, Y. (2012). Enhanced power-conversion efficiency in polymer solar cells using an inverted device structure.Nature Photonics, 6(9), 591-595. 2 You, J., Dou, L., Yoshimura, K., Kato, T., Ohya, K., Moriarty, T., ... & Yang, Y. (2013). A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency.Nature communications, 4, 1446. 3 You, J., Chen, C. C., Hong, Z., Yoshimura, K., Ohya, K., Xu, R., ... & Yang, Y. (2013). 10.2% Power Conversion Efficiency Polymer Tandem Solar Cells Consisting of Two Identical Sub‐Cells. Advanced Materials, 25(29), 3973-3978. 4 Brabec, C. J., Hauch, J. A., Schilinsky, P., & Waldauf, C. (2005). Production aspects of organic photovoltaics and their impact on the commercialization of devices. Mrs Bulletin, 30(01), 50-52. 5 Susanna, G., Salamandra, L., Ciceroni, C., Mura, F., Brown, T. M., Reale, A., ... & Brunetti, F. (2015). 8.7% Power conversion efficiency polymer solar cell realized with non-chlorinated solvents. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells,134, 194-198.

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