| 1. |
- Brumboiu, Iulia E., 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Photooxidation of PC60BM : new insights from spectroscopy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 24:42, s. 25753-25766
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This joint experimental-theoretical spectroscopy study of the fullerene derivative PC60BM ([6,6]-phenyl-C60-butyric acid methyl ester) aims to improve the understanding of the effect of photooxidation on its electronic structure. We have studied spin-coated thin films of PC60BM by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Near-edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), before and after intentional exposure to simulated sunlight in air for different lengths of time. The π* resonance in the C1s NEXAFS spectrum was found to be a very sensitive probe for the early changes to the fullerene cage, while FTIR spectra, in combination with O1s NEXAFS spectra, enabled the identification of the oxidation products. The changes observed in the spectra obtained by these complementary methods were compared with the corresponding Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculated single-molecule spectra of a large set of in silico generated oxidation products of PC60BM where oxygen atoms were attached to the C60 cage. This comparison confirms that photooxidation of PC60BM disrupts the conjugation of the fullerene cage by a transition from sp2 to sp3-hybridized carbon and causes the formation of several oxidation products, earlier proposed for C60. The agreement between experimental and calculated IR spectra suggests moreover the presence of dicarbonyl and anhydride structures on the fullerene cage, in combination with cage opening at the adsorption site. By including PC60BM with physisorbed O2 molecules on the cage in our theoretical description in order to model oxygen diffused through the film, the experimental O1s XPS and O1s NEXAFS spectra could be reproduced.
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| 2. |
- Blazinic, Vanja, et al.
(författare)
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Impact of intentional photo-oxidation of a donor polymer and PC70BM on solar cell performance
- 2019
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 1463-9076 .- 1463-9084. ; 21, s. 22259-22271
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A short lifetime is the main factor hindering the wider implementation of low-cost organic photovoltaics in large-area and outdoor applications. Ingress of oxygen and water vapour through non-ideal encapsulation layers is a known cause of degradation for polymer/fullerene based solar cells. To better understand the origin of this performance degradation, we study the effect of intentional exposure of the photo-active layer to simulated sunlight (AM1.5) in air both on the solar cell performance and on the molecular semiconductor materials. Cathode-free thin films of a blend of the electron donor polymer poly[2,3-bis-(3-octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-diyl] (TQ1) and the electron acceptor fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C70-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) were exposed to simulated sunlight in air. Fourier-transform infrared spectra demonstrate the formation of carbonyl photo-oxidation products in the blend films, as well as in the pristine polymer and fullerene films. Solar cells prepared with photo-oxidized active layers show increasingly degraded electrical performance (lower short circuit current, open circuit voltage and fill factor) with increasing exposure time. The increased diode ideality factor indicates that trap-assisted recombination hinders device operation after exposure. The external quantum efficiency decreases drastically with increasing exposure time over the whole photon energy range, while the UV-vis absorption spectra of the blend films only show a mild photo-induced bleaching. This demonstrates that not only the photo-induced degradation of the solar cell performance is not predominantly caused by the loss in light absorption, but charge transport and collection are also hampered. This is explained by the fact that photo-oxidation of PC70BM causes bonds in its conjugated cage to break, as evidenced by the decreased ∏* intensity in C1s-NEXAFS spectra of PC70BM films. This degradation of unoccupied states of PC70BM will hinder the transport of photo-generated electrons to the electrode. Surface photovoltage spectroscopy gives direct evidence for gap states at the surface of a PC70BM film, formed after 2 hours of exposure and resulting in upward band bending at the PC70BM/air surface. These observations indicate that the photo-oxidation of PC70BM is likely to be the main cause of the performance degradation observed when the photoactive layer of a TQ1:PC70BM solar cell is intentionally exposed to light in air.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Chuan Chen, Max, et al.
(författare)
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Low temperature activation of B implantation of Si subcell fabrication in III-V/Si tandem solar cells
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 36<sup>th</sup> EU PVSEC 2019. - : WIP. - 3936338604 ; , s. 764-768
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this work, we investigated the Si pre-amorphization implantation (PAI) assisted low temperatureannealing process to activate boron implantation in n-Si in a hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) reactor, which canbe used for the Si subcell fabrication in the III-V/Si tandem solar cells enabled by the corrugated epitaxial lateralovergrowth (CELOG). A uniform boron activation in Si and a low emitter sheet resistance of 77 /sq was obtained atannealing temperatures of 600-700°C. High-resolution x-ray diffraction was used to study the recrystallization ofamorphous silicon and the incorporation of boron dopants in Si. Hall measurements revealed p-type carrierconcentrations in the order of 1020 cm-3. The n-Si wafers with B implantation activated at 700°C by HVPE wereprocessed to solar cells and characterized by the standard light-current-voltage measurement under AM1.5 spectrumand external quantum efficiency measurements. The developed B implantation and low temperature activationprocesses are applied to the InP/Si seed template preparation for CELOG, on which CELOG GaInP over a Si subcellwith a direct heterojunction was demonstrated.
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| 5. |
- Ciammaruchi, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Stability of organic solar cells with PCDTBT donor polymer : An interlaboratory study
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Materials Research. - New York : Cambridge University Press. - 0884-2914 .- 2044-5326. ; 33:13, s. 1909-1924
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work is part of the interlaboratory collaboration to study the stability of organic solar cells containing PCDTBT polymer as a donor material. The varieties of the OPV devices with different device architectures, electrode materials, encapsulation, and device dimensions were prepared by seven research laboratories. Sets of identical devices were aged according to four different protocols: shelf lifetime, laboratory weathering under simulated illumination at ambient temperature, laboratory weathering under simulated illumination, and elevated temperature (65 degrees C) and daylight outdoor weathering under sunlight. The results generated in this study allow us to outline several general conclusions related to PCDTBT-based bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The results herein reported can be considered as practical guidance for the realization of stabilization approaches in BHJ solar cells containing PCDTBT.
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| 6. |
- Farinhas, Joana, et al.
(författare)
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Efficient ternary organic solar cells based on immiscible blends
- 2017
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Ingår i: Organic electronics. - : Elsevier. - 1566-1199 .- 1878-5530. ; 41, s. 130-136
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organic photovoltaic cells based on ternary blends of materials with complementary properties represent an approach to improve the photon-absorption and/or charge transport within the devices. However, the more complex nature of the ternary system, i.e. in diversity of materials' properties and morphological features, complicates the understanding of the processes behind such optimizations. Here, organic photovoltaic cells with wider absorption spectrum composed of two electron-donor polymers, F8T2, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-alt-bithiophene), and PTB7, poly([4,8-bis[(2'-ethylhexyl) oxy] benzo[1,2-b: 4,5-b'] dithiophene-2,6-diyl][3-fluoro-2-[(2'-ethylhexyl) carbonyl] thieno[3,4-b] thiophenediyl]), mixed with [6,6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) are investigated. We demonstrate an improvement of 25% in power conversion efficiency in comparison with the most efficient binary blend control devices. The active layers of these ternary cells exhibit gross phase separation, as determined by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Synchrotron-based Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy (STXM).
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| 7. |
- Hansson, Rickard, 1987-
(författare)
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Materials and Device Engineering for Efficient and Stable Polymer Solar Cells
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Polymer solar cells form a promising technology for converting sunlight into electricity, and have reached record efficiencies over 10% and lifetimes of several years. The performance of polymer solar cells depends strongly on the distribution of electron donor and acceptor materials in the active layer. To achieve longer lifetimes, degradation processes in the materials have to be understood. In this thesis, a set of complementary spectroscopy and microscopy techniques, among which soft X-ray techniques have been used to determine the morphology of polymer:fullerene based active layers. We have found that the morphology of TQ1:PC70BM films is strongly influenced by the processing solvent and the use of solvent additives. We have also found, by using soft X-ray techniques, that not only the light-absorbing polymer TQ1, but also the fullerene is susceptible to photo-degradation in air. Moreover, the fullerene degradation is accelerated in the presence of the polymer. Additionally, this thesis addresses the role of the interfacial layers for device performance and stability. The commonly used hole transport material PEDOT:PSS has the advantage of being solution processable at room temperature, but this layer is also known to contribute to the device degradation. We have found that low-temperature processed NiOx is a promising alternative to PEDOT:PSS, leading to improved device performance. Even for encapsulated polymer solar cells, some photo-induced degradation of the electrical performance is observed and is found to depend on the nature of the hole transport material. We found a better initial stability for solar cells with MoO3 hole transport layers than with PEDOT:PSS. In the pursuit of understanding the initial decrease in electrical performance of PEDOT:PSS-based devices, simulations were performed, from which a number of degradation sources could be excluded.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Hansson, Rickard, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Photo-degradation in air of the active layer components in a thiophene-quinoxaline copolymer: fullerene solar cell
- 2016
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Ingår i: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 1463-9084 .- 1463-9076. ; 18:16, s. 11132-11138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have studied the photo-degradation in air of a blend of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) and poly[2,3-bis-(3-octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-di yl] (TQ1), and how the photo-degradation affects the solar cell performance. Using near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, changes to the electronic structure of TQ1 and PCBM caused by illumination in ambient air are investigated and compared between the pristine materials and the blend. The NEXAFS spectra show that the unoccupied molecular orbitals of TQ1 are not significantly changed by the exposure of pristine TQ1 to light in air, whereas those of PCBM are severely affected as a result of photo-induced degradation of PCBM. Furthermore, the photo-degradation of PCBM is accelerated by blending it with TQ1. While the NEXAFS spectrum of TQ1 remains unchanged upon illumination in air, its valence band spectrum shows that the occupied molecular orbitals are weakly affected. Yet, UV-Vis absorption spectra demonstrate photo-bleaching of TQ1, which is attenuated in the presence of PCBM in blend films. Illumination of the active layer of TQ1: PCBM solar cells prior to cathode deposition causes severe losses in electrical performance.
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| 10. |
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