Operational stability and degradation of organic solar cells

İlhan Volkan Öner, Efe Çetin Yilmaz, Muhammet Kaan Yesilyurt, Gökhan Ömeroglu, Ahmet Numan Özakin

Abstract


Recently, Organic solar cells (OSC) have been increasingly utilized all over the world. The changes made in the organic components of the organic solar cells enable them to exhibit good features such as mechanical flexibility, lightness and high power generation efficiency even under lower light intensities. However, operational stability is an important parameter for organic solar cells. Despite the aforementioned advantages of organic solar cells, degradation in operational environments limits their use in harsh conditions. Studies have shown that the organic layer and the cathode layer of the OSCs are degraded by external factors, and this adversely affects the operational stability and productivity of OSCs considerably. The overall efficiency of an organic solar cell is defined as a function of life cycle and efficiency of energy generation. Therefore, the shorter the life cycle becomes, the lesser the overall efficiency of OSCs gets. Recent studies are focused on improving the operational stability and power generation efficiencies of OSCs by reducing the effects degradation induced by external factors, such as climatic conditions and thermal fatigue. The purpose of this study is to assess how organic solar cells work, how they degrade from external factors, such as water and water vapor, and how these parameters affect the operational stability as well as the efficiency of the organic solar cells.

Keywords


Degradation, Efficiency of organic solar cells, Stability, Life-cycle of OSCs

Full Text:

PDF

References


Cao, H.Q., et al., Recent progress in degradation and stabilization of organic solar cells. Journal of Power Sources, 2014. 264: p. 168-183.

Yu, G., et al., Polymer Photovoltaic Cells - Enhanced Efficiencies Via a Network of Internal Donor-Acceptor Heterojunctions. Science, 1995. 270(5243): p. 1789-1791.

You, J.B., et al., A polymer tandem solar cell with 10.6% power conversion efficiency. Nature Communications, 2013. 4.

Jorgensen, M., et al., Stability of Polymer Solar Cells. Advanced Materials, 2012. 24(5): p. 580-612.

Manceau, M., et al., Photochemical stability of pi-conjugated polymers for polymer solar cells: a rule of thumb. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2011. 21(12): p. 4132-4141.

Wang, F.Z., et al., Recent advances in planar heterojunction organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells. Acta Physica Sinica, 2015. 64(3).

Bakulin, A.A., et al., The Role of Driving Energy and Delocalized States for Charge Separation in Organic Semiconductors. Science, 2012. 335(6074): p. 1340-1344.

Group, T.R. and T.U.o.S. California. 2017 [cited 2017 23 May]; Available from: http://met.usc.edu/projects/solarcells.php.

Schilinsky, P., et al., Simulation of light intensity dependent current characteristics of polymer solar cells. Journal of Applied Physics, 2004. 95(5): p. 2816-2819.

Qi, B. and J. Wang, Fill factor in organic solar cells. Phys Chem Chem Phys, 2013. 15(23): p. 8972-82.

Qi, B.Y. and J.Z. Wang, Open-circuit voltage in organic solar cells. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2012. 22(46): p. 24315-24325.

Scharber, M.C., et al., Design rules for donors in bulk-heterojunction solar cells - Towards 10 % energy-conversion efficiency. Advanced Materials, 2006. 18(6): p. 789-+.

Wikipedia. 2017 [cited 2017 23 May]; Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEDOT:PSS.

Energy, S. 2017 [cited 2017 23 May]; Available from: http://solarmer.com/aboutus/.

Song, Q.L., et al., Role of buffer in organic solar cells using C-60 as an acceptor. Applied Physics Letters, 2007. 90(7).

Wahlstrom, E., et al., Electron transfer-induced dynamics of oxygen molecules on the TiO2(110) surface. Science, 2004. 303(5657): p. 511-513.

Cuentas-Gallegos, A., et al., Electrochemical supercapacitors based on novel hybrid materials made of carbon nanotubes and polyoxometalates. Electrochemistry Communications, 2007. 9(8): p. 2088-2092.

Vaillant, J., et al., Chemical synthesis of hybrid materials based on PAni and PEDOT with polyoxometalates for electrochemical supercapacitors. Progress in Solid State Chemistry, 2006. 34(2-4): p. 147-159.

Krebs, F.C., T. Tromholt, and M. Jorgensen, Upscaling of polymer solar cell fabrication using full roll-to-roll processing. Nanoscale, 2010. 2(6): p. 873-886.

Xi, X., et al., A comparative study on the performances of small molecule organic solar cells based on CuPc/C-60 and CuPc/C-70. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2010. 94(12): p. 2435-2441.

Li, G., et al., Efficient inverted polymer solar cells. Applied Physics Letters, 2006. 88(25).

Sondergaard, R., et al., Roll-to-roll fabrication of polymer solar cells. Materials Today, 2012. 15(1-2): p. 36-49.

Norrman, K., et al., Degradation Patterns in Water and Oxygen of an Inverted Polymer Solar Cell. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010. 132(47): p. 16883-16892.

Wang, M.L., et al., Small-molecular organic solar cells with C-60/Al composite anode. Organic Electronics, 2007. 8(4): p. 445-449.

Zhou, Y.H., et al., A Universal Method to Produce Low-Work Function Electrodes for Organic Electronics. Science, 2012. 336(6079): p. 327-332.

Rowell, M.W., et al., Organic solar cells with carbon nanotube network electrodes. Applied Physics Letters, 2006. 88(23).

Lee, J.U., et al., Degradation and stability of polymer-based solar cells. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2012. 22(46): p. 24265-24283.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21533/pen.v5i2.105

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2017 Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ISSN: 2303-4521

Digital Object Identifier DOI: 10.21533/pen

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License