TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of heat, UV radiation, and moisture on the decohesion kinetics of inverted organic solar cells
AU - Rolston, Nicholas
AU - Printz, Adam D.
AU - Dupont, Stephanie R.
AU - Voroshazi, Eszter
AU - Dauskardt, Reinhold H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaics (CAMP) supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under award no. KUS-C1-015-21. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, awarded to N. Rolston under award no. DGE-1656518. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-1542152.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - Organic solar cells subjected to environmental stressors such as heat, moisture, and UV radiation can undergo significant mechanical degradation, leading to delamination of layers and device failure. This paper reports the effect these stressors have on the mechanical integrity of active layers and interfaces as measured by subcritical debonding tests, and the in situ evolution of defects and fracture processes is characterized. At elevated temperatures below 50 °C in inert conditions, significant device weakening was observed, an effect we attributed to a temperature-induced P3HT:PCBM delamination mechanism from the underlying ZnO. At 50 °C in ambient conditions with UV exposure—selected to better simulate real-world environments—devices were more resistant to fracture because of an interfacial strengthening effect from increased hydrogen bonding where UV-induced Zn(OH)2 formation reinforced the interface with P3HT:PCBM. This photoinduced hydroxylation mechanism was determined from a decrease in the Zn/O ratio with increased UVA or UVB exposure, and hydroxylation was shown to directly correlate with the resistance to fracture in devices.
AB - Organic solar cells subjected to environmental stressors such as heat, moisture, and UV radiation can undergo significant mechanical degradation, leading to delamination of layers and device failure. This paper reports the effect these stressors have on the mechanical integrity of active layers and interfaces as measured by subcritical debonding tests, and the in situ evolution of defects and fracture processes is characterized. At elevated temperatures below 50 °C in inert conditions, significant device weakening was observed, an effect we attributed to a temperature-induced P3HT:PCBM delamination mechanism from the underlying ZnO. At 50 °C in ambient conditions with UV exposure—selected to better simulate real-world environments—devices were more resistant to fracture because of an interfacial strengthening effect from increased hydrogen bonding where UV-induced Zn(OH)2 formation reinforced the interface with P3HT:PCBM. This photoinduced hydroxylation mechanism was determined from a decrease in the Zn/O ratio with increased UVA or UVB exposure, and hydroxylation was shown to directly correlate with the resistance to fracture in devices.
KW - Decohesion kinetics
KW - Hydroxylation
KW - Organic photovoltaics
KW - Reliability
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U2 - 10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.002
DO - 10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85020721771
SN - 0927-0248
VL - 170
SP - 239
EP - 245
JO - Solar Cells
JF - Solar Cells
ER -