We use cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to browse this site you agree to our use of cookies. More info.
In recent years, interest in organic solar cells (OSCs), which employ organic polymers to transform sunlight into electricity, has grown significantly due to their potential as next-generation energy sources. They include a high-power conversion efficiency, adaptability, lightweight, and scalability.
There are now many methods for improving OSC performance and stability. However, the difficulty of controlling the morphology of the active layer in OSCs when scaling up to huge areas continues to be challenging.
It is difficult to obtain high-quality active layer thin films as a result, which makes it challenging to optimize device efficiency.
A group of scientists from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea carried out research to address this issue.
They proposed a method that initially appears counterintuitive: employing water treatment to alter the active layer shape. The study was published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
Water is known to hinder the performance of organic electronic devices, since it remains in the ‘trap states’ of the organic material, blocking the charge flow and degrading the device performance. However, we figured that using water rather than an organic solvent-based active solution as a medium of treatment method would enable necessary physical changes without causing chemical reactions.
Dong-Yu Kim, Professor, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Professor Kim headed the study.
The polymers PTB7-Th and PM6 were selected by the researchers as donor materials, whereas PC61BM, EH-IDTBR, and Y6 were chosen as acceptor materials for the active layer. They discovered that while creating a vortex in the active solution to mix the donor and acceptor materials could result in a well-mixed active solution, this alone was insufficient.
This active solution was hydrophobic, so the researchers chose to agitate it with deionized (DI) water and vortices. After letting the donor and acceptor materials soak in the host active chlorobenzene solution overnight, they added DI water to the mixture and swirled it to form small vortices.
The water forced the donor and acceptor molecules into the solution due to the mixture's hydrophobic nature, which caused them to disperse more thoroughly. The water separated from the solution after they gave it time to rest.
This water was later discarded and the water-treated active solution was utilized to generate thin films of PTB7-Th: PC61BM (F, fullerene), PTB7-Th: EH-IDTBR (NF, fullerene), and PM6: Y6 (H-NF, high-efficiency non-fullerene).
After that, the authors assessed the thin films’ photovoltaic performance against untreated OSCs in a slot-die-coated inverted OSC configuration.
We observed that the water-treated active solution led to a more uniform active layer thin films, which showed higher power conversion efficiencies compared to those not treated with water. Moreover, we fabricated large-area OSC modules with an active area of 10 cm2, which showed a conversion efficiency as high as 11.92% for water-treated H-NF films.
Dong-Yu Kim, Professor, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Overall, this research offers recommendations for creating big, effective OSCs in a way that is amazingly simple, affordable, and environmentally benign, which may pave the way for their realization and commercialization.
Han, N., et al. (2022) Introduction of Water Treatment in Slot-Die Coated Organic Solar Cells to Improve Device Performance and Stability. Advanced Functional Materials. doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202204871.
Source: https://www.gist.ac.kr/en/html
Do you have a review, update or anything you would like to add to this news story?
Dave Cist, Roger Roberts and Rob Sommerfeldt
In this interview, AZoM talks to Dave Cist, Roger Roberts, and Rob Sommerfeldt from GSSI about the Pavescan RDM, MDM, and their ground penetrating radar (GPR) capabilities. They also discuss how this can aid the asphalt production and laying processes.
Following the Advanced Materials Show 2022, AZoM spoke with Cameron Day from William Blythe about the broad scope of the company and its goals for the future.
At the Advanced Materials Show 2022, AZoM caught up with the CEO of Cambridge Smart Plastics, Andrew Terentjev. In this interview, we discuss the company's novel technologies and how they could revolutionize how we think about plastics.
The CVD Diamond from Element Six is a high purity synthetic diamond that is used for electronic thermal management.
Discover the CNR4 Net Radiometer, a powerful tool that can measure the energy balance between short-wave and long-wave Far Infrared radiation.
The Powder Rheology Accessory expands TA Instruments’ Discovery Hybrid Rheometer (DHR) capabilities to powders, enabling characterization of behaviors during storage, dispensing, processing, and end use.
This article provides an end-of-life assessment of lithium-ion batteries, focusing on the recycling of an ever-growing amount of spent Li-Ion batteries in order to work toward a sustainable and circular approach to battery use and reuse.
Corrosion is the degradation of an alloy caused by its exposure to the environment. Corrosion deterioration of metallic alloys exposed to the atmosphere or other adverse conditions is prevented using a variety of techniques.
Due to the ever-increasing demand for energy, the demand for nuclear fuel has also increased, which has further created a significant increase in the requirement for post-irradiation examination (PIE) techniques.
AZoM.com - An AZoNetwork Site
Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2022