Initial Performance Changes of Polymer/Fullerene Solar Cells by Short‐Time Exposure to Simulated Solar Light

All-polymer solar cells with bulk heterojunction nanolayers of chemically doped electron-donating and electron-accepting polymers

“…In addition, it is a concern that the long-term stability of polymer:fullerene solar cells might be affected by continuous aggregation/ crystallization of fullerene derivatives (molecules), even in the solid state matrix of electron-donating polymers, under solar light illumination for a long time. [27][28][29][30][31][32] In this context, all polymer BHJ (polymer:polymer) solar cells have been studied but their efficiencies are still inferior to those of polymer:fullerene solar cells. 6,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39] The reason why so low efficiency in polymer:polymer solar cells can be mainly attributed to the poorly optimized morphology for charge percolation owing to the intrinsic nature of polymers that have long chains compared to soluble fullerenes that easily undergo aggregation/crystallization.…”

Effect of halogen-terminated additives on the performance and the nanostructure of all-polymer solar cells

“…Of the various factors affecting the poor stability of polymer:fullerene solar cells, the intrinsic nature of fullerene derivatives has been an issue because their derivatives are basically small molecules that are vulnerable to recrystallization under continuous illumination with solar light (energy) [21][22][23][24][25]. Hence, all-polymer solar cells, where electron-accepting component is composed of an electron-accepting polymer instead of fullerenes so that the recrystallization issue * E-mail: ykimm@knu.ac.kr; Fax: +82-53-950-6615 can be resolved, have been intensively studied by major research groups [2,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Strong addition effect of charge-bridging polymer in polymer:fullerene solar cells with low fullerene content

“…Several reasons have been suggested for the low stability of polymer:fullerene solar cells, including the corrosion effect caused by the acidity of holecollecting buffer layers, the interfacial degradation between active layers and metal electrodes, the light-induced degradation of conjugated polymers (excited states), the gradual demixing between conjugated polymers and soluble fullerenes, etc. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] Among these reasons, both the degradation of conjugated polymers and the demixing between conjugated polymers and fullerenes (morphological instability) under continuous solar light illumination may be the most challenging to overcome in order to secure the stability of polymer-based solar cells.…”