| Work Detail |
Japanese researchers have built a stretchable organic solar cell that ensures high levels of efficiency and prevents the appearance and propagation of cracks. The cell was built with a hole transport layer based on PEDOT:PSS treated with a new type of additive.
A group of researchers led by Japan’s Riken Center for Emergent Matter Science has fabricated an intrinsically stretchable organic photovoltaic (IS-OPV) cell that can reportedly maintain high levels of efficiency while also withstanding high strains and the durability of cyclic stretching.
In the paper, “ Intrinsically stretchable organic photovoltaics by redistributing strain to PEDOT:PSS with enhanced stretchability and interfacial adhesion,” published in Nature Communications , the scientists explain that the cell was built without an electron transport layer (ETL) and with a PEDOT:PSS-based hole transport layer incorporating the zwitterionic additive 4-(3-ethyl-1-imidazolium)-1-butanesulfonate (ION E), which helped the cell achieve high extensibility by delocalizing and redistributing strain in the absorber to the underlying layers.
“ION E substantially improved the stretchability of PEDOT:PSS by tuning its crystal structure and reinforcing the interfacial adhesion between the PEDOT:PSS layer and the polyurethane (PU) substrate through enhanced hydrogen bonding,” they explained. “Furthermore, we employed a facile terpolymerization-based strategy to synthesize a donor polymer, Ter-D18, which was then mixed with the small-molecule acceptor Y6, leading to a novel active system that helped achieve high efficiency as well as superior mechanical properties.”
They also deposited eutectic gallium-indium liquid metal (EGaIn) on the absorber as a top cathode, which they said prevented the absorber-cathode interface from affecting device performance. |
