Browsing by Author "Chen, Zhi-Kuan"

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Efficient, large area organic photovoltaic modules with active layers processed with non-halogenated solvents in air
(2017-04-01)
Lim, Siew-Lay
;
Ong, Kok-Haw
;
Li, Jun
;
Yang, Le
;
Chang, Yu-Fan
Organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules with excellent power conversion efficiencies of 4.20% and 5.87% were obtained with blends of novel low bandgap polymers, POD2T-DTBT and PDTBT-alt-1T, respectively, with PCBM as the active layers. Large area polymer:PCBM blend films were deposited by blade coating with high film uniformity, fast processing speed, and low material consumption, without the need for an inert atmosphere. With the requirements of future manufacturing in mind, the effects of air exposure on the active layers and the substitution of chlorinated solvents for polymer processing were investigated. While the decline of V-oc due to air exposure was recovered by appropriate treatment of the completed devices, FFand J(sc) were significantly affected due to interfacial effects, indicating that air exposure should be limited in duration. Active layers of POD2T-DTBT:PCBM processed with less toxic, non-halogenated mixed solvents, comprising non-polaro-xylene with small amounts of polar additive, showed a fine, interpenetrating nanofibrous network that facilitates charge transport in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells. The performance of POD2T-DTBT:PCBM photovoltaic cells and modules processed with the new ink formulations were on par with that obtained with chlorinated solvents, with the modules exhibiting impressive power conversion efficiencies above 4%. The results indicated that POD2T-DTBT was an outstanding candidate for future OPV production due to its high performance, processibility in different ink formulations and compatibility with the large area coating techniques. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
High performance organic photovoltaic cells with blade-coated active layers
(2012-12-01)
Lim, Siew-Lay
;
Chen, En-Chen
;
Chen, Chun-Yu
;
Ong, Kok-Haw
;
Chen, Zhi-Kuan
High performance bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells with blade-coated active layers of POD2T-DTBT blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) are demonstrated in this work. The blade-coated cells exhibit power conversion efficiencies of up to 6.74%, which is comparable to those of conventional spincoated cells but obtained with just a fraction of the material amount used for spincoating. The choice of solvent and the process conditions are manipulated to achieve dense, well-separated morphology which increases the interfacial area for charge dissociation in the blend film. The blade coating technique can be applied in the fabrication of large area, high performance OPV cells with highly efficient materials usage. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
High-efficiency polymer solar cells by blade coating in chlorine-free solvents
(2014-04-01)
Tsai, Pei-Ting
;
Tsai, Chia-Ying
;
Wang, Chun-Ming
;
Chang, Yu-Fan
;
Meng, Hsin-Fei
High-performance polymer cells are typically fabricated by employing toxic solvents such as dichlorobenzene and chlorobenzene. In this study, blade coating with the chlorine-free solvents toluene and xylene is applied to polymer solar cells that contained the low band-gap polymer PBDTTT-C-T blended with [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester ([70]PCBM). The highest efficiencies of the cells fabricated in toluene and xylene solutions were 6.09% and 6.11%, respectively. Atomic force microscopy images show that the films formed by blade coating using toluene and xylene were extremely smooth, with roughness of only 1 nm. This blade coating has a rapid-drying in a few seconds without the long-running thermal or solvent annealing. The possibility of high-volume environmentally-friendly fabrication of efficient polymer solar cells with minimal material waste is thus demonstrated using a combination of chlorine-free solvents and blade coating. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Multilayer rapid-drying blade coating for organic solar cells by low boiling point solvents
(2014-06-01)
Chen, En-Chen
;
Tsai, Pei-Ting
;
Chang, Bo-Jie
;
Wang, Chun-Ming
;
Meng, Hsin-Fei
A bulk heterojunction organic solar cell with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the donor and (6,6)-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as the acceptor is deposited using blade coating on a hot plate at 80 degrees C with hot air of 70 degrees C applied from above. In contrast to the 30 min of conventional dichlorobenzene solvent annealing, the rapid-drying blade coating forms a dry film in 1 s. The fabrication throughput is substantially enhanced. The blade-coated film has a smoother surface roughness of 3.5nm compared with 10.5nm for solvent annealing; however, the desired phase separation in the 50nm scale forms despite the rapid drying. A single layer solar cell exhibits power conversion efficiency of 4.1% with blade coating in chlorobenzene, which is the same as solvent annealing device. A multilayer device with carrier blocking layers fabricated entirely of the less toxic toluene also exhibits efficiency of 4.1%. (C) 2014 The Japan Society of Applied Physics