Sylvain Chambon

Abstract This article is devoted to the study of the photoaging and thermal aging of poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(3′,7′‐dimethyloctyloxy)‐1,4‐phenylenevinylene] (MDMO–PPV; also called OC1C10–PPV) used in organic solar cells. Thin MDMO–PPV films (thickness < 1 μm) were exposed to ultraviolet‐light irradiation (λ > 300 nm) in the presence of air or thermooxidized at 60 °C. The modifications of the chemical structure of the matrix were analyzed with ultraviolet–visible and infrared spectroscopy. The oxi

Several parameters of the fabrication process of inverted polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells based on titanium oxide as an electron selective layer and molybdenum oxide as a hole selective layer were tested in order to achieve efficient organic photovoltaic solar cells. Thermal annealing treatment is a common process to achieve optimum morphology, but it proved to be damageable for the performance of this kind of inverted solar cells. We demonstrate using Auger analysis combined with argon

Development of carbon neutral and sustainable energy sources should be considered as a top priority solution for the growing worldwide energy demand. Photovoltaics are a strong candidate, more specifically, organic photovoltaics (OPV), enabling the design of flexible, lightweight, semitransparent, and low-cost solar cells. However, the active layer of OPV is, for now, mainly deposited from chlorinated solvents, harmful for the environment and for human health. Active layers processed from health

Abstract Because oxygen cannot be fully eliminated from organic solar cells, the occurrence of oxidative photo‐degradation of the device in operating conditions has to be considered. Polyphenylene‐vinylene‐based photovoltaic devices have a short lifetime that currently limits their applications. In this article, we focus on various transient species that are potentially involved in the initiation step of the photo‐oxidation of poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(3′,7′‐dimethyloctyloxy)‐1,4‐phenylenevinylene] (MDM

Organic photovoltaic solar cells are a promising option for cheap, renewable energy, but must improve in their stability.

The concept of sequential nanoprecipitation is developed to generate organic semiconductor core–shell nanoparticles with P3HT core and PCBM shell. Steady-state photoluminescence experiments on such nanoparticles enable the estimation of the exciton diffusion length at ∼14 nm.

The light activation phenomenon in inverted P3HT:PCBM bulk heterojunction organic solar cells based on titanium oxide sublayer (TiOx) is characterized by fast acquisition of current-voltage (J-V) curves under light bias as function of time. TiOx layers were thermally treated under inert atmosphere at different temperatures prior active layer deposition and for every device an activation time was extracted. It is shown that the higher the TiOx annealing temperature, the faster the activation. The

Abstract Here efficient organic photovoltaic devices fabricated from water‐based colloidal dispersions with donor:acceptor composite nanoparticles achieving up to 9.98% power conversion efficiency (PCE) are reported. This high efficiency for water processed organic solar cells is attributed to morphology control by surface energy matching between the donor and the acceptor materials. Indeed, due to a low interfacial energy between donor and the acceptor, no large phase separation occurs during t

2'-Hydroxychalcone derivatives featuring a triphenylamine terminal unit were synthesized in one step and behaved as effective ligands for borondifluoride coordination, enabling the straightforward generation of D-A molecules with strong absorption. Solution-processed solar cells based on these complexes and PC(61)BM showed a PCE of 1.13%.

This work unravels the intricate relationship between non-fullerene acceptor material surface energy and nanostructure formation in organic nanoparticle colloids.