Crosslinked Semiconductor Polymers for Photovoltaic Applications

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have achieved much attention and meanwhile reach efficiencies above 10%. One problem yet to be solved is the lack of long term stability. Crosslinking is presented as a tool to increase the stability of OSCs. A number of materials used for the crosslinking of bulk heterojunction cells are presented. These include the crosslinking of low bandgap polymers used as donors in bulk heterojunction cells, as well as the crosslinking of fullerene acceptors and crosslinking between donor and acceptor. External crosslinkers often based on multifunctional azides are also discussed. In the second part, some work either leading to OSCs with high efficiencies or giving insight into the chemistry and physics of crosslinking are highlighted. The diffusion of low molar mass fullerenes in a crosslinked matrix of a conjugated polymer and the influence of crosslinking on the carrier mobility is discussed. Finally, the use of crosslinking to make stable interlayers and the solution processing of multilayer OSCs are discussed in addition to presentation of a novel approach to stabilize nanoimprinted patterns for OSCs by crosslinking.