Ageing of printable polymer solar cells

太阳能是迄今为止最丰富的可再生能源。然而，目前它的使用受到太阳能电池高成本的限制，因此我们继续从化石燃料中获得大部分电力。聚合物（塑料）太阳能电池是一个令人兴奋的研究领域，旨在解决这一问题，因为聚合物太阳能电池可以通过简单的制造工艺，如卷对卷涂层来制造。结果将是成本更低的太阳能电池，生产能量也更低。迄今为止，大多数研究都集中在这种太阳能电池的效率上，并取得了良好的进展，其效率约为商用非晶硅太阳能电池的三分之二。在本提案中，我们解决了最重要的剩余问题，即了解和提高聚合物太阳能电池的寿命。为此，我们将结合太阳能电池运行前、运行中和运行后的先进光物理、形态和化学分析，以获得控制此类电池降解因素的新见解。这将为项目后期开发延长太阳能电池寿命的策略提供坚实的基础。聚合物太阳能电池的运行严重依赖于材料的纳米级排列，因此我们将使用复杂的电子断层扫描技术来研究纳米级形态及其随设备运行的变化。这将通过在运行中的太阳能电池上进行的光学和电子测量来补充。进一步的创新将是在封装层上进行纳米级穿孔，并将其与电子束技术相结合，以纳米分辨率研究局部降解。这个具有挑战性的项目需要圣安德鲁斯、长春和格拉斯哥的世界领先的研究小组之间的合作，以获得一系列的专业知识和设施，以取得重大进展，并将导致新的中英合作。

Solar power is by far the most abundant renewable energy source. However, at present its use is limited by the high cost of solar cells, so that we continue to obtain most of our power from fossil fuels. Polymer (plastic) solar cells are an exciting research field that aims to address this problem, as polymer solar cells could be made by simple manufacturing processes such as roll to roll coating. The result would be much lower cost solar cells, with much lower energy of production. Most research to date has focussed on the efficiency of such solar cells, and good progress has been made, leading to efficiencies approximately two thirds of commercial amorphous silicon solar cells.In this proposal we address the most important remaining issue, namely understanding and enhancing the lifetime of polymer solar cells. To do this we will combine advanced photophysical, morphological and chemical analysis of solar cells before, during and after operation to gain new insight into the factors controlling degradation of such cells. This will provide a solid foundation for developing strategies for extending the solar cell lifetime in the later part of the project.The operation of polymer solar cells depends critically on the nanometre scale arrangement of the materials, so we will use sophisticated electron tomography techniques to study the nanoscale morphology and how it changes with device operation. This will be complemented by optical and electronic measurements performed in-situ on operating solar cells. A further innovation will be to make nanoscale perforation of an encapsulation layer and combine it with electron beam techniques to study local degradation with nanometre resolution. This challenging programme requires collaboration between world-leading research groups in St Andrews, Changchun, and Glasgow to access the range of expertise and facilities to make major progress, and will lead to a new UK-China collaboration.