An inter-laboratory stability study of roll-to-roll coated flexible polymer solar modules

Suren A. Gevorgyan, Andrew J. Medford, Eva Bundgaard, Subarna B. Sapkota, Hans Frieder Schleiermacher, Birger Zimmermann, Uli Würfel, Amine Chafiq, Monica Lira-Cantu, Thomas Swonke, Michael Wagner, Christoph J. Brabec, Olivier Haillant, Eszter Voroshazi, Tom Aernouts, Roland Steim, Jens A. Hauch, Andreas Elschner, Michael Pannone, Min XiaoAnthony Langzettel, Darin Laird, Matthew T. Lloyd, Thomas Rath, Eugen Maier, Gregor Trimmel, Martin Hermenau, Torben Menke, Karl Leo, Roland Rösch, Marco Seeland, Harald Hoppe, Timothy J. Nagle, Kerry B. Burke, Christopher J. Fell, Doojin Vak, Th Birendra Singh, Scott E. Watkins, Yulia Galagan, Assaf Manor, Eugene A. Katz, Taehee Kim, Kyungkon Kim, Paul M. Sommeling, Wiljan J.H. Verhees, Sjoerd C. Veenstra, Moritz Riede, M. Greyson Christoforo, Travis Currier, Vishal Shrotriya, Gregor Schwartz, Frederik C. Krebs

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

140 Scopus citations

Abstract

A large number of flexible polymer solar modules comprising 16 serially connected individual cells was prepared at the experimental workshop at Risø DTU. The photoactive layer was prepared from several varieties of P3HT (Merck, Plextronics, BASF and Risø DTU) and two varieties of ZnO (nanoparticulate, thin film) were employed as electron transport layers. The devices were all tested at Risø DTU and the functional devices were subjected to an inter-laboratory study involving the performance and the stability of modules over time in the dark, under light soaking and outdoor conditions. 24 laboratories from 10 countries and across four different continents were involved in the studies. The reported results allowed for analysis of the variability between different groups in performing lifetime studies as well as performing a comparison of different testing procedures. These studies constitute the first steps toward establishing standard procedures for an OPV lifetime characterization.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1398-1416
Number of pages19
JournalSolar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume95
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by: the Danish Strategic Research Council (DSF 2104-07-0022), EUDP (j. nr. 64009-0050), PV-ERA-NET (project acronym POLYSTAR), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICINN for the project ENE2008-04373 and CSIC for the PIE-200860I134. To the Xarxa de Referència en Materials Avançats per a l'Energia, XaRMAE (Reference Center for Advanced Materials for Energy) of the Catalonia Government. Amanda Florendo, Jaynae Brust, Peter Williamson, John Wonders and David Webb, DSET Laboratories, 45601 N. 47 th Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85087-7042, USA. Tony Hall and Jorge Rivera, South Florida Test Service, 16100 SW 216 th Street, Miami, FL 33170, USA. E.V. and T.A. would like to acknowledge Polystar for partial funding. An AE would like to thank Detlef Riesebeck and Kerstin Pollok for technical assistance and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research Germany (Grant no.: 03×3518C) for funding. Financial support by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Christian Doppler Research Association (CDG), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ) and the ISOVOLTAIC GmbH is gratefully acknowledged. Part of this work was supported by the PCCL (Project IV-1.02) within the framework of the COMET-program of the Austrian Government. MH, TM, KL and MR would like to thank the Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung in the frameworks of the InnoProfile project (03IP602), the OPEG project (13N9720) and the OPA project (13N 9872). HH gratefully acknowledges funding within the frame of BMBF OPV program. This work was partially supported by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Department of Energy, by KIST internal research fund under the Contract no. of 2E21831; by the European Commission as part of the Framework 7 ICT 2009 collaborative project HIFLEX (Grant Agreement no. 248678) and by the Dutch ministry of economic affairs of the Netherlands. MR and MGC thank Craig Barney and David Chaskelmann from Stanford University Environmental Health & Safety for their support and providing the Stanford weather data. RR, MS & HH acknowledge financial support from German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within “Polymer Photovoltaics Processing” (PPP) project (support code 13N9843 ). Part of this work was supported by the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium. We would like to thank Annette Einsbor Ræbild for technical support.

Keywords

  • Flexible modules
  • Inter-laboratory study
  • Outdoor testing
  • Polymer solar cells
  • R2R manufactured OPV
  • Round robin

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An inter-laboratory stability study of roll-to-roll coated flexible polymer solar modules'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this