Efficiency enhancement of polymer fullerene solar cells

The main goal in organic photovoltaics is the development of a large-area, flexible, and most importantly, a low-cost energy source. The materials used in this thesis, conjugated polymers and fullerene derivatives, can be made soluble enabling low temperature processing techniques such as spin-coating, doctor blading and ideally roll-to-roll fabrication (think of solar cells being printed at high speed, similar to newspapers). On the downside, the inherently disordered nature of the used materials and processing conditions leads to devices with inferior charge carrier mobilities compared to their inorganic counterparts such as silicon. This in turn places the research field of organic electronics in the area of low frequency low performance devices. The balance between production cost, device lifetime and efficiency will in the end determine the viability of organic solar cells. In this thesis that latter part of this balance between cost, lifetime and efficiency is investigated. In the first introductory chapter the current understanding of the working principles of polymer fullerenes bulkheterojunction (BHJ) solar cells is discussed. Zie verder: Summary.