Degradation and stability of polymer-based solar cells

Stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs) is critically important for PSCs to be commercialized. The performance deterioration of PSCs arises mainly from macrophase separation of the finely tuned nanoscale morphology of donor acceptor blends, photo-degradation of active layer materials, and oxidative degradation of donor polymers due to diffusion of oxygen and water molecules from the interlayer/electrode. In this article, the degradation mechanisms of various types of active layer materials are discussed and the methods how to protect the active layer materials from degradation to stabilize the device performance of PSCs are extensively discussed based on recent publications.