Highly Thermal Stable and Efficient Organic Photovoltaic Cells with Crosslinked Networks Appending Open-Cage Fullerenes as Additives

Highly thermal stable organic bulk heterojunction (OBHJ) photovoltaic cells are demonstrated with crosslinkable open-cage fullerenes (COF) as additives in the active layer. Partial incorporation of COF, approximate to 10-15 wt% with weight ratio of P3HT:PC61BM = 1:0.9, builds up three-dimensional local borders upon heating treatment at 150 degrees C for 10 min. This process induces crosslinking chemical reaction through activating the styryl moiety in COF and reduces phase aggregation rates of fullerenes materials. Supported by statistics of devices degradation data analysis and optical microscopy study, the devices with COF show longer lifetime with keeping their efficiency (t = 144 h) under accelerated heating test at 150 degrees C, while PCE of normal devices without COF drop dramatically. These results demonstrate that the thermally crosslinkable COF is an excellent additive for highly thermal stable and durable OPVs applications.