Mechanically robust, stretchable organic solar cells via buckle-on-elastomer strategy
Journal
Organic Electronics
Journal Volume
53
Pages
339-345
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Abstract
In recent years, the exploitation of stretchable organic solar cell (OSC) has attracted significant research interests due to the rapid progress of wearable electronics. However, the development of a stretchable OSC is quite challenging since it has a strict requirement for the mechanical deformability and durability of each constituent layer in device. In this work, we successfully fabricated an efficient, stretchable inverted OSC by adopting a buckle-on-elastomer strategy, for which an ultrathin poly(ethylene naphthalate) (PEN) substrate coupled with a pre-strained (100%) 3M elastomeric tape was employed as the device substrate. Owing to the pre-strained status of the elastomer, the ensemble wrinkle will be formed in response to accommodate the strain once the pre-strain was released, which can afford the derived OSC with a much improved mechanically robustness and stretchability. As a result, we demonstrated that a pristine efficient (PCE: 5.61%) OSC using such buckling scaffold can remain its 74% efficiency under 30% compression and, more importantly, can still retain its 64.3% efficiency after 50-cycle compression-stretching testing from 0% to 30% compression. Besides, the effects of mechanical deformation and durability on the electrical performance are also investigated. This work proves that the buckle-on-elastomer strategy can be a good solution for realizing efficient OSCs with reasonably good mechanical durability, revealing great potential serving as an ultrathin and lightweight power source for wearable device applications.
SDGs
Publisher
Elsevier B.V.
Type
journal article