FWO travel grant for a short stay at the Université Blaise Pascal (R-6179)

Organic photovoltaics (OPV's) are prone to several degradation mechanisms such as thermal degradation of the active layer and photochemical degradation of the photoactive materials. During my PhD, I have focused on the improvement of the thermal stability of OPV's by combining a high-Tg polymer strategy with specific side chain functionalization. On the other hand, it is well known that conjugated polymers are prone to photochemical degradation. As a result, the efficiency of the polymer solar cells decreases upon exposure to light, which is obviously a fundamental limitation. To complement on our thermal stability studies, an additional evaluation of the photochemical stability of the applied materials (and the resulting devices) is performed in the group of Prof. J.-L. Gardette and Dr. A. Rivaton in order to get a more complete picture of the durability of the final solar cells.

Keywords:lifetime, organic photovoltaics, organic semiconductors, photochemical degradation

Disciplines:(Bio)chemical engineering, Materials engineering