Speaker: Satvik Shah, ECpE Graduate Student
Advisor: Rana Biswas and Vikram Dalal
Title: Organic Solar Cell Materials – Degradation Pathways
Abstract: The advantages of organic solar over traditional crystalline solar cells are well-known: processing advantages, low cost, synthetic tunability. But degradation is among the most pressing problems facing organic electronics, occurring through extrinsic ingress of moisture and oxygen, and the exposure of light. We determine the atomistic mechanisms of degradation by light-soaking organic films in an environmental chamber, and performing infrared spectroscopy before and after light soaking, to identify bonding changes. We performed ab-initio electronic structure simulations that identify these changes occurring by oxidation. Infrared spectroscopy paired with ab-initio modeling can provide a powerful tool for quantifying photo-structural atomic bonding changes. Understanding light-induced structural changes will open avenues to designing more stable organic materials for organic electronics.