Improved stability of organic solar cells by cross-linking of the electron-donor polymer

We fabricated organic photovoltaic cells with enhanced performance stability measured after temperature annealing at 100 °C and over a period of 24 days at room temperature. This improvement was achieved upon chemical cross-linking of the photo-active layer of the devices, combining a cross-linkable polymer and a fullerene, PC61BM. The cells efficiency decayed by up to 14 % upon heating at 100 °C and by 37 % after the 24 days period, while the efficiency of control devices based on noncross-linked layers was decreased by 58 % and 55 %, respectively.