Deconstructing Plastic Solar Cells

We have developed a non-invasive technique for the reversible lamination and delamination of top electrodes to create plastic solar cells. This technique allows us to remove the top electrodes after post-processing treatments and device testing so we can access the once-buried active layer for structural characterization. Lamination and delamination can also occur across the organic-organic charge transfer interface between the electron donor and the electron acceptor in plastic solar cells having bilayer architectures. The modularity of this fabrication method has provided us with independent control over the constituent properties; lamination of the treated electron donor against the electron acceptor completes the plastic solar cells and enables device testing. Delamination provides an avenue with which we can quantitatively elucidate the structural development of the active layer. It is with this systematic study that we have been able to develop processing-structure-function relationships that govern the operation of plastic solar cells.