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dc.contributor.authorChanna, I.A.
dc.contributor.authorChandio, A.D.
dc.contributor.authorRizwan, M.
dc.contributor.authorShah, A.A.
dc.contributor.authorBhatti, J.
dc.contributor.authorShah, A.K.
dc.contributor.authorHussain, F.
dc.contributor.authorShar, Muhammad A.
dc.contributor.authorAlHazaa, A.
dc.date.accessioned2021-06-04T10:48:00Z
dc.date.available2021-06-04T10:48:00Z
dc.date.issued2021-05-12
dc.identifier.citationChanna IA, Chandio AD, Rizwan M et al (2021) Solution processed PVB/mica flake coatings for the encapsulation of organic solar cells. Materials. 14(10): 2496.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10454/18504
dc.descriptionYesen_US
dc.description.abstractOrganic photovoltaics (OPVs) die due to their interactions with environmental gases, i.e., moisture and oxygen, the latter being the most dangerous, especially under illumination, due to the fact that most of the active layers used in OPVs are extremely sensitive to oxygen. In this work we demonstrate solution-based effective barrier coatings based on composite of poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB)and mica flakes for the protection of poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)-based organic solar cells (OSCs)against photobleaching under illumination conditions. In the first step we developed a protective layer with cost effective and environmentally friendly methods and optimized its properties in terms of transparency, barrier improvement factor, and bendability. The developed protective layer maintained a high transparency in the visible region and improved oxygen and moisture barrier quality by the factor of ~7. The resultant protective layers showed ultra-flexibility, as no significant degradation in protective characteristics were observed after 10 K bending cycles. In the second step, a PVB/mica composite layer was applied on top of the P3HT film and subjected to photo-degradation. The P3HT films coated with PVB/mica composite showed improved stability under constant light irradiation and exhibited a loss of <20% of the initial optical density over the period of 150 h. Finally, optimized barrier layers were used as encapsulation for organic solar cell (OSC) devices. The lifetime results confirmed that the stability of the OSCs was extended from few hours to over 240 h in a sun test (65◦C, ambient RH%) which corresponds to an enhanced lifetime by a factor of 9 compared to devices encapsulated with pristine PVB.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipHigher Education Commission of Pakistan through NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan and “The APC was funded by Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University for funding through Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs”.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rights© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en_US
dc.subjectThin barrier filmsen_US
dc.subjectSynthetic mica compositeen_US
dc.subjectFlexibilityen_US
dc.subjectTransparencyen_US
dc.subjectSolar cell protectionen_US
dc.titleSolution processed PVB/mica flake coatings for the encapsulation of organic solar cellsen_US
dc.status.refereedYesen_US
dc.date.application2021-05-12
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.type.versionPublished versionen_US
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3390/ma14102496
refterms.dateFOA2021-06-04T11:14:56Z
dc.openaccess.statusGolden_US
dc.date.accepted2021-05-06


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