Photostability of organic photovoltaic devices represents a key requirement for the commercialization of this technology. In this field, ZnO is one of the most attractive materials employed as an electron transport layer, and the investigation of its photostability is of particular interest. Indeed, oxygen is known to chemisorb on ZnO and can be released upon UV illumination. Therefore, a deep analysis of the UV/oxygen effects on working devices is relevant for the industrial production where the coating processes take place in air and oxygen/ZnO contact cannot be avoided. Here we investigate the light-soaking stability of inverted organic solar cells in which four different solution-processed ZnO-based nanoparticles were used as electron transport layers: (i) pristine ZnO, (ii) 0.03 at %, (iii) 0.37 at %, and (iv) 0.8 at % aluminum-doped AZO nanoparticles. The degradation of solar cells under prolonged illumination (40 h under 1 sun), in which the ZnO/AZO layers were processed in air or inert atmosphere, is studied. We demonstrate that the presence of oxygen during the ZnO/AZO processing is crucial for the photostability of the resulting solar cell. While devices based on undoped ZnO were particularly affected by degradation, we found that using AZO nanoparticles the losses in performance, due to the presence of oxygen, were partially or totally prevented depending on the Al doping level.
Keywords: ZnO nanoparticles; aluminum-doped ZnO; degradation; interlayer; oxygen chemisorption; photostability; polymer solar cells.