Effects of Postproduction Treatment on Plastic Solar Cells

Abstract Efficiencies of organic solar cells based on an interpenetrating network of a conjugated polymer and a fullerene as donor and acceptor materials still need to be improved for commercial use. We have developed a postproduction treatment that improves the performance of solar cells based on poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 6,6‐phenyl C 61 ‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) by means of a tempering cycle at elevated temperatures in which an external voltage is simultaneously applied, resulting in a significant increase of the short‐circuit current. Using this postproduction treatment, an enhancement of the short‐circuit current density, I sc , to 8.5 mA cm –2 under illumination with white light at an illumination intensity of 800 W m –2 and an increase in external quantum efficiency (IPCE, incident photon to collected electron efficiency) to 70 % are demonstrated.